AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"For what? I haven't found anything. Do you think there might a hidden compartment or something in the throne?"
"Not sure." He sits back on his heels. "This is pointless. I'm pretty sure the throne and everything in this room is composed of one unbroken piece of stone."
"Everything? I don't see how the floor and ceiling could be like that."
He huffs. "The Echo is a world composed of magic, remember? Sefton could easily have created any damn thing he wanted. The guy had enormous power."
"Good point. We should search the rest of the castle."
We head into the corridor that leads deeper into the castle. Gabriel is right, I think. This entire structure does seem to have been crafted from one continuous piece of stone, which seems impossible. Magics have a way of turning the impossible into reality, though. That makes our task even more difficult.
Every room we find is empty, like it was never designed to house people, not even its creator. The only chamber that seems different is the dungeon, but that room was empty too. Grant had been trapped in the dungeon briefly, until Erin rescued him. But why did Sefton need a prison cell? Why did he build this monstrosity if he never intended to live inside it?
When I voice that question to Gabriel, he stops dead in the middle of the cold stone hallway and stares straight ahead at nothing.
"Are you okay?" I ask. "Gabriel?"
He slowly swivels his head toward me. "That's exactly what he intended—never to live here. It's not a castle in the traditional sense. It's a place to house the Brain."
"I suppose it could be. But we haven't found any evidence of that either."
"We have no idea what the Brain looks like. That means we might be standing right in front of it and not know."
That suggestion sends a shiver up my spine. What if the Brain has a physical form that can reach out to grab us? Nothing is impossible in the Echo.
"So, how do we find it?" I ask. "If we can't see what we're looking for."
He aims a smug smile at me, but it doesn't seem like arrogance. He just looks like he's pleased that he thought of something I didn't. "We made the Brain happy when we sealed our bond. We need to stay here and look through Sefton's journal to figure out how to command the Brain. We also need to do some more bond-forging while we're inside the castle, to make our buddy the Brain happy."
"And you think we should have sex to make that happen."
"Yeah, of course. The Echo seems to like it when we fuck, and I love making you scream."
I can't help smiling. Yes, I would love to get naked with him again. But my smile fades quickly when I realize we have another problem. "We lost both of our backpacks, and the journal was in one of them."
"No problem. We'll bring our packs to us with our wicked new powers."
"Your sudden love for our powers is making me uneasy."
He rolls his eyes. "I thought you wanted me to embrace the magics. I finally figured out how to do that, and you're giving me a disapproving look instead of kissing me."
"I'll kiss you when you explain why you've suddenly changed your attitude toward our Echo power."
Gabriel bows his head and sighs. "Maybe I did get a little too excited about that. But we should try to bring out backpacks to us. Don't you think?"
"Yes, of course we should. Let's try it now."
We sit down on the floor cross-legged, facing each other, and hold hands. When we tried to open the gateway to the Echo,it failed because the Brain doesn't want us to leave yet. We shouldn't run into that problem now, since we're only trying to retrieve our packs. If we get zapped, I will be very annoyed with the Brain. I mean, we're trying to stabilize it. The thing should be grateful.
Now I'm expecting a mystical, formless Brain to thank me. Jeez, I need to get out of the Echo.
Gabriel and I gaze into each other's eyes and focus on bringing our packs to us. The magic rises within us as a gentle, tingling energy that emerges in our chests and spreads outward into our arms, then our legs, and finally up into our heads. I can't explain how I know that he feels the same thing I do. Don't need to explain it. The supernatural energies rise through our skin to waft in the air, swirling and shimmering, zinging whenever they touch us.
Our backpacks appear behind Gabriel.
"This isn't working," he says.
"Yes, it is." I point past his shoulder. "Look."
