Page 122 of An Inheritance of Monsters

But four spots glowed luminescent blue where my fingertips had touched, and slowly faded.

I took a breath and pressed my whole hand against the stone.

My palm burned for a moment, and light seeped from beneath my hand, limning all of my fingers… and swirled outwards, rippling through the obelisk.

Engraved tentacles lit up, claws and fangs and horns… just like the idols.

But this time, there was no screaming face, only a flat, smooth surface surrounded by the carvings of the monsters.

As I watched, craning my neck to look upwards, the gleaming blue light coalesced in that smooth space and began to reorder itself, forming letters and words.

My breath puffed out in white clouds as I read it aloud.

LET THIS COVENANT BIND US,

EARTH AND VOID,

THE LADY AND THE KEEPERS.

TOGETHER WE HOLD THE LINE,

TOGETHER WE KEEP OUR SILENCE.

I AM BEHOLDEN UNTO NO MAN,

BUT BOUND TO THE VOID.

I PLEDGE MY BODY FOR THE GATEKEEPERS,

MY LIFE FOR THE GATES,

AND MY SOUL FOR THE ETERNITY OF THE STARS.

Zirin’s voiceseemed to echo in my mind.It is the Covenant of Sarah.

I took my hand away from the obelisk, but the glowing blue remained, the words shimmering overhead. My eyes were glued to them, the light burning them into my retinas.

Burning them into my mind.

“My body for the gatekeepers…” I whispered, reading through over and over. “Sarah didn’t die, either. She went into the Void, just like Ruby…”

The lights were finally beginning to fade, but the after-image was still burned into my vision.

I turned around, the words dancing everywhere I looked. There were only two places in the manor utterly forbidden to us… “We’re in the cellar, aren’t we?”

Yes. The foundation of the house, where Sarah first made her pact with the Void.

Zirin’s hands and tentacles reached out for me. I accepted him, completely blind, still seeing words written in the shadows.

He led me through the water that was now growing cool, and I heard the scrape of claws on brick.

Here, he said, gently pushing me aside.Stand back.

I did so, wrapping my arms around myself, and heard splashes as Zirin moved around.

Then massive, stomping thuds as he rushed through the dark.

I squeezed my eyes shut a bare second before he hit the wall with a massive crash, bricks flying outwards. Acrid dust made me cough as the last bits of brick and mortar fell away.

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