Page 45 of Land of Monsters

“Here!” I dove down, my fingers scraping around the outline of a trap door. Dzsinn rushed over, and we dug out the packed dirt around the edges, pulling the hatch up with a grunt.

Pointing my torch into the hole revealed another set of stairs leading deeper underground to a tunnel that would bring us inside the castle walls.

To her.

Images of her smile, her irritation, her laughter, making me scramble down the steps, desperate to get to her with a frenzy I didn’t understand. It robbed me of air. Of any logic.

Pulling out my gun, I kept the flashlight in my other hand as I descended the steps, the air becoming even more stale and musty.

Dragging the crates back overhead, trying to show as little evidence of our existence as possible, Dzsinn followed me down. His own torch bounced shadows off the walls, our feet echoing our steps on the uneven stone. Low, crude ceilings forced my head down, the walls closing in on my shoulders. The tunnel stretched out before me, with nothing but endless darkness in front of my beam. PTSD from my prison time kicked in, heating my veins with anxiety. To be trapped underground, in dark, cramped quarters bubbled up a wail inside my chest. I wanted to turn back, to breathe air, to feel dirt between my toes, but I pushed forward.

Raven. Her name repeated in my head like a chant.

“When was the last time anyone cleaned down here?” Opie fidgeted against my neck. “Not that I would clean it… I mean, I hate to clean… but it’s so filthy!”

“So is your mind,” I muttered.

Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!Bitzy responded, sounding more like a cackled laugh.

“Really, tree humper, you are going to talk about dirty after what I watched in the room the other night?”

“I thought you didn’t arrive until that morning?” My nose wrinkled up.

“Technically itwasmorning…”

“And you watched?”

“No.”

Chirp!

“Okay, well, not thewholetime.”

Chirp!

“No, I didn’t enjoy it!” Opie exclaimed. “Like you can talk. I know where your middle finger went later!”

“Please, stop talking now.” Though I welcomed the distraction, their chatter kept me from losing my shit.

Taking steady breaths and staying calm, I kept my feet moving forward. The path quickly began to climb, taking us up the hill in long switchback sections.

The beam of my torch reflected off something in front of me, my eyes squinting to make sure I wasn’t imagining it.

A hiccup bounced in my lungs.

“Look.” I pointed my light for Dzsinn to see a ladder stretching up to a manhole overhead, the metal of the cover bouncing back my light. Tucking the flashlight and my gun in my pants, I scaled the creaky wooden ladder. A deep grunt rose from my chest when I pushed at the manhole, my muscles straining as I rammed my strength into it.

A pop of air released with a whistle, the cover sliding over and revealing the night sky.

“Turn off the torch,” I ordered Dzsinn below me. Gripping my weapon again, I slowly stuck my head out of the hole, peering around. The castle loomed overhead, the lights from it glowing down on the snowy trees and bushes, a frozen pond a few yards away. Opie hopped off my shoulder and dropped into the powdered snow.

“Good thing I brought the warming toe gel!” He wiggled his feet.

“Yeah, that’s what it’s used for,” I scoffed, cataloging every detail near me.

I slipped out and Dzsinn scaled to the top right after, getting his boots on solid ground.

“There.” Dzsinn motioned over, my eye following him to an arched doorway built into the rocky hillside. “One of the last queens here put in an elevator and a direct passage from her tower to her private gardens in her older age. That should be our way in.”

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