Page 71 of Death Trap

“Everything okay over there?” Tamara’s annoyance was a thorn in my momentary happiness. “We’re wasting time. I bet that charm has only minutes left.”

I glared at her from over my shoulder. “I would give your daughter more credit than that.”

Tamara’s brows rose. “Arianna performed the charm for you?”

“She did,” I replied simply. “She’s a level three, even at her young age.”

Pride pulled her shoulders back and lifted her chin. “It looks like my sister did something right. She was able to teach her well enough to please the Council. If only I had been there to train her the more powerful and rewarding side of magic.”

“You mean so she could end up here, too? In Hell?”

Tamara scoffed at that. “But her life! Oh, her life would have been richer! More rewarding. She could have had anything she ever wanted.”

At a price.

Of course, Tamara conveniently forgot that little fact. For the short time I’d spent with Arianna, I could have guessed Tamara’s cost had been her daughter. And something told me Arianna would rather not follow in her mother’s footsteps that way.

“She seemed quite happy to me,” I said. “She travels a lot, sees great sights, meets great people, finds great things.” Steals them, but still…

“But then again, she’s always had greatness in her. It runs in our veins.”

Tamara clearly wasn’t taking the hint. Better to leave it alone.

Ready now more than ever, I turned the door’s handle and pushed it open.

The first thing I noticed was the darkness. Complete blackness and as thick as the night. Which was to be expected, since it had been what we’d faced behind every door we searched. But like Lisa, I imagined finding Benjamin on the floor, awaiting someone to rescue him. Instead, there was a rope and wood plank bridge spread across the darkness to another white door on the other side.

“Another door?” Tamara peeked around me.

I sighed. “It seems like it.”

“And an unstable-looking bridge… I hope you’re not expecting me to cross that thing.”

I was a little weary about getting over it, too, without falling into a bottomless Hell pit, but I wasn’t going to show her that. Just thinking about it stirred up my newly founded fear of heights.

“You can stay here in Hell forever if you’d like,” I said, shrugging. “It’s your choice.”

She shook her head. “If the exit is that way, that’s where I’m going.”

That’s what I thought.

“You first,” Tamara added, giving my shoulder a little shove.

Doing my best to ignore that—and it was hard, really, really hard—I took a hesitant step onto the first plank of wood on the bridge. The entire makeshift bridge swayed under my weight, and I clutched to the rope holding the thing all together. My heart climbed into my throat as I was forced to look down. Infinite blackness greeted me, my gasp echoing throughout the pit I hovered over.

My fear gripped me full force, paralyzing my limbs and turning me into petrified stone.

“Are you okay?”

I couldn’t show Tamara how scared I was. It was a goddamn bridge. I’d faced demons and disgruntled spirits, vampires, and shapeshifters. I was in Hell for Pete’s sake. A simple wooden bridge shouldn’t be the thing to slow me down. Even though I told myself all this over and over, my legs wouldn’t straighten and my hands wouldn’t unlock from around the rope.

“Are…are you afraid of heights or bridges?” Tamara asked.

“Heights,” I managed to choke out. “It’s a newly discovered fear, but man, is it a doozy.”

I expected Tamara to poke fun of me. Or maybe even laugh. But instead, she touched my shoulder and began muttering in Latin.

“What’s that?” I asked in panic. “What are you doing to me?”

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