Page 37 of In Death's Hands
Thalnus’ laugh is nothing short of predatory, the glint in his eyes vicious. “You finally get your head out ofyourass, and we’re supposed to follow you blindly? We’ve been searching for answers and coming up with nothing. I don’t see whyyou, no matter who you are, could get further than we did.”
“I will get further than you did because I know what, or rather who, the Novensiles are after, and I’m not above using it against them.”
His words register as three pairs of eyes settle on me. I’m sorry, he will use who to do what now?
“You intend to dowhat?”
“Liv.”
That’s it. That’s all Nathan says. My name. As if that’s supposed to be answer enough, or a warning to keep quiet.
Well, screw. That! “No. There will be no ‘Liv’ said in a deep, stupidly mysterious voice,” I say, not missing the amusement on Atys’ face. “Because that’s not a freaking answer to anything! There will also be no half answers, and there sure asfuckisn’t gonna be any bait business with creepy maniacs out to kill me.” I’m breathing fast and my voice is loud and echoing all around us, but I can’t find a single fuck to give.
“Your pet doesn’t seem to like your plan, boy.”
I turn to face Thalnus so fast I almost trip on my own feet, but I thankfully manage to stay upright to throw him a death glare. At least I hope that’s what my eyes convey because Atys turns his back to me to hide a laughing fit, if his shaking shoulders are to be trusted. “I am not a pet, and he is not a boy!”
I don’t know why I bother defending Nathan when I’m pissed at him, but here I am. Can’t say that helps my credibility.
Thalnus lookspissed. “Do you know who I am, girl?”
“No, I don’t! I don’t know who orwhatyou are! I don’t know where I am, what the hell happened to all of you, how you could have woken upcenturiesago in this stupid place, or what the hell I’m doing standing in the middle of all this fuckery!”
“All right, that’s enough,” intervenes Atys, looking a lot less amused suddenly.
“Atys,” says Thalnus. Good grief, can’t these men stop saying names as if that’s a full sentence? It’s not!
“No, she’s right. This is a lot to take in, even for us. Imagine what it’s like for her.”
“You owe me some answers,” I tell Nathan.
He sighs. “I said I would answer what I could.” He gestures to the space we’re in, still not meeting my eyes. “I planned on showing you.” Showing me what exactly? There is nothing but musty walls around us. I think my face shows exactly what I’m thinking because he quickly adds, “This is the antechamber. The space where we found out we could escape.”
“Escape what?” I ask.
Quiet is my only answer. But not the secret kind of quiet, no, the haunted kind. The kind of quiet that tells me the answer might be lodged in all their throats, struggling to come out.
Thalnus looks frozen in place, but Atys is glancing around, seeming to fight a shiver of disgust. His lips are curled as if whatever memory he has of this space has left a bad taste in his mouth. He notes my stare and swallows once before breaking the silence. “As he said, this is the antechamber of a much bigger cave accessed through there.” He points towards a corner, but it takes me a while to notice the sliver of space between two stone walls swallowed up by darkness. How did they even see that? How did they even pass through? “That place beyond strips us of our powers. We were stuck in there for…”
When Atys falls silent again, Nathan picks up where he left off. “Alongtime,” he says tightly, shadows swirling in his eyes that are not of his own making, “without food, without a clue as to who we were and how we ended up here. It took weeks,months, before I wandered far enough away and found this space between the stone. It… spoke to me in a way I hadn’t yet felt.”
I imagine it all for a second. Waking up without a memory with a group of strangers. I look around the space with a new eye and fight my own shiver. How… terrifying it must have been. “How did you survive? Without food, I mean.”
Nathan winces, and I see his hesitation before he answers. “We technically don’t have to eat, but it does give us a boost when we do.”
“You… what?”
“We don’t have to eat, sleep, fuck…” says Thalnus, finally shaking whatever memory had hounded him. “Any instinct that screams at you, girl, is a choice to us.”
“A choice you make all too willingly,” mutters Nathan.
Uhm. Okay, not going to touch that just yet. Instead, I look around. Trying to see the space through their eyes. It looks like any cave would look like. Rock everywhere. Dirt on the ground. A thin ray of light coming from far above. My eyes skim over the rocky walls as I try to process things. My thoughts are so loud that I nearly miss it and have to drag my eyes back.
There.
A red shimmer in a far, unlit corner. As I move closer, vaguely aware of the men at my sides still arguing over one thing or another, I wonder what could have such a colour here, and my mind unhelpfully supplies images of red, human-eating spiders or deadly flowers that only grow in rock. I realise it’s not either of those things when I notice the natural alcove in the stone, and what looks like a bundle of red strings wedged in it. I frown, angling my head closer. As if in response, the little ball glows brighter. I jump back, a shout on the tip of my tongue, but theglow almost disappears entirely as I move away from it. It can’t… No. It can’t be reacting to me, can it?
I hear my name in the background, but it doesn’t really register as I step forward and once again the ball glows brighter, the red much more vivid.
