AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I slid the tip of my finger into the groove. Where I expected it to be smooth, it was slightly rough. I pressed my finger against the stone.
Something clicked.
I froze.
Nothing happened. At least nothing I could see.
I slumped slightly.
"There's another like it on the other side," Latika remarked.
I wanted to kick myself. How had I missed that? "You're right. I thought it was nothing until I saw the one over here." I stopped to think. "I can't reach all the way over."
"I don't think you're supposed to." Latika's voice was tight enough to make my head jerk up to stare. Her eyes were wide, fixed on something straight in front of her. Something I could barely see.
"They're not really there," I told her. "They're just trying to scare you from helping me with this." Whateverthiswas.
I hadn't dismissed the possibility that this might be a bad idea. I sensed this was something important, something I needed to do, but that instinct had let me down before.
"Walk toward me," I told Latika. "Look at me. Focus on my voice. Walk around to the far side."
"I can't," she squeaked. "I can't move."
"I—"
The ground fell away beneath me.
Somehow, I didn't fall with it. I remained stationary, fused in place over a gaping chasm. At least thirty or forty metres deep, the sides were lined with sheer rock. A sparkle of light at the bottom suggested water. Underground lake or stream? Was the water moving?
I forced myself to look away. Up.
"What is it?" Latika asked, her voice high. "You stopped talking to me."
I cleared my throat and swallowed. "Something is showing us our greatest fears." How did it know? It must have gotten inside their heads somehow.
"Kerina," I called out weakly.
"I'm all right," she called back. She didn't sound all right. She sounded just this side of in control. I didn't know what she was scared of, but I knew she saw it. Had the soldiers?
I shook my head and his tongue darted over my lips.
"Latika. We have to do this. We have to fight past what we see. What wethinkwe see. There's nothing there, not really."
Involuntarily, my eyes looked toward my feet. Past them. A shiver went through me. If, by some chance, the chasm was real, I could plunge to my death at any moment. I knew I would fall for hours before I hit—
A scream pushed its way up my chest, into my throat. I shoved it down.
I was Bain, captain of the Keeper's bodyguard. Friend, confidant and protector of Dex Breakwater. Protector of Calista. Protector of the Alpha. I would not fall to my death at the bottom of a hole which only existed in my mind.
I forced my way back to the sarcophagus.
"You can do this," I said, half to myself, half to Latika. "Step through them. They can't hurt you. I swear on my last breath, they aren't real. Hades is watching over you, keeping you safe."
"If you're wrong, and I die because I believed you, I will come to you as a pale one for the rest of your days," she said through gritted teeth.
I snorted. "You sound like Kerina."
"Assassins keep their word," she assured me.
