Page 94 of Right Hand Of The Reaper
“No, Thane. Let me,” I said, grabbing his wrist.
He looked at me warmly. “I don’t mind. Besides, you’re already bound to the Fates. Let me do this. Let me help.”
Well, when he put it that way, how could I say no?
Prometheus stepped closer and gripped Thane’s forearm. He whispered the binding spell and a small symbol appeared on Thane’s skin. It was a little triangle, the sign for fire, Prometheus’ element.
“If we’re looking for it, we might as well know what it looks like,” Atticus said, ever the pragmatist.
“I’ve got no idea,” Prometheus replied with a weak laugh.
“Great,” Rafe huffed.
“I only know it’s done there because I can sense the power that binds it to the cuff.” Prometheus moved to the edge of the door carved into the floor. “I won’t lie to you, Roux. You’ll be challenged in a way that will test your limits, and the limits of those you love. Be true to yourself and hopefully you’ll make it through.”
The guys gathered around the edge of the door with me and a moment of panic struck me to my core. I looked at the men that had glued themselves to my side, who were putting their lives on line merely because they wanted to be with me. It both humbled and terrified me.
“You don’t have to come with me,” I said with more confidence than I felt.
Atticus stepped closer and took my hand. “Yes we do, kitten. We’re all with you. Every step of the way.”
I squeezed his hand back and looked at all the men surrounding me. I’d never felt like I’d belonged with them more than I did right at that moment.
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s do this.”
“Here we go, then,” Prometheus said before walking to the wall and pressing one of the panels. There was a loud click followed by the sound of a large groan before the stone door started to part in the middle.
“That’s it,” Rafe said.
“That’s how easy it is to get in?” Rayne added.
Prometheus laughed again, his silver eyes bright in the low light. “Getting in is the easy bit, getting out…”
He didn’t need to finish the sentence. We all understood the danger we were about to face but we were going to go anyway. We had to. We needed to know what happened to the diadem, what happened to Nyx and now we needed to see if we could find Prometheus’ key too.
I looked over the edge and it was like looking into the maw of a void.
I gulped. “How do we get down?”
“Jump,” Prometheus replied.
Of course that was what we needed to do. Why did I even bother to ask?
“Alright. Here we go.”
Then I jumped into the blackness and hoped I landed on my feet.
I seemed to be falling for ages until I landed on the ground with a thud. The impact jarred my legs and I nearly fell forwards and smashed my face into the ground. I heard a series of echoing thuds around me and knew the guys had dropped next to me. I pulled my scythe out of the shadows and put some energy into the runes. It was pitch black down here, so the light did little other than tell me who was standing where.
“Now, we need a plan,” I said. Heavens forbid we got split up. “We stick together, and we fight together.”
“Agreed,” Thane said.
Everyone else nodded in agreement, even if their expressions didn’t quite match their answer. I knew that everything down here was going to challenge us. We’d probably be in situations where we would be fighting to the death, but I also knew we stood a better chance standing together and so did they.
“Right. Come on, gang,” I said with false bravado. “Let’s go solve this mystery.”
There was a chorus of chuckles but the guys started moving forwards. Well, what I assumed was forwards. I couldn’t see a fucking thing beyond the nose on my—
