Page 26 of The Storm of the Empire

I tried to open the door, but a pressure from beyond it made it difficult. When I cracked it open, the weather was worse than it sounded. I hurriedly tugged the door closed again and eyed my surroundings for an escape.

“You should be below with your fellows,” the female said, much closer to me than before. My heart was pounding as I looked for any kind of escape, not turning to face my pursuer.

Did she sound familiar, or was that the wind messing with my ears?

“State your business,” she said with authority, and I knew I was out of choices. I shoved my way out into the storm. Staggering down the stairs, it was hard to stay on my feet. The wind battered me with rain so hard, it felt sharp like stones.

I didn’t have time to look for shelter before I was tackled and slammed into a wall. My head spun from the contact, and I blinked through the pain until a new horror became clear. I had a blade pressed to my throat.

“I said state your business,” the female growled, and even through the storm, the accent seemed familiar. I hardly dare swallow, but she wanted an answer.

“Don’t hurt me—I’m a priest!” I shouted to be heard over the wind. I prayed she would believe me. I could not die like this.

She moved then, and I was spun to face her. My hood was pulled back, and the tip of her blade was once again in contact with my tender throat.

“Luka?”

My eyes snapped from the hand holding the blade to the eyes of my attacker. “Hazel?” I croaked in shock, unable to move without risking my jugular. What in the Goddess’ name was she doing here?

Gasping, she pulled her blade. “By the Goddess, what are you doing here?” she yelled over the storm.

I opened my mouth to reply, but I was at a loss for words. What could I even say to her?

Before I could come up with something, a great world-ending crack echoed overhead and drowned even the suggestion of being heard. The temple walls shook with a wrath only the power of the Goddess could possess. I shrank back, never having heard anything of the kind in my life, but Hazel merely cast a glare to the sky as if annoyed at being interrupted.

“What the fuck was that?” I asked because she seemed so unbothered.

She leaned into my ear and, in a tone I could tell was a yell but could only just make out, said, “We have to go back in the temple, You’ll get yourself killed out here.”

I craned my neck. “It’s just a storm.” A loud one, but since when did storms kill people? Talk about overreaction.

“Are you kidding?” She looked at me like I’d misplaced the only brain cell in my head, and after the voyage I’d just been on, that might have been true, but it was still just a storm.

“What?” The ground beneath my feet shook until I thought it would split and open the gates to the underworld. Lightning lit the sky, rain cut through the air, and before I could even think, Hazel grabbed my hand and half dragged me back up the temple stairs.

My hair on the back of my neck stood, but not like when I was back home in the fields warning those still out to get down or risk being struck by the odd storm. This cut through my bones, almost like it would cut out parts of myself I wasn’t aware of.

Suddenly, I was ready to heed her warning, pulling her faster than she could run over the rain-soaked ground. When we reached the top of the stairs, I had to help her fight the wind for control of the door. Together, we managed to pry it open enough to fall inside, wind whipped and soaking. The door slammed shut behind us, and we collapsed against it, breathing hard.

I blinked at her. She was panting and looking as if this whole scenario was a huge inconvenience rather than what seemed to me more like the end of the world.

“What was that?” I couldn’t call it a storm because I knew in my gut it was so much more.

“We have to get underground.” She rose while I was still reorienting myself and began opening the doors at this end of the corridor.

I could see past her shoulder that the first was a storage cupboard, but the second was nothing but gaping darkness from this angle.“You can’t answer a simple question?” I asked, getting annoyed by her dodging.

“Do have a death wish?” she asked and took a step through another door. “Come on.”

“No. Where are you going?” I scrambled to my feet to join her and saw stairs leading below.

“Underground,” she said like I was daft.

“Wait!” I grabbed her shoulder. “You can’t go down there.”

“Well, you can’t stay up here. You need to get below,” she snapped.

“Me? What about you?” I snapped back. I could very well take care of myself. Why did I always seem to be having to prove it?

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