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I have to start moving before more of those things attack. And where’s Master? He was probably smart and ran like hell the moment he dropped in behind me.
I feel my way along the moist dirt wall. Every few feet, those damned thorny things pierce the skin on my hands. I’m a goddamned pincushion!
Without a doubt, human Lake wouldn’t’ve survived down here. I would’ve bled out. Speaking of blood, my hunger is out of control.
“Bard, where the hell are you when I need you?” I mutter under my breath. The last thing I need is to be stricken with bloodlust and attack these Scholar People.IfI get to their temple.
I slowly trudge down the steep, slippery cave for what feels like an hour. How the hell did Alwar move around down here? For a man his size, it would be a tight fit. He’d have to crawl. And there’d be no way for him to pluck off these painful creatures.
I remove two more leeches from my pant leg, resisting my urge to snack on them. As hungry as I am, I’m determined to be human again. Soon. The last thing I want are memories of eating piles of giant squishy, blood-filled worms. One was enough.
“Master! Where are you?” I realize I’m shaking. The cave smells like death and is eerily quiet. Under my feet, the earth silently vibrates with creatures slithering around. This place is my own personal hell.
If this is what everyone has to go through to get an education around here, it’s no wonder their entire world is stuck in the Stone Age.
A loud cry, like a woman in pain, suddenly echoes through the cave, and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I sense something ahead, something horrible.
It’s going to be a test, Alwar said. But what if I don’t pass it? How will I get back out of this cave? No one brought rope, and I’d have to trek back up the slippery slope filled with mud leeches and thorn serpents.
The tunnel takes a turn, and I spot a bright light up ahead.
Almost there!I can’t stop my heart from beating like a wild rabbit.Wait. No. That’s not my heart. It’s just me, my body trembling. I press my hands over my left breast. I have no heartbeat.Jesus. Jesus. I’m dead?
I push the thought away. Clearly, I’m alive. Right? I’m walking, talking, and breathing.
I inhale, but don’t feel the need to exhale. “What the hell?” My eyes tear. I’m not breathing either?
The reality of what I’ve become crashes down on me. If I’m not breathing, then does that mean I’ll just be a dead body if I go home, because whatever’s keeping me alive will be taken away the moment I cross the bridge?
My mind floods with images of me stepping through one of those doorways inside the wall, my body being torn to shreds as the Dusts pick me apart, looking for monster matter. I see myself screaming and then…nothing. My blue, lifeless corpse tumbles out the other side of the bridge into my grandmother’s bedroom—the one she always kept locked.
“Lake! Where the devil are you, girl?” my grandmother’s terse voice echoes from behind me.
I jump. “Grandma Rain?”
The shadowy outline of her frail body wobbles toward me from the darkness where I just came from.
“What the hell are you doing here?” She died months ago in the hospital. I saw her go.
She comes closer, her wily eyes glinting with the reflection of the light up ahead. She has on her favorite gray sweater, dark blue cotton skirt, and black orthopedic shoes.
“I told you to stay out of my bedroom, girl. Now didn’t I?”
I nod mindlessly. How is she here?
“But you went in anyway, didntcha!” She pinches my arm.
“Ow.” I cover the spot with my hand, unable to do much more. My head’s spinning. She can’t possibly be here, but I’m looking right at her.
“And now ya got yourself into a pile-o-shit.” She looks me up and down like a piece of trash. “A goddamned vampire, Lake? Do you know what I went through to keep you safe? Do ya, girl!” she yells. “I wrote everything down in my journals. Step-by-step instructions on how to sever the ties between our worlds. But, no, you couldn’t take the time to read them, couldja?”
“I-I was too sad. I thought you were crazy,” I mutter.
“Well, a fuck ton of good all that work did! Generations of Norfolk observing, testing those damned doorways. Now you gone landed yourself in trouble.”
“I’m sorry, Grandma. I didn’t know this place was real and—”
“Shut your mouth, child. Now you’re gonna have to save your own hide.”
