Page 64 of The Road to Hell

I ground my teeth, staring at the bastard for a long, weighted second before exhaling through my nose. My rage hadn’t lessened, but I could shove it down—for now.

Eliza crouched beside Lily. “She looks normal. Breathing and everything.” She turned to Calyx. “How do we even know if she’s…y’know, okay?”

He considered that, then lifted a brow. “I could check.”

I immediately stiffened.

He laughed, sensing my reaction. “Easy, big guy. I wouldn’t dig, just…skim.” He wiggled his fingers in the air. “See if her mind is still intact, if she’s following a thread or trapped in a loop. It won’t be invasive. Just a peek.”

My immediate instinct was to refuse, to keep him as far from her as possible, but what if—what if—she was slipping? What if she was screaming inside her own head, trapped in some fractured, crumbling nightmare, and we were just sitting here, waiting?

I ran a hand through my hair, barely concealing my frustration. “You swear you won’t do anything that’ll harm her?”

Calyx lifted a hand. “On my rotten little heart.”

Eliza groaned. “Not reassuring.”

“Fine. Do it,” I said.

Calyx shifted, stretching his fingers before reaching toward her temple. The second his fingertips brushed her skin, his eyes fluttered shut. His face twitched, his brows drawing together.

The cavern went silent. Seconds stretched, slow and suffocating. Then his eyes snapped open.

I was on him before he could speak, my hand fisting in his collar. “Well?”

Calyx disengaged from me and smoothed his shirt. “Well, she’s not dead.”

I bared my teeth. “Calyx?—”

“She’s fine,” he finally said. “She’s reliving something. Not stuck, not spiralling. Just…remembering.” He tilted his head slightly, gaze drifting toward her. “I don’t know how long it’ll take, but she’s not breaking.”

Some of the weight eased from my chest, but the anxiety didn’t fully relent. “You’re sure?”

Calyx wiped more blood from his split lip. “Sure enough.” He shifted, leaning back against the cavern wall. “Whatever she’s seeing, she’s deep in it. We can’t do anything but wait.”

Wait.

I hated that word.

I sat back on my heels, scrubbing a hand over my face, my jaw still locked tight.

Eliza sat down beside me with a sigh, stretching her legs out in front of her. “Guess that’s that.”

No one spoke for a long time. The cavern was quiet, save for the faint crackle of Lily’s orbs still clinging to the walls.

I turned back to Lily, watching for any sign of movement, anything that would tell me she was still in there, still fighting her way back.

“Come on, Lily,” I murmured.

But she didn’t stir.

* * *

LILY

Darkness swallowed me whole.

It was vast. Endless. A black void stretching in every direction, without shape, without sound, without substance. Just nothingness.

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