“Where are we?” I whispered as I felt the damp walls and carefully descended the dark steps.
“I don’t care, just as long as it gets us out of here safely.” River tripped and tumbled down the stairs. He burst into a ball of angry flames, illuminating the stairwell.
“Why didn’t you do that earlier?” I asked playfully. “Then maybe you wouldn’t have fallen.”
“It’s not as if I can hurt myself.” River stood up, dusted his clothing, and pulled spiderwebs off his shoulder. His skeleton was aflame, and I marveled at the fact that his clothing never burned off his body.
“Can you stay like that until we’re out of here?”
“Yeah, sure,” he grumbled. “It reminds me of all those games we played for your father and all our little adventures.” He smirked as best he could with his skeleton head.
“Yep,” I said sadly, but now wasn’t the time to go down memory lane regarding our relationship. “Now let’s see where this takes us.”
We continued down the stairs in silence, and River stayed in his state of flames. Water continued dripping down the sides of the curved wall as we followed the spiral staircase down.
“I never asked this before, but do your flames come from the Eternal Flame in the Underworld?”
River stopped and stared up at me; the flaming orbs where his eyes were meant to be stared at me, through me, as if conjuring the answer to appear before me.
“Probably,” he said, thinking about the question. “I’ve never asked Victor, but I guess so.” He shrugged and the flames on his shoulders flared to life, licking the wall behind him. “I think everything is connected to the Underworld in some way.”
“I think so too. Look,” I said, pointing at the light up ahead. “It seems we have a way out. Extinguish your flames before you scare a poor human walking past.”
As River neared the exit, he exhaled loudly and the fire abruptly disappeared, as if he absorbed every hot flame. He twisted the door handle and opened it.
The bright light of the sun burned my eyes, forcing me to cover my face with my left hand, and followed River outside. Sirens continued wailing in the distance. It relieved me the secret exit led us to the outskirts of the university perimeter near a storm drain. The high walls surrounding the university stood before us like gate keepers; each face-brick a similar sandy color with individual patterns on. The wall looked like it moved, reminding me of slithering snakes.
I shuddered. Everything about this university reminded me of that game Father played with me; it’s how I got my wings. Just thinking about my black wings and they appeared. I rarely used them when I worked with Mom; it scared the humans and the supernaturals always wanted to touch them. I rounded my shoulders, and the wings disappeared.
“This way,” River said, pulling me out of my thoughts.
“Where are we going?” I asked, my feet sinking into the soft sand. “There’s nothing out here but sand.” The university was on the outskirts of the city where the Egyptian sand blended with concrete and civilization. If we went the other way, we had to pass the police, and that was a bad idea.
“I know, but we don’t want to go in the other direction. At least this way we have space to escape.”
“Wait,” I said, grabbing his jacket to stop him. “Look,” I said, opening the locket. The picture of the two boys had changed. It was now of a man wearing a white gown with his name sewn on, and underneath was the name of the institution. I pitied him as he rocked back and forth, reminding me of a movie.
“Do you want to go to his brother?”
“Why not? We have nothing else to go on. And besides, he might have more information for us. And look,” — I pointed at the name, “Alec Dakin, Lake Hills Institute.” I grinned. All the pieces of the puzzle just fell in our laps.
River nodded, but unconvincingly.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.
He sighed audibly, not looking me in the eye.
“What is it? If you don’t want to go here, where do you want to go?”
River pulled a newspaper clipping from his jacket pocket.
“How do your flames not burn everything to ashes?”
“Like I said years ago, things will only burn if I want them to.”
“And what is that, anyway?” I said, snatching the clipping from his fingertips. “Where did you get this?”
“It was near the professor’s body. It looked important.”
I took a moment to look at the article, and it was important. “You’re right. This could answer all our questions.”
“I know,” he said, grinning.
River held out his hand, and I begrudgingly took it. Luna jumped up against his leg and he rubbed her side, calming her. She twirled around and sat on his shoe. “Ready?” he said, closing his eyes. I nodded, and we teleported to the tomb where they’d discovered the mask.