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“What happened?” I ask.
“Soldiers checking the market stalls,” Horus says, grim-faced. “White armor.”
Seven hells. Eidolon’s men. Is it coincidence, or did they know? “Did they see you?”
Vos waves a hand between him and Horus. “Us? Come on.”
Good point. They’re better at blending in daylight than Reven. Cain and Pella, who are last, should also be okay. They’re from Aryd, so they don’t stand out as much.
Vos takes in the room in a single sweeping glance. “Where is he?”
Not back yet. The weight of worry turns heavier.
“Checking that the place is empty.” I’d rather not mention the sound I thought I heard. No need to highlight that the tension is clearly starting to get to me.
Vos and Horus both eye me narrowly, and then Vos goes to stand in the doorway looking out into the hall.
I don’t know if it’s the way Vos is waiting or my own nerves stretching thin, but he’s making me anxious. What if something happened? It’s not like I can feel Reven. He’s still keeping me out, cutting off our connection.
“There you are,” Vos says.
Reven appears a second later. “No sign of anything or anyone.”
“Was it in question?” Vos glances between us. After all, he was the one who scouted it.
Reven cocks his head at Vos. “Were you worried about me, old friend?”
He can joke with Vos but not even smile for me?
The portal goes opaque again. Cain looks right at me and Reven as he comes through, and it’s impossible to miss how his shoulders drop slightly to find us standing apart, the way his face eases. Then he claps Horus on the shoulder and grins. “Good to see we all made it. I wondered when we saw the soldiers.”
A howl moves through the tower, the echo of it seeming to float from room to room like a specter, and the blood in my veins turns sluggish in a response I can’t control. The sound reminds me so much of the noises Tabra makes sometimes now. I can hear her at night. We all can. After the first time I caught that sound, I had a little more sympathy for why the zariphate put her tent far away.
A warm hand settles on the small of my back and I startle. I hadn’t even felt Cain close the gap between us. Touching me like this… Reven isn’t used to what it means to someone like us. Cain is.
“It’s just the wind,” he says.
My logical side says he’s right, but after the earlier sound, I still don’t like it. “Sure.”
I don’t know if he sees the doubt in my face, but he gives me a small push toward the door. “To be safe, though, let’s get out of here.”
We all make our way down a massive winding staircase that reminds me of the well in the palace courtyard in Oaesys. Windowless except a skylight above us in the ceiling, each level houses more rooms. The staircase itself sinks down through the center of the tall temple.
A sudden gust of wind blows upward on another howl like Tabra’s moans. “Well, at least that explains the sound,” Horus mutters.
It does. So why am I unable to relax?
We continue down the stairs. Reven puts himself between me and the drop, the same way he did when we scaled the steps leading underneath Wildernyss. I shoot him a grateful look and stick as close to the wall side as possible. Teleportation really would have been a much handier power to inherit. Then I’d never have to deal with heights.
We’re about halfway to the ground when another eerie howl whips through the building. That isn’t what bogs me down like quicksand, though—it’s something else, something below me on the stairs. The hairs on my arms, the back of my neck—everywhere, really—stand up like I latched on to a lightning bolt. Dread sinks through me, and I stare hard at the apparition and try to make it make sense. Make it take a form I can recognize or disappear, like when I’d wake at night in the palace and be sure Eidolon was standing in my room, watching me, only to stare at that spot until my sight adjusted to the darkness and nothing was there.
I sneak a quick glance around, but all eyes are on me. I look back at whatever it is. My eyes are adjusted fine, and it’s still there.
A figure. I’m sure of it. Standing in my way.
“Meren?”
Reven’s voice steals around me, but I don’t look away. “Are you doing something with the shadows right now?” I have to force the question past stiff lips.