Page 123 of Damned and Broken Gods
The voice faded away.
“I guess the test begins right away,” Dharma said.
“What do you think?” Joe asked, his gaze skipping between us all.
“I don’t know,” Alia said. “Up is usually out, isn’t it?”
I nodded. “Yeah, but if this is the beginning of the labyrinth, shouldn’t we be going inward? To find our drohi.”
“Ooooh, good point,” Joe said.
Alia chewed on her bottom lip. “But what if that’s what they want us to think? What if up is down and down is up?”
“Oh…good point too,” Joe said.
“Or maybe they want us to think they’re trying to trick us,” Bina said. “Maybe we need to take this early stage at face value.”
“Yep, that sounds good,” Joe said.
Dharma frowned at him. “You got a suggestion?”
Joe winced. “No. I was going to go with group consensus.”
I walked over to the stairs that led up, but warning bells went off inside me. I moved to the steps that led down, and a tugging bloomed in my solar plexus.
“Leela?” Dharma called. “What are you doing?”
I didn’t want my feelings to color theirs. “Checking my gut instinct. I suggest you all do the same.”
I waited as one by one they approached each set of stairs. Once they were done, I arched a brow. “Well?”
“Down,” Dharma and Joe said simultaneously.
“The same,” Bina said.
We looked to Alia. Her gaze flicked to the steps going up. “Yes,” she said. “Down.”
“Down it is.” I took the lead to the top of the staircase and began the descent.
But there was no descent, because as soon as my boot hit the first step, the room around me melted, and mist swirled around me. It eventually cleared, revealing a circular room with dark marble floors and a high ceiling. Four large, ornate, full-length mirrors were placed evenly around the room.
O-kay…were they doorways too? And if so, how did I pick which one to?—
There was movement to my left. I whipped around to find a figure in the mirror. A woman. Slim, gaunt, with huge dark eyes and thin lips. An iron crown sat lopsided on her head. It slipped, and she reached up with bony fingers to adjust it, her gaze fixed on me.
Me…
Oh…
Gods…
The reflection was me. Emaciated and weak.
Her mouth moved in a whisper, and I drifted closer, the need to hear what she had to say a throbbing ache at the base of my throat.
“Not enough,” she said. “You’re not enough. No matter what you do, who you become, you will never be enough.”
“What?”
