Page 87 of The Sinner's Bargain

I wasn’t in the lake, but a whole field submerged in water as if flooded. I whined deep in my throat, knowing I couldn’t stand there forever, and I couldn’t leave without my shoes.

Accepting my fate, I sunk a hand into the water and hooked a finger into the slipper. I drudged it out and waded my way back to the maze and the safety of the path.

Maybe it was time to turn back, I thought miserably to myself. This had clearly been a terrible idea and I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue. Even then, standing in there, freeing sludge out of my shoes, I could barely make out the tops of Lacroix House in the distance.

How far had I gone that a building the size of Lacroix House was a mere outline against the horizon?

Frantic, I shook out the rest of the water and started my way back but stopped.

The path was different.

Maybe I hadn’t been paying attention, or maybe I’d taken a different turn somewhere, but there was a bench rotting to one side and I had no memories of passing it.

Willing myself not to panic, I kept going, certain that if I moved towards Lacroix House, I would eventually find a way out.

Regretting all my choices leading to that moment, I wove my way forward, eyes scanning for familiar markers and not seeing any. I even paused in the center of a four way and bit back a sob as I realized I never passed a four way on my way through.

“Thoran...” I moaned weakly, terrified I was lost in that place with the thing following me and the eyes I could feel burning into the back of my neck.

Desperate to get back, I pushed forward. My shoes slipped around my feet. Water squished between my toes. The back rubbed against the damp skin of my ankles. My skirt, wet and heavy with filthy water slapped and clung to my legs with every stride. I held tight to the book digging into my palm and clasped it to my chest as I tried to find my way out.

It was several minutes of wandering that I began to notice the dip in sunlight. The heavier canopy of shadows following at my heels. The sky overhead was no longer clear or blue but dull around the edges where the night had begun to bleed towards me.

Oh God, I couldn’t stay there overnight.

I couldn’t stay there when it was too dark to see the things shuffling through those corridors with me.

My heart was hammering even as I fought not to cry. The burn was jagged at my throat, stinging my eyes.

“Thoran, where are you?” I sniffled.

As if summoned by the sheer strength of my prayers, I heard him. I heard the sweet bellow of his voice carrying across the settling cold and dimming light.

“Naya!”

“Thoran!” Heart leaping in my chest, I gathered up my ruined skirt and began to sprint in the direction of the voice yelling, “Here! I’m here!”

The voice, distinctly male, painfully close, shouted back, “Naya, where are you?”

I opened my mouth to call back when a chilling bolt of horror slammed into me.

My entire body catapulted to such an abrupt standstill, I nearly crashed to the floor. I barely managed to remain upright even as I stumbled backwards, away from the voice that was so much like Thoran’s my brain couldn’t register that it couldn’t be. My chest was no longer alight with joy but screamed in terror as I stared towards the bend only feet away. Feet from whoever was just on the other side.

Whoever that was, wasn’t Thoran, because Thoran didn’t know my name.

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