Page 108 of Of Monsters Of Kings

I peered up in the direction of the surface. “Where do you usually walk to find the surface?”

“I think of the surface, and the stairs lead me there. I haven’t walked on the surface for centuries, lady.”

“Do you usually climb up though?”

“From what I recall, lady, yes.”

I bent my knees and jumped as high as I could.

An invisible force resisted my jump and made me feel like I’d jumped upward through gelatin.

I gasped and gripped the edge of a landing, then pulled myself on top of it.

The prince arrived at a run up his stairwell. “Lady, you jumped. This is not your landing. My liege will be very unhappy.”

The landing underfoot crumbled at my intrusion, and I bent my knees, then launched high again. The prince’s shouts were left behind.

A gelatin force had resisted my first jump. On the second jump, the resistance felt more like wet sand.

I started to fall at the height of my jump but caught hold of a landing on the way down. Panting, I pulled myself onto the landing with shaking arms. The stone started to crumble.

“Lady Patch, my king’s power seeks to keep you here.”

“That’s the resistance I feel?” I croaked, struggling to my feet.

The prince hushed. “Lady Patch, he will never allow you to leave. He’ll feel this. He’ll come.”

I pressed my lips together against the implication that a king would allow me anything, then noticed how they lined up. I was in my daylight form again. What was happening?

I didn’t have time to find out.

I bent my knees and pushed all my strength into my legs.

Sandpaper.

A shriek tore from me as Raise’s power tore at my skin, but I didn’t have time to assess the damage after heaving my body on top of the next landing.

“Am I close?” I whispered to Prince Sign, who watched in silence as I staggered upright.

The landing crumbled rapidly.

“You cannot leave, lady,” the prince said.

I refused to let that be so. I gathered my will and strength. “I will be free of this place!”

My voice boomed from my mouth, and the prince leaped back when the sound rocketed through the kingdom of stairs.

The landing slowed in its crumbling.

I bent my knees and jumped.

Sandpaper again. No worse, and no better.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t see anything of the top. As I lay panting on the next landing, staring upward, I reassessed. Maybe there was another way to do this. There had to be a way out.

A tiny pinprick of light appeared above.

“Lady Patch?”

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