Page 96 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
She gripped Kase’s goggles, willing the grief and power bubbling up from her stomach to subside.
Squatting down and running her hand on the stone below her, she whispered the words of leaving as if they would make a difference now, even though they’d burned him a few months before.
“May you find your place amongst the stars.”
It wasn’t enough. It would never be enough, but it was all she could do for now. She would defeat the Cerls, make them pay for what they’d done—to Zeke, to Kase, to her.
She’d do it for Stoneset, for Jayde.
Thump-thump.
She winced against the pain, but her power responded quickly, countering whatever it was. Thank the stars. It was the first time her power had spared her from pain. After another second or two of silence, she opened her eyes and stood.
Soft threads of golden smoke drifted like snakes in an invisible wind. They leaked from the doorway and the temple beyond. She could barely see them, which was probably why she hadn’t noticed them before. The tendrils seemed to beckon her, leading her into the temple.
It curled and twisted around her ankles, over the place where Zeke had died, and out into the city.
The old Hallie woke with a vengeance, and her fingers twitched, overcome with the urge to draw the strange phenomena.
Where was it coming from? What was it? The smoke had a slightly luminescent quality about it, but being so faint, it didn’t give off much light. She peeked around the massive door.
Whatever had destroyed it hadn’t merely been trying to leave the temple—it had been enraged. The stone threshold was stained dark, and beneath the scent of smoke, there was the faint, sickly-sweet odor of decay.
The dragon Ben had brought through. It must have done this.
Where was it now? Was it lying in wait for her inside? Was that its heart she heard?
She clenched her hands. She would solve this mystery, then go home. She needed to be there. With Kase. With Petra,Ellis, and everyone at University she loved. She even spared a thought for the librarian who hated her guts.
The last thought brought a small smile to her face for only a moment. What would the old hag say when she discovered it was Hallie who’d returned to save her and the thousands of books in the library?
She took a few fortifying breaths. She would see what waited inside this temple, then go back to the palace to find Niels. He had to be there somewhere. It had been stupid of her to leave the palace, but now that she had, she couldn’t turn back. She needed to know what lay inside, what called to her.
She turned only briefly, looking down into the city of ghosts, where shadows shifted like the restless spirits of the fallen. Moonlight on scorched cottage roofs glinted off shattered glass and twisted metal. It would be worse inside the temple.
Another heartbeat gave her pause, but it was over in a moment, even if it did rattle her bones. Nothing else moved. Not even the door hanging by a thread. So incredibly odd.
Hallie stepped over the ruined threshold and into the temple. Her fingers flared with heat as she ran them along the door frame’s broken stones. She hadn’t paused to inspect the stones last time she’d been here.
It almost felt like coming home. Yet it scared her.
Not only was there the possibility of failure and being stranded there, but something about the smoke and the Gate and everything here felt like a warning. She was out of her element and unprepared for the future to come.
Yet these bricks, this Zuprium contradicted those feelings as long as she ran her fingers over them. She looked down at the goggles. They were sparse on Zuprium, but it was there in the frames, holding the lenses in. She ran her thumb over the small crack in the right one.
Had that feeling always been there? Had she simply ignored it up until now? Stoneset had been rife with Zuprium dust. Had that made a difference? She let her fingers fall from the bricks and immediately felt the loss. She hadn’t ruled out the idea that she might simply be losing it, not just yet. With all the stress of the last few months, it wasn’t such a bizarre theory.
She wished Navara had written more about her people and the life she’d led here. Instead, she’d unraveled into raving at the end, trying to find a way back to Myrrai. She hadn’t been successful.
The Gate’s image flashed in her mind again, urging her to continue. She turned away from the threshold and followed the smoke. She could deal with thoughts of Navara and her near-useless journals later.
In the stone corridors, the warm pulses intensified, though she was able to stay standing. The smoke curls grew denser and brighter. With each step, she walked beside an echo of Kase in her memory, stumbling beside her as they trailed the cart carrying Zeke’s body.
Steadying herself on the wall, she took a deep breath. It felt like yesterday, but at the same time, everything she’d gone through since made it feel as if she’d lived three lifetimes. If she were to measure that in novels, she’d estimate it as two rather large ones filled with fantastical worlds and domineering kings ruling with iron fists. She wished her last few months had been but ink on paper, for if it had, she could very well write herself a happy ending.
But that wasn’t reality…at least, not the one she found herself in.
Taking a few more moments to breathe, she finally pushed off the wall and strode forward, following the smoke.
