THE FIRE ELEMENTAL I’d pulled from the dungeon stumbled back, well clear of the dark cell opening we faced. Torn shook his head violently, his eyes wide and full of fear. “I can’t connect with my fire here. The dungeons block me from my element.”
Of course, they did. Shit, I couldn’t blame him, though. The voice that had echoed from the cell wasn’t exactly warm and fuzzy.
I pulled both swords from my back and settled into a fighting crouch. I expected the guardian of the gate or whatever the fuck it was to immediately launch at us. Nothing came. I looked at my feet. I still stood in the hall. A sigh slid out of me. “Nigel, I’m guessing—”
“Yeah, you’re going to have to go in. I’ll be behind you.”
“Gee, thanks,” I muttered. How bad could it be? The cell was barely ten by ten, so the monster wasn’t that big. Right?
I slid one foot over the line that separated cell and the hall of the dungeon. The cell was unnaturally dark, as though light couldn’t cut through it. A tentacle shot toward me, the suckers vibrant red and pulsing with lava. That couldn’t be right, there was no way what I was seeing was real.
I slashed at the appendage, cutting it off. From within the bowels of the cell, something shrieked, loud and piercing. Like a fucking alarm system gone wild. Jaw clenched tightly, I leapt into the darkness, swords out. Another tentacle swept at me in midair and I cut it as I landed. Suddenly my ability to see in the dark was a boon.
The chunk of flesh that landed next to me flopped and wriggled, lava spilling out of it, cooling as it spread.
“Your left!” Nigel called out and I swung hard with both swords, crisscrossing them in the air to catch another tentacle as it curled around me. The creature shrieked again and the snap of teeth drew my attention. The darkness pulled back, giving me a better view of what I dealt with, though my brain struggled to put a name to it.
“Lava monster!” Torn yelled from somewhere outside the cell.
“You think knowing its name is going to help me?” I yelled back.
The darkness cleared further and I got my first good look at the monster. Its face was nothing but a hole buried into flesh surrounded by rows of teeth that disappeared into its maw. A beak snapped shut, razor sharp as the edges slid over one another, the teeth gone and then back in flashes like still shots from a camera.
I scrambled back. “How do I kill it?”
“You don’t, it kills you,” Torn yelled.
I slid to the right, doing my best to keep all the tentacles and the gaping mouth that snapped and clicked, within my vision. “Nigel? Any ideas?”
“Aim for the soft spots?”
“Was that a question or a suggestion?” I slid on something soft and squishy and a tentacle caught me from the left. Low to the ground it slipped past my guard and snagged my ankle. A grunt escaped me as I was snapped into the air and dangled from the top of the ceiling. The open jaws of the lava monster grunted several times in a row.
“You fucker, you laughing at me?” I sat up and swung one sword at the tentacle. I cut through the flesh and fell to the ground. Hitting hard, I rolled to the side and away from the lava flowing from the chunk. I pushed away until my back was against one wall. I stared down at my leg. The jeans where I’d been grabbed were gone but my skin was not burned.
“You drank from a Salamander. Its blood is protecting you, for now, won’t last,” Nigel said. “But don’t stare, you still have to deal with the big boy.”
I pushed off the floor. Three tentacles came at me the second I took a step toward the creature. I hacked two off and the third wrapped around one of my wrists. I let it lift me into the air, my hand beginning to heat. Shit, bad time for the blood to fade in my system.
I had to end this fast or I was going to end up with my ass cooked. Heat increased, pain lanced through me.
“Cut it!” Nigel hollered.
I gritted my teeth and made myself hold still, to not fight even while the tentacles oozing lava slid down my jacket sleeve, eating the leather and baring my skin to the growing heat. I needed to get close to the soft spots, and this was one way.
The lava monster suddenly flipped me into the air, letting me go at the highest point. I hovered for a split second before I fell. Right toward the beast’s open mouth.
I thrust both swords down ahead of me as I drew my legs in making myself as small as possible. The swords bit in first, cutting through the back of the monster’s throat, making an even larger opening I slid into. I took a gulp of air and was plunged into the literal belly of the beast; swallowed in one single gulp. A few of the teeth at the back of the throat caught my arms and legs, nicking me like razor blades.
Eyes closed, I slashed blindly at the thing, hacking and cutting my way through. My lungs burned. But I didn’t technically need to breathe. So holding my breath was no problem. I forced myself to calm, to feel the steady pulse of my heart even though I took no air in. Centering myself the way my mentor, Giselle, had taught me, I refocused my attack on the beast.
Thrust after thrust, I drove my blades into it, aiming for the steady thump of its heart. It screamed and shrieked with each wound I inflicted, writhing and throwing me off balance more than once. I cut through the flesh; it didn’t take long to find the heart. I pierced it. Felt the shudder of the beast as it died.
A rumble in the body shook me from my feet to the top of my head. I could see nothing even when I dared open my eyes. From outside the body, I could hear a frantic bark and then Nigel’s voice, muffled but still clear enough.
“Rylee, get out of there, it’ll explode.”
Exploding monsters? Why the fuck not. Fear drove me. Not because of the exploding blood and guts, that didn’t bother me much. What I was sure would come with the explosion though was a concern. Lava monsters, when they died, likely didn’t do so without their namesake. Whatever protection I’d had from the Salamander blood was probably gone. Time to get out of Dodge.
I drove my swords at the same time into the creature’s side, felt the lack of resistance as I cut down and opened up a huge gash to escape. I pushed myself through. Hands pulled at me, helping me out. Torn yanked me forward, helping me get clear of the beast at Nigel’s urging. I drew in a breath of air, grateful I could. Even if I didn’t need it.
Torn dragged me out of the cell. The ground shook and the ceiling dropped chunks of stone around us. The ground bucked like an unruly dragon determined to throw us from its back. The hard packed earth rippled in a wave and I yelped as I was tossed against the far wall. Nigel hit beside me. I curled up, protecting my head as the air was filled with wrenching and tearing.
Fuck, I was going to die inside the mountain and there wasn’t a fucking thing I could do about it. Nigel curled up next to me and I wrapped an arm over him. At least we wouldn’t die alone. That had to be worth something.
The stone wall behind me bulged, pushing us away with the force of a violent shove. I yelped and rolled, doing my best to keep Nigel tucked tightly against me. I couldn’t help but try and protect him.
I lay on the stone, with my ears ringing. Blinking, I stared through the shadows, the torches from the wall still burned but no longer in their holders. One lay only a foot away from me, spluttering.
“That’s some fucked up explosion.” I sat and stared through the falling dust.
Nigel’s eyes were wide. “That wasn’t the lava beast. That was a Terraling with power I’ve not seen in three thousand years.”
I grinned. “Got to be Lark, then. She must be meeting Cactus here.” I pushed to my feet. “And if she’s here, we need to move. She didn’t get the nickname Destroyer for nothing.”
Nigel yipped and tucked his tail between his legs. I strode into the cell. The monster had turned into liquid, bubbling and popping as it cooled. “We don’t have time to wait.”
“No, we don’t.” Nigel looked behind us at Torn who surprisingly hadn’t left after he’d pulled me out of the monster. “He can cross it, though, even if he can’t manipulate his abilities right now.”
Torn gave a shallow bob of his head. “Yeah, maybe I can get the door open for you.” He gestured at the far wall, behind the monster’s goop. The door was simple, barely etched into the stone and looked as though even a stick man would have to go sideways to slide through. Awesome. Good thing I wasn’t claustrophobic.
Torn walked through the still hot puddle of monster, his shoulder’s hunched. “I’m not going with you in here.”
“Fine,” I said. “Just open the fucking door.”
He pressed his hand to it and the door slid upward, like the main entrance into the Pit. Yeah, the slit in the wall was narrow, maybe eighteen inches across at the most.
I motioned at Nigel. “Come here.”
He jumped into my arms. “We have to hurry. The mountain is failing.”
“What do you mean failing and how can you know that?” I stared hard at him.
“I’m a Terraling familiar, tied to the earth. And trust me on this, I feel it dying.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. I tightened my hold on him and ran toward the door. At the edge of the boiling monster puddle, I leapt into the air, clearing it easily. The doorway though was not free of the stuff. I landed in a puddle and my boots sizzled. I thrust Nigel ahead of me into the crevice. “Go, go!”
Torn grabbed my arm and helped to shove me in the narrow space. I was in, off the boiling mess and I turned my head to thank Torn as he dropped the door back down. His voice echoed through. “Sorry, but intruders are not tolerated. Enjoy your life, what’s left of it, in the Pit.”
Pinned between the two walls I fought the panic that gripped me. “Ah fuck, that I didn’t see coming.”
“Cat shit,” Nigel muttered, “I didn’t either.”
The darkness wasn’t complete and I took some small comfort in that. “Let’s go. If Lark really is here, I wouldn’t be surprised if the mountain really does come down.”
“She truly is that strong?” he asked.
We navigated the narrow space, pausing here and there to shimmy so my weapons would slide through.
“As far as I know,” I grunted, then paused. The light had changed drastically. “Stop. I think we’re close.”
“I can’t see a blooming thing,” he said.
“I can.” More points for vampire eyes. I squinted, and then urged him forward. The light wasn’t that far ahead now. We reached a dead end only twenty feet later.
“This can’t be right,” Nigel said. I reached over and ran my hands on the smooth, warm and glowing (at least to me) stone. It shuddered and I thought about the Salamander I’d taken blood from. There was no way I could manipulate the fire he had. But did I have enough of his blood in me to fool the mechanism?
I closed my eyes and pressed both hands to the door, thinking about the fire. The lava, flames and heat. The searing burn of the monster’s tentacles, the . . .
“Whatever you’re doing, don’t stop! The door is opening!” Nigel bounced at my feet.
I thought about the heat of the bonfires on the farm Milly and I had, of the fire roaring from Blaz’s mouth, of the fire Alex and I had cooked our “fucking” rabbits over. The memories tied to my heart brought tears to my eyes for those we’d lost.
The door slid upward and I stepped through without looking which was bad.
I wobbled on the edge of a precipice that switch backed down the interior of the mountain. A hundred foot drop at least. Nigel peered over the edge and the mountain groaned around us like a dying beast. The pathway was little over a foot wide. Barely enough to slide sideways with my back to the wall.
The mountain shifted and rumbled again and I braced myself on the rock wall. “That can’t be good.”
“Hurry,” Nigel said, stepping out first. I grabbed him by the tail and swung him into my arms.
“You got it.”
“Wait, what are you doing?” He let out a screech as I jumped off the ledge.
For perhaps one of the first times, I trusted in the new strength of my flesh and bones. The walls ripped by us as we fell and Nigel buried his face against my chest. “I’m going to die.”
I landed hard, the ground under my feet unforgiving. The shock rolled up through my body, but nothing broke. No legs snapped under the pressure, my back didn’t compress and jam my spine through my skull. I released Nigel and he darted away from me.
“Don’t do that again!”
I shrugged. “You said hurry. I obliged.”
He snorted and I drew in a breath, scenting the air as I took a look around. We were in the center of the hole we’d jumped into. A large circle studded at intervals with torchlight. And doors beside each torch. Fifteen doors in total. I licked my lips, the smells and sounds of heartbeats drawing me forward. I counted twelve hearts. Twelve out of fifteen. Our odds of finding both Belinda and Sparrow alive were higher than I’d thought.
Beside each door hung a brass ring with a single key hanging from it. I grabbed the ring and jammed the key into the door. The mechanism opened smoothly.
I opened the door and peered in. The scent was not Belinda’s. The kid lay in the middle of the cell, and the minute the door opened, the heartbeat faded and stopped. Shit, that changed things. It was like her heart had been spelled to give a false beat until the door opened. I stepped in, bent and brushed a hand over a dried husk of a face. She’d been dead for a long time and just left to rot away.
“Lack of water, they just left her here to dry out,” I whispered, knowing the way she’d died without truly understanding how. She’d been a half breed, half water elemental, and half fire. Her fear, as old as it was, permeated the air and for a split second, I saw her ghost hovering. A plain girl, with kind eyes and wildly curly hair. She lifted a hand to me and walked out the door. A chill washed over me. “Even her spirit was trapped here.”
Nigel whimpered. “Hurry, they took Sparrow from me almost a year ago, and her heartbeat is weak.”
I stood and went to the next door, using the key next to it. Again the heartbeat faded as the door swung open. This time, it was a boy who ghosted by me, a smile on his face as he escaped his prison. He’d died from a wound gone septic, a wound inflicted for disobedience.
The ground shook and a crack appeared through the middle of the room. I ran to the next door and flung it open. “He’s alive!” I pulled the kid out. He couldn’t have been more than twelve. He shook like a veritable leaf, and his big green eyes were wildly wide as he tried feebly to pull away from me.
“Are you going to kill me?” he cried.
“No, we’re here to rescue you. Can you walk?” I put a hand on each of his shoulders, feeling the thin bones under them.
He nodded. I pointed at the switchback path. “Go. Get up there and wait for me at the top.”
“Thank you.” He clutched my hand and then limped away. “Are you going to save the others?”
“Yes. That’s the plan,” I said. I hoped. One was alive, there had to be more. Maybe we weren’t too late.
The green eyed boy paused and looked back. “It wasn’t so bad at first. They were nice . . . I mean they fed us and beat us when we were bad, but they weren’t killing us. Not at first. And then . . . then something changed.” He gave a full-bodied shudder. “I heard them kill the kids who were the strongest first. I hid in the back. They forgot about me, I think.”
My heart clenched. Forgotten in the bottom of the Pit. There could not be a worse way for a child to die than to starve to death, thinking no one loved them. I fought the swell of tears. “Go, get up there. I’ll be right behind you with the others.”
I glanced at Nigel, he flicked his nose at the next door. “Hurry, if he’s right . . .”
If the green eyed boy was right, there was hope, but it was slim.
I opened the next door. Another ghost whispered past me, stealing what hope had begun to grow. But the next held a skeletal young girl. Her brown eyes were dull.
“Leave me alone,” she whispered. “Just let me die.”
“Not today.” I helped her stand. “This is a rescue mission. Go to the path, get to the top.”
Tears sprung to her eyes. “Rescue?”
“Yes, go!” I couldn’t look at her without crying myself. She wrapped her arms around me and gave me the barest of squeezes.
“I prayed someone would come, that God would send us help.”
I wasn’t sure I agreed that I had anything to do with God, but I nodded anyway. “Hurry, we have to hurry.”
Nigel helped her to the path and I watched as she carefully made her way up, her back plastered to the wall.
The next door, and then the next, and the next were children who’d passed. Each door stole hope from me as young children and teenagers ghosted out, smiling their thanks. Death by strangulation, starvation, injuries, sickness . . . they waved as they faded from sight. Except for one.
A young girl who looked to be about ten took a tentative step out, her ghostly form wavering. She had long white hair that fell to her waist, and her frame reminded me of a bird, thin and fragile. She looked at me first and there was so much sadness in her eyes that my heart broke and I looked away. Her death was no better than the others. A broken heart, she’d died of sadness, letting herself fade away as hope had escaped her.
Life was not fair.
Nigel cried out, lay on the floor and covered his head with his paws as he sobbed. “I am too late.”
“You saved my soul, my friend,” Sparrow whispered, the first of the ghosts to speak. “What higher gift could you have given me but that of returning to my family on the other side of the Veil? The madness that consumed Fiametta allowed this to happen to us. It is truly no one’s fault.”
He keened, a high-pitched wail of grief that cut through me. That brought back to me, all too clearly, the loss of Alex. I wanted to turn away, to open the final door, but I was pinned to the floor by the scene in front of me. Of the pain and anguish of losing someone you were bonded to. And of saying goodbye to your best friend. Tears pooled and spilled over the edge of my eyes. I didn’t wipe them away. I would never be ashamed of tears for my lost friends.
Sparrow crouched in front of Nigel. “Be strong, my faithful friend. Be strong, and guide the little warrior. She is going to need you and all your wisdom for what she will face will defy every challenge this world has yet seen.” Her eyes lifted to mine and then back to Nigel.
He slowly lifted his head, his jaws trembling. “I felt you still lived.”
She smiled and began to fade. “I do live. Just not here. I will wait for you.”
Tears rolled down his cheeks, disappearing into the thick fur. He stared at where she’d been and I turned away from him. I grabbed the final key and slid it into the lock. Hope . . . what a stupid, foolish emotion. Yet I still opened the last door. Because I could not give up hope, not entirely. At least, I could release their spirits and give them peace.
I put my hand on the last door and prepared to see Belinda’s ghost walk out.
She lay on the floor, huddled up and shivering. Shivering. My jaw dropped and I rushed to her side. Her heart continued to beat, fighting to keep going.
“Holy shit, she’s alive!”
