Page 55 of Cloak of Night
Daemon!
He sent surges of confidence to her, and she held fast to their bond, feeling him tugging to extricate her from this so-called prophecy.
She remembered clearly now that she was swimming in the Lake of Nightmares.
Sora grabbed hold of their gemina bond and hauled herself out of the vision, hand over hand as if climbing a rope. Future Hana scowled at her. But Hana was already blurring, and milky white poured out from the center of the scene until it filled all of Sora’s vision again.
She blinked, hard, and the cloudiness dissipated. The vision of the battlefield disappeared, and Sora saw the water again. She was twenty feet down from the surface, still another thirty or so to go to the trap door at the bottom.
Sora clung fiercely to her gemina bond as if it were alifeline so she didn’t lose her mind.
Daemon Daemon Daemon.
He must have been concentrating intensely, because his emotion soaked her as if she were caught in a rainstorm. It reminded her of ryuu magic, but while that was intoxicating, this was something more, like drinking lightning and the night sky, their brightness and darkness filling her at the same time. These were Daemon’s rawest feelings, unfiltered, and even though Sora didn’t know the thoughts that lay behind them, this was still the closest she’d ever been to anyone, even him. She wanted to keep drinking in this feeling of being one with somebody else, where it wasn’t just about him or her but aboutthem, together.
I’ll find my way back to you, she thought.
But that would happen only after she finished this mission. So with Daemon holding on to her through their gemina bond, Sora refocused on one thing alone—getting to the trap door.
Instead of swimming through the thick water and using precious energy, she tucked her legs into her chest, released a little bit of air from her lungs, and let herself sink slowly like a rock. She swallowed to clear her ears as she descended deeper into the lake. Only when she stopped sinking did Sora jackknife herself and start swimming to the door.
She grabbed on to the heavy iron ring on the front and planted her feet against the lake bottom, which was as frozen as the ice caves above. She allowed herself a couple seconds of rest.I made it. I defied the Lake of Nightmares. I’m still alive.
But that was only half the plan—there was still important work to do.
Broomstick had invented a super adhesive that waswaterproof, and Sora smeared it onto one of the bombs. She glued it right next to the trap door’s top hinge, then stuck another one on the bottom hinge. There were four bombs left on her belt.
Matches wouldn’t light underwater, but thankfully she didn’t need to rely on traditional fuses. Sora swam a safe distance away and commanded the ryuu particles to ignite the bombs on the door.
There was a pause, then dual hisses as the magical flame traveled down the length of the fuses.
One of them sputtered.
Light it again, Sora ordered. The emerald particles obeyed swiftly.
The first fuse was nearly at its end. Sora braced herself. The bomb exploded, and the shock waves threw her backward along the glacial bottom of the lake. For a second, she lost her hold on her gemina bond, and the vision of her power-hungry smirk leeched into her brain.
But then the second bomb went off, and the vibrations from its explosion shook her back into focus.
The top hinge was blasted apart completely. The bottom hinge was only mangled, though, and the trap door itself remained stubbornly in place. Also, the impact of both explosions had knocked most of the air out of Sora’s lungs.
Nines!Panic burned at the back of her throat again.
She commanded the emerald particles to her aid, using one of the very first spells she’d learned as a ryuu. The magic formed an enormous hand and seized the ring on the door.
Now pull.
The sparkling hand tugged. The ring strained against the door.
Harder!
The intact bottom hinge groaned.
Sora’s lungs screamed at her. She was nearly out of oxygen, and part of her was tempted to flee back to the surface.
But she was so close to success.... If Sora could at least get through the trap door to look at what was inside, she could go back to the surface, swallow another lungful of air, and return again.
One more pull!
