When he finally released me, the emotion in his face was indefinable but I understood it since it was the emotion mirrored in mine. He pushed me out of the room towards Amory and I found myself swept up in Amory’s tight grasp as I fought to return to him.
“Promise me nothing will happen to her,” Kiran commanded Amory, and when Amory hesitated out of confusion, Kiran demanded louder, “Promise me!”
“I promise,” Amory whispered quietly and with steady resolve.
Then the door was closed and I was running down a dark hallway, Amory practically pushing me to move faster. I was done asking questions. Nothing made sense; nothing was ever explained to me. For now I would do as I was told because Kiran asked me to, but there would come a time very, very soon when I would get my answers.
I glanced over my shoulder at the closed door and the room that only seconds ago housed the most intimate moment Kiran and I had ever shared. As I ran blindly in the dark, my feelings for Kiran were finally clarified. I loved him, with every breath I had, with all of my soul, I loved him. And I would do anything it took to be with him.
Chapter Forty-One
“Through here,” Amory ordered, pushing me through another darkened passageway.
We had been running through the bowels of the castle for at least twenty minutes. Amory seemed to know exactly where he was going and I tried to trust him, but remained skeptical. I was once again a sweaty mess and wished we could stop for a moment so I could remove my sweatshirt. My hair flew wildly about me, sticking to the perspiration running down my face.
“Where are we going?” I asked, out of breath, stumbling a little in the dark.
“As far from here as possible,” he responded, pushing me forward with his hands. “And through here,” he suddenly turned right and took the lead. I struggled to keep up with him.
The passageway was dark and narrow, there was barely enough room for us to face forward between the cool stone walls. At one point we had taken stairs leading downwards, so I assumed we were somewhere underneath the castle. I was still unsure why we had to make this escape, but as long as Kiran kept his promise, I would keep mine and follow Amory without question.
“Stop,” Amory whispered fiercely, pressing his body against the wall and thrust out his arm, forcing me to do the same.
We were quiet, both afraid of the unknown. The only sound I could hear was my own frantic breathing; I wiped the sweat from my brow, pushing my long hair behind my ears. Amory also breathed heavily, but I had been surprised at his level of fitness. He was awfully spry for someone of his age.
“Eden,” he said softly, but gravely. “I need you to turn off your magic completely. I need you to repress it like you did before you knew what it was. Hold your magic in until we are safe. Can you do that?” he turned his head to give me a serious stare and I nodded my reply.
I pushed the magic down, making it dissolve completely from my veins. I was suddenly tired and sluggish. I hadn’t realized how much the magic had kept me going; but after several days of no sleep and extenuating travel circumstances, any normal human would have been delirious by now.
At our stilled position and with our backs pushed heavily against the cool stone, the exhaustion began to take over. My knees became weak and without my permission my body started to slide down the rock wall towards the uneven floor. Amory pulled my exhausted body back into a standing position by the arm and shook me roughly.
“We have to keep going. Will you make it?” he asked, forcing me to look into his eyes by gripping the sides of my head firmly.
“I can make it,” I mumbled weakly, not sure if it was possible, but determined to try. I shook my head feebly, trying to wake myself up.
“Think of Lilly,” Amory coaxed, “Think of Kiran,” he finally had my attention and I brought my body into a strong standing position.
“Let’s go,” I said with more energy.
Amory grabbed my wrist and pulled me along behind him. We ran, half stumbled in the darkness through the cool corridors. I never heard another footstep or sound other than ours, but I had no doubt that we were being hunted. I kept up with Amory the best I could; with my magic gone, normal, human adrenaline was forced to take over.
Suddenly we were faced with a dead end. The hallway had narrowed considerably and then came to a point where the two parallel walls met. I wondered what we were going to do now.
Amory let go of my wrist and I fell hard against the cool stone. I could barely keep my eyes open, but curiosity gave me a few more moments of consciousness.
Amory felt the point of the wall, letting his hands fall over every stone and every crevice. He started at the top of the wall and worked his way down to the floor, quickly and efficiently. He pushed firmly on random rocks, as if looking for one in particular.
Finally, he let out a small grunt of approval, and I watched his fingers disappear in what seemed to be the middle of the floor. He braced his body and then grunted louder removing a large block of stone from the floor and revealing a ladder leading further under the castle.
I forced my body away from the wall and began to descend the ladder without any instruction needed. Obviously this was our only option. I heard water beneath me, but was blinded by complete darkness descending slowly into the black abyss. I could still see Amory’s face as I took the shaky ladder, rung by rung, deep into the blackness.
After I was far enough down the ladder for Amory to follow, he stood on one of the top rungs and slid the rock floor back into place. I saw a type of handle underneath the faux floor that made it easy to be returned home. Once the floor was in place we were completely in the dark and I was nearly paralyzed by fear of the unknown.
The ladder hung precariously from the ceiling of the cavernous hole and swayed back and forth with our body weight. Every move, every step, every breath we took evoked a rusty creaking sound that had me seizing up in fear. I forced my appendages to move and forbade my mind to consider the possibilities of this ladder crashing to the black chasm beneath us.
The sound of water grew stronger the lower we climbed, and I made the assumption of a creek or brook flowing through wherever we were headed. My eyes began to adjust to the blackness, but it was too dark to make anything out for sure. I wondered if Amory was using magic or if he repressed his as well.
Eventually my foot found the ground in an awkward step that made my knee give out. I didn’t catch myself in time and fell to the solid ground in an uncomfortable heap.
Once on solid ground, I pushed myself up to my hands and knees and felt through the dirt as I crawled forward or at least in a forward direction until the ground ended and another stone wall ascended in its place.
I gripped the wall, using it to pull my body up into a standing position again. Wherever we were now was clearly far beneath ground because the temperature had dropped drastically. The water source was definitely a running stream of some type because I could hear the water moving purposefully. The air was clean and clear and I took a big breath in, happy for the moment to rest.
I heard Amory’s feet reach the solid ground and the ladder ceased from creaking. I listened for his footsteps to move in a direction, but I heard only the sound of the water. I was afraid to call out to him, since he had yet to speak a word.
I heard a scraping sound and my heart jumped, but when sparks flew through the darkness I realized Amory had only lit a match. A small flame burned alone until Amory used it to ignite a larger torch. The darkness was illuminated and I finally made out my surroundings.
We were in a type of cavern, with rock walls on every side. A single river ran through the middle at a quick pace. The surface we stood on was wide, and the ladder leading to the castle above was positioned closer to the stone wall than the river and its dangerous current. I pressed my cheek against the cold stone one more time before joining Amory at the river’s edge.