Arlo nudged open the door. The hinges protested loudly as the door swung inward, and a plume of sandy dust rained upon the yellowed tiles.
Coughing, River covered her mouth with her arm and squinted, trying to see past the dust. When it finally settled, her stomach twisted in on itself. Any doubts that Nikhail had been here vanished.
It looked like a gods-damned tornado had ripped through the inside of the building.
The till was on its side, the cash drawer hanging off the checkout desk. Chip bags, individually wrapped chocolate bars, and packs of gum were strewn throughout the space. Shelves were on their sides, knocked over by an unseen force.
The diner portion hadn’t fared any better. A wind, powerful and dangerous, had torn this place apart.
River’s magic strummed in recognition of the destruction that could’ve only come from one person. The complement to her storm.
Nikhail had done this.
Why? What had happened that he’d needed to call destruction upon this place?
He wouldn’t do something like this without a good reason.
River glanced at Arlo, her face pinched with worry, and she stepped into the shop. Arlo moved beside her. Even though they moved on near-silent fae feet, their footsteps seemed to boom in River’s ears.
Then she saw it.
In the middle of the dirty floor, partially obstructed by fallen shelves and an overturned booth, was a pool of blood. It was turning brown, a sure sign that it had been here for some time.
“Fuck,” Arlo said, following her train of sight.
River nodded mutely, unable to speak. There was no way a person could bleed this much and not be in serious danger.
The thought entered River’s mind that the blood could belong to Nikhail, that hewas in serious, life-threatening danger, but she quickly banished it. She couldn’t let those thoughts fester. They would pull her down and make it impossible for her to function.
At least now, they had proof that they were on the right track.
Then River looked past the blood, and her breath caught. Even though they were hidden by the destruction, she could make out several bodies scattered on the floor. She raced over, bile rising in her throat.
The healer inside River screamed as, one by one, she turned the bodies over and scanned their faces before letting out a sigh of relief.
There were half a dozen dead, but she didn’t recognize any of them. Most wore civilian clothes, but two of them were dressed in all-black gear that marked them as soldiers.
Thank the Blessed Obsidian Sands, Nikhail wasn’t among the dead.
There was another body at the back of the store. A young elf, who appeared to be no older than twenty, was lying prone on the floor in a pool of blood. It looked like he’d been shot several times.
Dark brown streaks ran along the floor from the elf’s body, disappearing suddenly at the edge of a tile.
“That’s weird, right?” River pointed to the area that was oddly void of blood.
“Very,” Arlo said, coming to her side.
“I wonder…” River crouched, running her fingers along the grout. She was far from an expert in flooring, but it didn’t feel quite right.
Ignoring the disgusting grime beneath her feet and the bodies at her back, because they’d clearly been dead for over a day and there was nothing that could be done for any ofthem, River pressed her fingertips along the edges of the tile. She started at the top right-hand corner, but it wasn’t until she reached the middle that something shifted.
There was a lowhiss, and then the tile lifted. River scrambled back, cursing as a gaping black hole revealed itself. The word she used would’ve had Tertia screaming at her for hours because proper young ladies didnotuse language like that, especially not Waterborns, but River didn’t care. Tertia wasn’t here, and this situation, more than anything else River had encountered today, merited a bit of cursing.
River sat back on her heels and peered into the newly revealed tunnel. It seemed to absorb the light, like a bottomless pit. River shuddered. She wasn’t afraid of the dark, per se, but it didn’t delight her.
“They went down there, didn’t they?” she asked Arlo.
It was a question, but she already knew the answer. Where else would they have gone?