Page 7 of Of Serpents and Ruins
Familiar energy.
The back of my skull prickled. Goose bumps formed over my skin.
It was hard to breathe.
"You promised. Don't come back. Even if you find a way, Stella. My heart, my love, my everything, don't come back until I've fixed this."
I struggled to my feet, my head swimming. The ground swayed beneath my feet. I had to… What did I have to do? Mylimbs were heavy, my strides uncoordinated. Pits opened in the floor at odd intervals and in the walls as well, like great chasms. Were those real or my imagination?
"Stella." Kine staggered as he struggled to stand, wincing. Blood dripped down his forehead. He moved out of the silver ring on the floor.
Elias had likewise fallen. He blinked, a dazed expression on his face as if he struggled to remain conscious.
Kine grabbed for my wrist. "Let us explain. You're almost home."
I shrugged him off, stumbling forward, and ignoring the pull of whatever Kine had done to me. I couldn't stay here. I couldn't! This was wrong!
Those pleading red eyes flashed in my mind again. I had to keep that promise, no matter what.
I had to—
"Bug!" Kine's desperate shout echoed in the cold, dank halls. "Wait!"
I ran faster, my limbs no longer clumsy. Adrenaline pumped through my veins. I couldn't be here!
Darting around a corner, I urged myself forward. Faster, faster, faster. Kine's and Elias's voices faded. All that mattered was getting away.
The floor abruptly turned downward. Shrieking, I tripped. My hand whipped out, fingers hooking on a corner to keep myself from falling flat on my face, but then I found myself facing a great passage of inky darkness. My momentum carried me forward, and I plunged into darkness.
The stone floor fell out from under my feet. My screams stuck in my throat. The darkness was suffocating. It was like I had fallen into cold, slimy Jell-O. Disgusting!
My heart hammered in my ribcage. The darkness swirled and deepened. Then a flicker of orange-ish green appeared before me.
My muscles tensed.
Those were eyes.
Orange and green, full of malevolence.
Energy similar to the portal's coiled around me, suffocating me, sticky and thick like tar.
"Look at who returned," an icy yet familiar voice cooed.
The cold, tar-like substance pressed over my mouth. It seemed to reach all the way into my heart. My breath cut off. Terror spiked through me.
"I am so glad you're back. So very, very glad." The voice drew closer, metallic and feminine. It seemed to be all around me, each syllable scraping over my mind and chilling me to my soul. "I always knew you would. You wouldn’t be able to stay away, no matter what you promised. In the state you are now, I could kill you with little more than a thought. Do you know that?" A low, simmering chuckle followed. "I want you to know that, but…it will be so much sweeter when he is the one who kills you. Make the most of what time you have, my darling. The game has finally gotten interesting."
The orange-green eyes vanished. The tar pulled back.
The darkness deepened.
My stomach lurched as I resumed falling, scraping against stone as if I were on some demented slide, spinning and whirling around as if the amusement park ride had gone off its tracks. No sense of up or down. My limbs flailed helplessly over the frigid surface. The impressions of shapes and itching sensations over my body overwhelmed my mind.
A pinprick of light appeared far below my feet. It switched back and forth as if someone was turning a light from a gold to a silver setting. After each flash, it got closer.
The pinprick expanded. With each shifting flash of color, more details came into focus—the smooth edges of the passage, the glints of silver mineral veins.
As it grew brighter and then dimmer at alternating paces, I realized I wasn't moving that fast. In fact, it was more like I was dropping bit by bit, slower and slower as the pinprick grew to the size of a dinner plate, then a manhole cover. With a soft swish, I dropped out onto a grassy knoll.
