Page 102 of The Cursed Kingdom

Kie does another lap of the room, this time dragging his hand along the wall in search of another hidden doorway. My heart lurches when he glides over the secret one we just walked through, his hand not sinking in as it did before. Are we trapped here?

My feet move of their own accord, bringing me to the doorway. I try to walk back through it, but I’m met with a solid wall. We’re stuck in this room.

An immediate bout of claustrophobia works down my spine, making me shiver. Kie says the gods love to play with people, but I wasn’t anticipating it would be like this.

“Is this some sort of puzzle or something?” I ask.

I’ve participated in a few escape rooms, and it’s safe to say I’m not the best at them. I went once with coworkers who, for reasons beyond me, fully expected me to solve the entire thing by myself. It’s probably because I work with numbers and they assumed that means puzzles are my thing, but they were sorely mistaken.

We solved only a few of the puzzles before our hour ran out, and the front-desk woman did a poor job holding back her laughter as she explained what we had done wrong and what we were supposed to have done instead.

I’ve vowed never to participate in another, but I’d be willing to do a thousand escape rooms alone if it meant I could go home.

“I don’t know,” Kie admits. “The gods don’t particularly enjoy when we visit them, so getting time with them can be tricky.”

Is he kidding me? Kie should’ve left me behind, tied me to a tree or something so I couldn’t escape. Maybe a shifter would have wandered past and helped me. I don’t know, but it’s a better option than this. Zaha’s going to kill us, and Kie’s selfishly dragging me down with him and Mason.

I shrug off my backpack and sit on the white tile floor. This is Kie and Mason’s thing, and I’ll be damned if I help them figure out how to reach the gods and offer me up.

“What happens if we can’t get out of this room?” I ask. “We can’t return to the portal, so do we just die here?”

Kie shrugs. It’s not the response I’m looking for.

I don’t have much food left, and my nut container is officially empty. Kie and Mason are currently in better shape than me, so I’ll most definitely be the one who dies first. Will they eat my body once I’m gone?

I wouldn’t put it past Mason to shift into his animal form and munch on me. He’d probably play with my femur like a dog with a bone.

“It’s not uncommon for people to come here and not return.” Kie clears his throat before continuing. “But we don’t have any insight into what happened to them. It’s possible they died before meeting the gods, but I like to think they made the gods mad and were killed.”

Wonderful.

Mason doesn’t attempt to find an exit like Kie does. He stands in the center of the hallway and peers around instead, his cold gaze calculating. Kie continues to make laps of the hallway with his hand pressed against the wall. If he hasn’t found a hidden door yet, I doubt he will.

“You see anything?” Kie eventually asks Mason.

The shifter licks his lips. “No.”

Kie stops walking, his head hanging. He still looks like shit, similar to how Lill looks before she drinks her tea. Opening that portal must have taken a lot out of him. I’m sure it’s intentional.

If the gods don’t enjoy being bothered, as Kie said, then it makes sense that they’d make their portal hard to open. Only the strongest are welcome to visit. Only the strongest are welcome to die in this sterile fucking room.

I uncross my legs and lean back onto my hands, getting comfortable. I have the feeling we’re going to be here for a while.

“I think this is a sitting room,” Mason decides. Kie cocks his head to the side, which Mason takes as his cue to continue. “When people come to speak with you, they aren’t given an immediate escort to your office. They’re made to sit around waiting until you’re ready to see them.”

Kie sucks his cheeks into his mouth, and I hold back a laugh. The fancy, pompous prince is being made to wait like a sad, unimportant little rat. It’s fitting, and I love that I get to be here to witness his humbling.

“Zaha likely just stuck us here to keep us out of the way until she’s ready to meet,” Mason says.

This is beautiful. It’s the best parting gift I could’ve ever asked for, and I’m thankful to be given a small something to bring me joy before I’m sold like cattle and forced into a life of servitude. I should probably get used to these small pleasures.

For all I know, they might be the only ones I ever experience again.

Kie frowns as he contemplates Mason’s suggestion, and after a minute, he lets out a loud huff and sits on the ground. I’ve never been in a waiting room that doesn’t include seating and magazines, but I guess comfort isn’t a priority for the gods.

That’s not a good sign for me.

Things grow unnervingly quiet as we wait. There’s always life in the forest, alwayssomething. Usually, it’s the quiet crunch of our footsteps or the chirping of the animals nearby. This room is dead silent.

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