Page 136 of A Thief Among Fae

“The draugr eat them.”

Bile churns in my stomach as I imagine draugr devouring our flesh and picking our finger bones from their teeth.

Desmond crosses the chamber to examine one of the wheels. Then the air shifts, a cold draft whispering over our skin. Goosebumps crawl across my arms.

“Desmond—” I start.

I don’t get the rest out.

Iron screams overhead, a grate dropping between us with a brutal crash that shakes dust loose from the walls. The sound echoes like a death knell. It spans the entire diameter of the chamber.

“Run!” Desmond shouts. I’m on the side with the entrance, and he gestures at it.

Before I can shout that I won’t leave him, a stone slab slams down, sealing us inside the chamber. I never had the choice, but even if I did, I wouldn’t have taken it.

We run to the grate that separates us. The metal bars are too thick to cut with our blades, and no amount of shaking and kicking them so much as budges them. We grasp each other’s hands through it, shyness be damned. Desmond’s brows are drawn as he calculates our next move.

Then the sound of rushing water echoes.

“Can you swim?” I ask, my heart pounding so hard it threatens to shake my ribs.

“Yes. Can you?” he asks.

“I can.” Mom is a water-wielder. I learned to swim as soon as I could walk.

Water erupts from the pipes and hits the floor like a tidal wave. Within seconds it reaches my boots, soaking through them. I tense as the frigid water seeps around my feet.

“The wheels,” Desmond says. He squeezes my hands, then lets go. He sloshes to the wheels on his side. The fear that I’ll never feel his touch again closes around my throat like a chokehold.

I let myself have one last look at him, then wade to my wheels, forcing my legs to obey despite the chill biting down to my bones. The water has reached my mid-calf.

Three wheels stand against each other, the smallest in front and the largest in back. The runes engraved at even intervals make it clear that this is the puzzle we must solve—otherwise we’ll die.

“The order of my runes is carved beneath the riddle,” I call out. A foreboding feeling in my gut screams that this is too easy.

We grab the smallest stone wheels and turn them. I cry out as the stone resists me, heavier than I expected. It takes a minute to align the right symbol with the first one on the wall. A minute and a half to turn the middle wheel.

The freezing water reaches my knees.

“I’ve aligned mine!” Desmond shouts over the roaring jets.

I grit my teeth, turning the final wheel. “Almost there!” My arms strain.

Victory flutters through my chest as I align it. Then I stare at the stone slab sealing the exit on Desmond’s side. It doesn’t move, nor does the water stop pouring.

Gods, either the mechanism is broken, sealing us in here, or we failed to solve it. “Maybe they go in the opposite order!” I suggest, furiously thinking.

Desmond looks at me, hesitation flickering across his face, but we’re too far apart for me to feel what he’s thinking. “Let’s try it.”

Minutes pass as we turn the wheels again. I’m already tiring, slower this time as the freezing water makes my body feel like lead. It’s reached my hips, and my legs are numb.

Still nothing.

Desmond swears.

Pain grips me like a vise. I’ve never faced a puzzle I couldn’t solve. Not until this one.

“What are the runes on your side?” he shouts. “Mine are strength, water, tree!”