20. Chapter 20
20
Zara
I hurried up the steps, checking behind me to see if anyone was following. At the top, I turned left, pleased to find the next hall empty as well. At a wide intersection of four halls, a pair of fae in their shadow forms evaporated into the darkness as I approached. They seemed more concerned with avoiding me than following me.
My heartrate jumped as I snaked through the heart of the mountain, hunting the door that I’d found earlier today—a door to Avencia.
The doors to other worlds were all the same, I’d quickly learned this week in my wanderings. Carved directly into the stone walls of the palace, these doors looked like mere artwork, full of perfectly composed etchings of the world beyond. Superimposed over these carvings was always the same eye that would pulse blue at my approach but nothing else. These doors had never opened for me, no matter how hard I pushed or how ardently I screamed at them to open.
But Casimiro had said all the doors would open for us tonight.
It was almost like he was telling us to leave. I shook the thought away, not caring why the fae prince might say such a thing, only that if tonight held any chance to escape, I had to take it.
I turned another corner. A pale light pulsed to life above my head, throwing the carved lines into relief at the end of the hall. My heartrate tripled in excitement.
A pointed-arch doorway marked with an eye waited for me. The eye already pulsed a soft blue, as if the magic here was eager, ready to be used. Behind the image of the eye was a vivid cliffside ocean scene, despite the monochrome black of the stone.
I’d seen these cliffs once before.
Up the coast from Leor, the beaches disappeared and tall brown cliffs hugged the sea. Papá traveled often to Risona, a large town perched atop these cliffs, for business, and the summer I was fourteen, he’d rented a small flat in the heart of the seaside town, where I’d spent a month gazing at these very cliffs.
When I’d found the door that had first brought me to Nightsong, the one at the base of the branching stairwells, the image behind the eye no longer showed pine trees like it had the night I’d arrived. Each time I’d seen it, that one door had a different scene etched on it. Which was why, tonight, when I had a chance at escape, I came to this door instead.
I could almost smell the salt and feel the sea breeze on my face as I stepped near the door. Avencia waited beyond this door. Freedom. The carved scene in the stone sank deeper and filled with a shining black liquid that rippled along each line and quickly turned to color, filling the entire door like enchanted paint.
A warm breeze tousled my hair.
I gasped.
The cold, underground tunnel whooshed with hot air from another land. A quick glance behind me revealed I was still standing in Nightsong, the home of the shadow fae. Ahead stood my country—my home.
With a yelp of delight mixed with fear, I stepped forward and fell through the opening.
My whoop of victory morphed quickly into a shriek of terror. From my forehead down to my toes, a strange binding sensation cascaded over my muscles, locking me in a rigid stance with my arms pinned to my sides, as I plummeted face-first toward a grassy cliff edge high above the gray sea twinkling with blinding sunlight.
A strong, warm breeze pushed against my body as I fell, angling my trajectory over the calm ocean rather than the grassy clifftop meadow. The sea air, thick with salt and moisture, stung my eyes as I shot toward the gently crashing waves.
Panic blocked the air from my lungs, but my head was about to strike water, and I needed to take a deep breath.
Needed to be able to move.
Needed to back up and decide not to jump.
Five seconds ago, this place looked like freedom wrapped in adventure, a welcome friend waiting to take me by the hand. Now, I plunged toward my death, and I couldn’t even fight it.
By the time my body shot past the cliff edge, narrowly missing the rocky outcroppings, my skin prickled. A blink before my head pierced the water, my entire body burned like I was falling through flames rather than air.
My only consolation was that I hadn’t let the fae laugh at my death. I only wished I’d been able to find real love, the kind my parents had once shared, the kind that never lets go.
Ivy, I’m sorry I abandoned you. Talia, I wish I’d found you.
Father, I wish I could have seen you again. Wish you hadn’t let me go…
Sun above, this was going to hur—
Splash.