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“Worried?” Grant gave me a smirk until I didn’t answer. It slid away, as though he’d never considered someone might really worry for him. “Well, I’m not just any mage, Ava. I can handle a lot more volts than your normal magic-wielder.”
I wanted to feel reassured, but I really didn’t. I’d learned Grant was capable of a lot, but one thing he couldn’t seem to do was admit when something was beyond him.
Still, we were here, and there weren’t any other options. I had to trust that he could handle it.
Grant went to the back of the room, on the far wall across from the doorway where we’d entered. A picture sat there of someone I didn’t recognize but who wore the sort of robes people used for cosplays of Merlin.
Grant set his palm flat against the wall and slid it along the edge of the painting, his expression focused. Finally, he shifted his hand, moving his thumb up along the wall, and a groaning of stones answered him.
The picture faded away, as if it had never been there, and behind it, a darkness so deep, I had an instant moment of ‘fuck that nonsense.’ It reminded me of the void, of that crushing moment I’d fallen into it after trying to find Rachel’s spirit.
He caught the look. “It’s fine, Ava.”
“Dark, scary tunnels are rarely fine. In those choose-your-own adventure books, this is considered the obviously bad choice.”
He twisted his hand, palm side up, so a small ball of light rested there. He held it out to me, and it rolled from his palm to mine. It was warm and reminded me of a levitating bouncy ball. “The darkness isn’t so bad,” he told me.
“In my experience, some pretty horrible things happen in the dark.” I remembered the nights I’d fallen asleep as a kid, in beds I didn’t feel safe in, the times night felt too empty and full at the same time.
He caught my chin so I looked into his green eyes. “Trust me, Ava. I’ve been through this place a thousand times.Youare the scariest thing that’s been in these tunnels.”
I took a deep breath before nodding. I didn’t feel like the badass he seemed to think I was, but when had that ever stopped me before? “Into the creepy tunnel we go.”
