The voice came back.Worry about yourself. You should take those daggers and run into the tunnel, before one of yourfriendsdoes it first. How soon would they betray you to save themselves? Are their lives worth more than your own?
Yes,I clawed back. Vulnerable as it may be to feel, my friends’ lives were more important. And if I had to sacrifice the chance to see Umma again so that Moric could be with his brother, or Lana with her sisters, I would do it in a heartbeat. I just hoped Umma would understand that while the challenges could break my body, they would not take my humanity.
“Take them.” I pulled the blades from the tree and pressed one into Lana’s hand and the other into Moric’s. “I promise I know what I’m doing.”
My friends would have to forgive me for the lie, too.
“What happens if one of us gets lost down there?” Lana’s voice was a whisper.
I glanced around the forest floor, searching for something, anything, that might help us. Acorns littered the ground from the giant oak above. I crouched down to retrieve a handful and thrust them at her. “Take these in your pocket. Every few feet, drop one. If any of us don’t make it back out here, the others will come looking.”
Lana nodded and Moric stooped to grab a handful of his own. I pocketed a few myself, stuffing them into every crevice I could find.
Lana threw her arms around my neck in a surprising show of affection. My eyes widened for a second, before I hugged her back fiercely. My gaze met Moric’s over Lana’s shoulder, and I reached a hand toward him. He took it, enveloping us both in a tight hug. When we parted, the corners of my eyes were wet.
“I will find you,” Lana promised. She turned toward the caves, her gaze flickering between the four of them. After a moment, she chose the third from the left and stood before it.
I took the cave next to her. Moric took the one to my left. None of us mentioned the remaining cave. The one intended for Anama.
“Keep your eyes open. I’ll see you soon.” I gave them a weak smile and crossed inside.
Darkness swallowed me. I reached out a hand to trail along the dry, grainy cave wall to guide me through it. Each step was careful, and I toed the ground ahead before stepping firmly onto the soil. Inside smelled worse than the trash after beef broth preparation day at the governor’s house. It was a nauseating mixture of decomposing meat and soil. Something skuttled across my fingers, and it was an effort not to scream and yank my hand away. It crawled off my hand and I carried on down the tunnel, my footsteps continually soft and measured. Every so often I dropped an acorn behind me.
I knew I was descending deeper into the cavern when the floor sloped beneath my feet. The scent was even worse down here, and light was already a distant memory. If I had to pick a truly awful place to die, this would be it. After the maggots and bugs feasted on your flesh, no one would even recognize you. You would belong to the earth. To the darkness of the cavern.
How was I going to find a key down here when I couldn’t even see my hands in front of my face?
You don’t need light, the voice in my head whispered,when you command shadows.
Something happened then. When I blinked and reopened my eyes, my surroundings cleared, hazing into shades of gray. It was like looking at a black-and-white painting.
How…?
But I already knew. The answer was in that distant voice, urging me to be selfish, to prioritize my life over my friends’. It was how shadow had bent and warped around me, my eyes adjusting to see, because my surroundings were no longer the darkest thing in these caves.
I was.
It was the kernel of power Kilian had gifted me during the sacred oath.
It was Kilianhimselfinside my head.
I gritted my teeth as I stomped down the tunnel, scanning the curvature of the walls for any sign of a key. I was grateful for my newfound ability to see – it certainly sped things along – but it was still intrusive as fuck.
The ground shivered beneath me. I peered over my shoulder with my grayscale vision, but there was nothing to see. Blank tunnel stretched on until the wall curved back, blocking my vision beyond. But I knew something was coming. It could only be one thing.
My feet were glued to the spot. I didn’t know whether to run forward or backward. But anywhere would be better than just standing still, waiting for whatever had carved these tunnels to find me.
I chose forward and sprinted, my head dipping to avoid the uneven bumps and ridges. I ran like something was chasing me. Something definitelywas. The soil shook as my feet slammed against it, my heart the only thing pounding faster. Breath squeezed out of my lungs and I gulped, gasping for more. But I was so deep below ground that fresh air was as elusive as the key I was searching for. Still the monster chased. The ground rippled and soil separated from the walls in chunks.
I ran so fast I did not realize I was falling until my arms flailed before me and I collapsed onto the dirt. The ground gave another massive shudder, the walls crumbling as a gaping, black mouth with razor-sharp teeth emerged from below. It snapped upward, loam falling from it in great plumes. I blinked against the dust, my hands clawing me backward and away until, to my absolute horror, my back met the solid cave wall. A dead end.
A black tongue darted out of the monster’s mouth. A pair of prongs attached to the tip of its tongue moved independently, tasting the air. The creature lurched forward, saliva dripping from its mouth as it pulled itself into the tunnel with a scaly hand. As it heaved its massive body up, a flash of silver caught my eye.
Four sets of keys jangled on a loop, tied around the monster’s thick neck.
Of course that was where the keys would be placed. There was no way I would manage to grab them without coming into dangerous contact with those prongs and flesh-shredding teeth.
I sucked in a sharp breath as a claw raked at the soil mere inches from me. I needed a plan. Something that would not result in me being killed in this tunnel by the predator before me.