Chapter Twenty-One
They moved through long tunnels, dark and filled with sand, and as they moved, torches along the walls burst to life with crackling yellow flame. They did so without being touched; it was just more magic. The sound of their progress was muffled, staunched by the dirt beneath their feet and the thickness of the walls on either side. Yellow bricks were marked here and there with hieroglyphs that Addie couldn’t read. As they advanced further, the bricks became less worn. The hieroglyphs were newer. The ground less sandy. It was as if they were moving through time.
“We’re close now,” Nero said, his eyes fixed on the path ahead, his expression unreadable. But there was something unsettling in the tightness around his mouth. It was like secrets and determination.
All at once, Adelaide was overtaken by a psychic vision. She had no idea whether she stopped in her tracks or kept walking – or simply fell into the sand at her feet. All she knew now were the images flashing before her eyes.
She saw molten eyes, swirling like lava, entrancing and hypnotic. Lights and colors blurred around her. She saw crystals, shapes in glass, and felt hands on her, on her arms, on her waist, even wrapping gently around her throat. A thumb on her pulse, words whispered in her ear. She keeled sideways in the vision as she felt the searing tattoo of a kiss but saw fangs… and blood. She felt a pain in her wrist –
And the vision changed.
The atmosphere darkened, lit only by torchlight. The eyes changed. Now they were green. She saw the reflection of fire on a blade, sharp and unforgiving. The pain in her wrist intensified, and she experienced panic.
And then she was snapping free from the vision in a way she never had before. Usually, visions faded, she was surrounded by fog, light, and at last reality. But this time, she was in the vision one second – and standing stock still in the corridor filled with sand the next.
Nero had stopped beside her as well. In fact, when she turned to look up at him, she expected him to be gazing back at her questioningly. But he wasn’t. Instead, he was staring at the cat.
A cat? Addie blinked, wondering if she was still seeing things. But the cat remained where it was, standing directly in front of them in the middle of the sandy corridor. It was a ginger, and it sat tall, proud and calm, its tail wrapped around its paws. It had yellow-gold eyes, and they peered at Adelaide steadily.
“We’re definitely close,” said Nero. “The Asim guard the gateway between our two worlds. Only the dead are allowed beyond this point.”
Adelaide looked from the cat to Nero and back again. Her heart rate sped up. “Only the dead?” What exactly did he mean by that?
Slowly, Nero looked down at her. “I can go anywhere, Adelaide.” He smiled easily, but there was something off about the smile. Alarm bells sounded somewhere distantly, barely close enough to be heard. “So you needn’t worry.” He took off his suit coat and tossed it on the ground beside his feet. Then he rolled up his sleeves as if preparing for a fight. His wristwatch glinted on his left wrist, and that was the hand he offered her.
He held it out toward her, palm up. “Just hold on tight,” he said.
There was no turning back now. God only knew where she actually was at that moment. Underground somewhere? The hieroglyphs would hint at Egypt, but she knew of no location where tunnels went on forever like this underground in Egypt.
She’d been transported away from a land that just plain shouldn’t exist – the Nightmare Realm – and into another one that was just as unnatural and strange. And now she felt like she was about to head straight into the belly of the beast. But again – there was no turning back. It was just too late.
So she put her hand in his, tried not to let it show when she felt the familiar static charge move from him into her, and gritted her teeth when that feeling engulfed her completely. It was stronger than before, charging up her neurons to the point of pain.
“It will pass,” Nero told her. “The strongest spells require sacrifice.”
She watched him with building trepidation as he raised the wrist of his free hand, opened his mouth, and bared long, sharp, white fangs.
Oh shit! Addie instantly tried to pull away, a knee-jerk reaction to seeing a man, even a strikingly handsome man, suddenly grow incisors that only predatory mammals should own. But Nero’s grip on her hand tightened fast, a steel grip she had no hope of escaping. He turned his head, pinning her with stark green eyes that began to heat up, glowing from within. “Stop fighting, Adelaide,” he commanded calmly.
His voice resounded in her ears, whispering through the channels of her consciousness until she found herself relaxing, gazing steadily back at him with a numb resignation.
Was dying easier when death was brought by someone beautiful?
“This bite isn’t for you,” he told her next, and his lips curled in a secret smile. “I told you the strongest spells require sacrifice.” He looked away, concentrating his gaze on the cat. “And there is no stronger sacrifice than blood.”
With that, he lifted his arm to his mouth and sank his fangs into his wrist.
Addie jumped where she was, affected by the site as if he’d actually done it to her instead. But still, he held her tight. And when he retracted his long teeth from his wrist and the blood began to flow, he held his injured arm out and allowed the life-giving red to drip to the ground.
The cat remained where it was, watching in silence. But its tail twitched, and its gold eyes lightened to a glowing yellow. They cast a light into the corridor that grew brighter and brighter, until Addie was raising her free arm to shield her eyes.
She felt a shift in the sand beneath her feet, as if a tide were pulling it out. Nero’s hold on her hand tightened further. And then the ground rumbled, and Addie dropped her arm in time to see the corridor up ahead change.
The cat was gone. In its place, the ground opened up, and a stairwell formed from the stone. It led down into unknown darknesses. The rumbling stopped. The sand was gone. Everything looked new… and at the same time, as ancient as time itself.
Nero released her hand and stepped forward, gesturing to the stairwell. “We’re here,” he said, turning his glowing gaze on her. “After you.”