Chapter Nineteen #2
My father used to bring me here when I was a kid. I’d cry until he gave up trying to explain the carvings, the runes, the stories in the stone. Funny—I haven’t thought about that in years, probably because I usually avoid the area like the plague.
Rey studies the front of the building, her gaze tracing the runes as if she’s trying to memorize every detail.
“After you?” she asks.
I realize I’ve been staring. Not at the temple. At her.
“Yeah.” I touch the door and immediately yank my hand back.
I’m sure it must have burned me, but when I look at my palm, it’s totally fine.
“Everything okay?” She frowns.
“Worry about yourself.” I shove past her, shouldering the door open without touching it again, and keep walking into the large sanctuary.
The air is damp from the open lagoons near the very back and the constant water that runs into the pool beneath the temple.
The smell of incense is still eerily strong, like it became a part of the building and refused to leave.
The high beams arch like ribs from a corpse, their surfaces carved with bodiless faces, each of them looking like they are people crying out in pain.
Rey moves closer to me. “This is creepy as shit.”
I almost laugh.
Nope. Don’t let her break your defenses. “History usually is.”
Reeve is guiding the freshmen around the hall, snapping selfies with the group in between his show-and-tell. True to form, his stories are heavily embellished.
Rey hangs back by me. Her eyes narrow as she walks toward the nearest wall and reaches for it, then jerks her hand back. “Why are there burn marks?”
I want to be an ass and walk away, but I answer her instead, like a glutton for punishment.
“They say the priests made sacrifices to the Gods here, offerings to welcome them back. But I don’t buy it.
Those weren’t gifts; they were penance. Humanity bleeding itself dry to make up for all its mistakes. ”
“That’s…dark.” She licks her lips and stares back at me, expression blank. “Which Gods?”
“Does it matter?” I snap.
“Maybe.”
“Norse, I’d imagine.” I shrug. “It’s a Norse temple, after all, despite no one being able to date it.”
“Really?” she asks skeptically. “An ancient Norse structure on the West Coast of Washington state.”
“History doesn’t always get it right.” I shrug. “Leif Erikson journeyed to the Americas long before Columbus ever did.”
“Wrong coast. But…fair.”
“You can tell by the carved runes around the temple door. Nine runes for the Nine Realms.”
“It’s said the Bifrost connected our world to others long before recorded time. You know, if you believe in that sort of thing.” Her eyes look almost expectant.
“Sure, why not. There you go. Mystery explained. Any more questions, or can I walk in the opposite direction of wherever you’re heading?”
Her smile seems forced when she looks up at me. I guess that makes two of us, though she hides it better. “You shouldn’t have left an opening.”
“Rookie mistake,” I grumble.
She smirks, then points at the rear of the hall. “What’s that?”
I keep my annoyed sigh in. “A very creepy obsidian mirror that tilts down to reflect the water.”
Rey moves toward the pool, and I follow. So much for walking away.
“That pool’s pitch-black.” She shudders. “I bet it’s super deep.”
“You don’t like water?”
“Not especially.” She inches farther away from the pool’s edge. “Why reflect the water with the mirror?”
“Why so many questions?” I counter with annoyance.
“Reeve may know more about it. He’s into all of this shit, but I think it has something to do with trapped Gods in the water or something like that.
They’d sacrifice humans as an offering and then put the mirror on the water and wait to see the reflection of the Gods coming to the surface to collect their souls as they were released from their imprisonment.
” I glance over to see her staring at me like I have three heads.
“Since you can’t look a God right in the eye. ”
“Um, why can’t you look a God in the eye?”
“Because humans aren’t worthy.” I roll my hand. “You have to use the mirror to see. Kind of like Medusa—wrong mythology but similar concept.”
Why I feel compelled to help her out with this explanation, I have no idea. It’s like I can’t control the words spilling out of me any more than I can control breathing. Plus, I can’t tell if she’s asking because she really doesn’t know or if she’s baiting me.
“Ah. ’Kay.” Rey nods and peers into the mirror, observing the murky lake water. “I see nothing but darkness.”
“It’s all a myth,” I say quickly as a twinging zap of cold starts building in my chest. Epic timing. “We should go. You don’t want to be here at night. It’s even creepier. Then again, if that scares you away, take your time.”
Rey rolls her eyes. “I don’t scare easily. I think I’ve seen the worst.”
“Well, your father is a notorious murderer. I’m sure he gets extremely creative when he dismembers people.”
The cold continues to build. Where is it coming from?
She looks back at the mirror, her gaze narrowing. “There’s something etched on top of the obsidian,” she mumbles, leaning in closer.
A sharp whistle has us both jumping.
Reeve.
Shit For Brains blows again, then waves that ridiculous flag, and the other students follow him out of the hall like a herd of lemmings.
“We should go, too,” I tell her.
“In a sec. I think I recognize this rune.” She goes up on her toes.
My added height makes it easier to see.
“Raido,” we say at the same time.
The front door slams shut, causing a gust of wind to swirl through the room.
Rey turns away, but it’s too late—the mirror suddenly flips, the huge stone slab slamming into the back of her head, and slices me when I try to stop it from hitting her again.
Its edges are sharp and jagged. She falls to the ground.
“Shit!” I catch her, kneel next to her. I reached her before her head hit stone, but blood’s trickling down her neck. “Are you okay?”
She sits up and gingerly touches the back of her head. “Ouch, yeah, that was weir—” Her eyes go unfocused.
“Rey? Rey?” Panic spikes.
I grab her face, but the minute my skin brushes hers, the air shifts. The once-still pool ripples violently, waves splashing against the stone edges like something in its inky depths just woke up. Cold biting through me, I try to pull back, but my hands won’t move; they’re frozen against her skin.
My back ignites like it’s on fire while my body shudders.
We have to get out of here.