Page 193 of The Eye of the Fifth
It was then that Kyra knew that Gedeon had been right. ‘It’s too easy,’ she whispered.
Gedeon didn’t reply. Which somehow made her feel worse.
Her pace through the tunnels quickened. Their swift footsteps echoed, the only sound in this place of the damned. It taunted her, warping in her ears like laughter.
Every time Kyra saw long hair, her heart leapt. But it was never Rosary.
Bile stung the back of her throat as despair threatened to envelope her.
What if she wasn’t here? What if shewasalready dead? What if Naal had been right, and it had all been a ploy to get her here?
What if she had led Gedeon and herself to their doom?
They passed another cell. There was a woman within, curled up against the wall, facing away from them.
Kyra’s legs almost gave way.
‘Rosary!’Her hands clawed the bars that separated them. ‘The lock, Gedeon, the lock! My magic isn’t back…the lock!’
Fire surged from Gedeon’s fingers to the bars, melting the metal, and Kyra practically fell through the door as it swung, dropping to her knees at Rosary’s side.
That once curvaceous, full figure was now just a bony frame for sallow, beaten skin. Kyra tentatively pulled back the lank, bloodied hair from Rosary’s ashen face, and it was an enormous effort to not lose all control of herself at the bloody mess where her ear should have been.
Breath, however shallow and inconsistent, seeped in and out of Rosary’s mouth.
Alive.
‘Rose,’ Kyra managed to croak. ‘Can you hear me?’
Slowly, Rosary lifted her head. Bloodshot amber eyes stared at her. A half laugh, half sob retched from Kyra as she cupped her friend’s face with joy.
Alive.
Freezing, spindly fingers closed around Kyra’s wrist.
‘It’s me, Rose, it’s… it’s Kyra.’ Her voice shook. ‘Can you stand? I’m getting you out of-’
‘Kyra?’ she whispered. ‘Kyra.’ She began to cry. Then, as though a memory had abruptly surfaced, sheer panic stole over her gaunt face. ‘No… no! Kyra, you can’t be here!’
Rosary squeezed her eyes shut and clapped a hand over her remaining ear.
‘We came for you, Rose. I won’t leave without you,’ Kyra implored. ‘You have to come with us,please-’
Fervently shaking her head, Rosary attempted to wrestle out of Kyra’s grip. Through panicked sobs, she said, ‘You shouldn’t have come! She’ll know! She’ll know, Kyra!Please, please!You have to go! Leave me behind, she’ll know, she’ll-’ She stilled, eyes flying open. Beadlets like morning dew clung to her eyelashes as her pupils dilated with terror. ‘She knows.’
‘Who knows, Rosary?’
‘No, no, no…’ Rosary sobbed, clawing at her own skull. ‘Get out… get out, get out,get out!’
Kyra turned hopelessly to Gedeon, only to find he was no longer in the cell.
???
Gedeon.
The tunnels were infested with horned creatures of nightmares. They bore down upon Gedeon, black gloved hands wielding no weapon but the foreign magic pulsing through their blood. Their shadows loomed on the walls, a counterpart to the wretched evil within. A darkness untrue, unnatural, not like the star studded black of night.
High Wielders. Crawling toward him from both directions.
