Page 71 of The City Of Fractured Memory

She stands and holds her hand out to me to help me up. I stare at her hand numbly, considering the olive branch she’s offering me. An immense sense of pressure builds on my shoulders. I could tell her to leave and never come back, falling back into my old life and stubbornly pretending none of this ever happened. Or I could risk everything and take her hand, following her into the unknown. I get an overwhelming feeling that whatever choice I make will determine the course of my fate.

She waits patiently in silence, allowing me the courtesy of taking my time over this choice. My whole life has been a lie. I’m questioning everything and everyone I’ve ever known, and the pain of it is almost too much to bear.

I feel like I’m drowning.

My gaze lifts to hers and I study her carefully. I should’ve known that her dropping into my life so unexpectedly was not without reason, and I silently curse myself for not prying sooner. But as I watch my friend's beautiful face, her ears twitching anxiously, her stubbornly bare feet, her almond eyes so welcoming…a lance of pain lashes through me as I imagine what my life would be without her. It’s an unbearable thought. She’s been the light to my darkness, my anchor in the storm. If what she says is true, I know I can’t do this alone, and I don’t want to either.

I swallow thickly and steel my features into determination.

Then I take her hand.

“Take me home.”

Thirty-One

Imust be insane. It’s the only plausible explanation for why I’m following Stryx under the cover of darkness over the sky bridge to Eidravelle. The dawn light is starting to peek out through the Veil by the time we approach the forbidden sky bridge on the other side. The doors to Lunoreth have been shut for a century, no one coming in, no one coming out.

Until Stryx.

Yet, as we walk up to the crumbling archway that looms over the dilapidated bridge leading to the prohibited quarter, I can’t help but wonder how she managed it. A century’s worth of dust clings to every surface of the archway and beyond, the only disturbance caused by the occasional bird or rat. The plaque on the arch that has been inscribed with Lunoreth’s name is crumbling to the point where it’s almost illegible, and the wooden slats that make up the bridge look like they would disintegrate the second someone steps on them. Far off in the darkness, the faint outline of the huge door to Lunoreth is visible through the mist, looking firmly, aggressively locked.

We pause as we approach the arch and I give Stryx a slightly terrified, pointed look. “You can absolutely forget it. I would rather be sentenced to the Voyd for an eternity than risk stepping foot on that.”

She chuckles. “It’s a bit of luck there’s another way in then, isn’t it?”

I glance back and forth between my friend and the undoubtedly impenetrable walls of Lunoreth, ultimately coming to the conclusion that at some point today, I must have hit my head and entered another dimension. I should be working this case, trying to find Vesper’s killer, not chasing some fanatical prophecy I’ve never heard of before.

Stryx looks at me like she can tell what I’m thinking and she smiles softly, holding out her hand. “It’s okay. We’re not abandoning the case. We will get the answers we need and come straight back, I promise. This is important, and if I’m right, it could even be connected to the murders.”

I pause, then huff a resigned sigh, taking her offered hand. “Please don’t make me regret this.”

To my utter relief, Stryx doesn’t lead me through the archway, instead walking past it and leading me to the wall surrounding the edge of Eidravelle. My relief is short-lived, though, when she releases my hand and starts to climb over the damn wall.

“Stryx, what in the Voyd are you doing?” I hiss, frantically looking around to ensure we are alone whilst trying to pull her back. “It’s a two hundred foot fall on the other side!”

She breaks free from my grip easily, swinging her leg over the wall and straddling it, her bare feet swinging back and forth merrily like she’s not one slip away from falling to her death.

“And there was me thinking I was the reckless one,” I mutter to myself.

“Have you never wondered what’s below the city?” she asks, trying to mask the amusement spreading across her face as she watches me panic.

“Too many crimes to deal with up here for me to worry about what’s down there,” I say, though I’d be lying if I said the thought hadn’t crossed my mind once or twice.

“There’s a matrix of tunnels and caves below us, some of them leading to the catacombs that lie under the Memosyne,” she whispers, her eyes darting about the shadows around us.

My breath catches. “You can’t be serious. There’s no way something like that could be kept secret.”

She shrugs with a lopsided smile. “Come see for yourself.”

She holds a hand out for me again and my heart races. Even if my joints weren’t as weak as they are, this would still be the stupidest idea I’ve ever had. But the mischievous spark in Stryx’s eyes makes curiosity burn so brightly within me that I simply can’t ignore it. So, with one last prayer to the Gods, I take her hand and haul myself up onto the wall beside her.

The second I look over the top I instantly regret it.

Jump.

Of course my Shadow thinks this is an appropriate time to harass me. I take deep breaths and mentally count to ten repeatedly, trying to calm my heart rate so I can push him out of my head. Thankfully, he doesn’t persist this time, and I take it as a rare win. He still lingers in my periphery, but for now, he stays silent. Thank the Gods.

The wind howls around us, snatching at my cloak and tearing strands of my hair loose from under my hood. From behind me, the city of Eidravelle is a glittering crescent of light and smoke, but ahead, nothing but the yawning abyss of Lake Voyd looks up at me, black and bottomless, its surface faintly rippling with reflected, murky moonlight.