Page 188 of Anathema

Muscles trembling, I backed myself away from it, around the altar, and my heel caught on something behind me. I fell backward, the floor crashing into my flailing hands as I tumbled onto my backside over a mass beneath me. A body, lying on the floor, the sight of his empty eye sockets twisting my stomach. A tearless sob shook out of me, and I kicked myself away from him, curling my knees into my chest.

Oh, god, what have I done? What have I done!

A silvery, blue light glimmered over top of the altar, where I’d lay moments before, and I whimpered in horror when a hand shot upward from the center of it. Another hand followed.

I moved farther away, my pulse hammering as I watched a figure crawl out of the altar.

A head popped through, and at the sight of Rykaia’s face, I wheezed a tearful laugh, the relief sagging my muscles as I tried to push to my feet.

She slid over the side of the altar, and another dark-skinned hand pushed through after her.

“Maevyth!” Rykaia rushed toward me, enveloping me in a hug that I so desperately needed right then. “I thought …. Oh, gods, I thought …”

“I’m okay,” I said in a shaky voice.

Behind her, Dolion tumbled onto the floor and clambered to his feet, straightening his robes. He raised the hood of his cloak to cover his head. Frowning, he glanced around the room. “What in the gods …”

“We have to get back to Eidolon. There’s no way out.” As I broke from Rykaia’s embrace and lurched for the seam, she gripped my arm.

“No. You never cleave down.” Her voice held a grim warning.

“What?” Tone muddled in distress, I searched her face for any sign that she might’ve been joking.

“You can cleave up and through walls, but never down. It’s the gateway to Nethyria. The underworld.”

“Then, there’s no escape. The flame is blocking every wall and passage out of this room.”

Dolion stepped toward me, eyes earnest as he took hold of my arm. “You control the flame, Maevyth. It follows your command.”

I shook my head, distinctly recalling the invisible force that had commandeered my body when I’d blown the flames in the Magelord’s face. The blackness that’d consumed me afterward, when I’d somehow gotten myself free. All of it out of my control. “It’s not me that controls it.”

“It is you. You possess the ability to control sablefyre.” With a gentle nudge, he urged me toward the fire behind us, but I resisted him, refusing so much as a step closer.

“I just watched someone turn to ash trying to touch that flame. I want nothing to do with it!”

His grip tightened. “They did not have the power that you possess, Maevyth. Now, raise your hand and command the flame to allow you passage.”

“How?”

“Raise your hand.”

I lifted my hand, as directed, my palm held out to the flame.

“Close your eyes and imagine the flame parting way for you.”

Breath trembling, I shuttered my eyes and brought to mind a visual of the black flame parting like a curtain. Heat blazed across my palm, and I jerked my hand back, opening my eyes to a gap in the flame and the dark corridor beyond it.

Elation bloomed inside me, and I let out a chuckle, only for it to be quickly smothered, when Solassion guards appeared from the dark depths of the passage—a half-dozen, or more, storming toward us. Dolion and I backed away, toward the altar, as they stepped through the gap in the flames.

Before they could reach us, Dolion thrusted his hand forth, and a shimmering wall materialized, like puzzle pieces clicking into place, climbing toward the ceiling and separating us from the soldiers, who pounded their fists against it. “Let’s go! Quickly!”

I twisted around and knelt beside the Magelord, rifling through his pockets while desperate not to look at him.

“What are you doing, Maevyth! We have to go! Now!” Rykaia’s voice brimmed with panic.

“I need my whistle!” I frantically searched his robe for it, shoving my trembling hand into whatever pockets I could find.

“There’s no time!” Dolion took hold of my arm, and with reluctance, I let him pull me to my feet, and the three of us darted toward another arched pillar at the opposite side of the room.

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