Page 60 of To Crave Deeply
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Blackness surrounded me, thick and dense. I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face.
“I can’t see shit,” I muttered.
Here, let me help, Iveri said before I felt her presence sharpen behind my eyes. The world snapped into focus and shapes started to materialise out of the shadows.
“Thanks,”I replied, staring at the ragged rocks that jutted out sharply around me.
You’re welcome.
Strangely, we were starting to get along. I wasn’t sure if that was a disconcerting thought or not, considering the fact that as soon as we found the original witch, we were most likely going straight back to being enemies.
“Torsten?” I called out.
“I’m here,” came the deep voice from directly behind me, and I screeched.
“Holy Hell, Torsten!” I yelled as I jumped around to face him, my hand clutching my chest as it raced frantically beneath my ribcage. “Don’t do that.”
He smiled and my stomach flip-flopped. How was it he managed to make me feel like that even in a place like this that was riddled with despair? The air was thick with it. I could feel it oppressively wearing down on me as I stared around the cavern. I’d been down here for all of two minutes, and I already felt like there was no escaping the darkness that wanted to consume my soul.
Well, this place is miserable,Iveri drawled as we looked around.
“You can say that again,”I replied.
Torsten stepped in front of me and headed down what looked like a small path snaking down deeper into the Pit. It wasn’t wide enough to walk side by side, so I followed after him and tried not to freak the fuck out.
Will you try to calm down? Your heart is pounding, and your stomach is churning. It’s making me nauseous.
“Sorry, but walking through the depths of Hell doesn’t feel like a walk in the fucking park,”I snapped. I had this constant feeling at the back of my neck like there were a hundred sets of eyes out there watching us and just waiting for us to make a mistake so they could swoop in a feast on our bones.
That’s ridiculous, Lori, Iveri snorted.The only creatures down here are dead apart from the original three. And I know that Mordecai is probably nothing more than a dead husk, Iver a pile of bones, and Selene, well, I just hope that she had the foresight to learn a spell to create food. I’m going to be pretty pissed if she’s dead.
So was I. I needed the original witch to help me solve this soulbond issue. She was the only one who probably could.
“Did you know them?”I asked, hoping to probe a bit more into her background.
I know what you’re doing, Lori.
“Hmm?”
You’re trying to figure me out.
“So what if I am? I want to help you, Iveri.”
She sighed and I could feel her start to pull away from me.You can’t help me, Lori. No one but Selene can help me now.
Realisation hit me like a freight train.“She did the spell that helped you cheat death, didn’t she? You do know the original three.”
Yes,she replied quietly.
“Iveri, how old are you?”
She snorted.Don’t you know you’re not supposed to ask a lady her age?
“Iveri,”I said, trying to coerce the answer from her.
Fine, she snapped, rolling her eyes.I am almost six hundred years old.
