45. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Astaroth
T here was no opening. I checked the entire corner in case it moved. Calista fell through a solid, slimy wall covered in ivy and vanished. The realm’s magic was no different here than anywhere else. I blipped to the other side of the wall. It was the outer corridor that ran the circumference of the labyrinth. No Calista. I blipped outside the labyrinth entirely. It was dry. There was not a drop of water, but it poured inside. Dark clouds rolled above the passageways with lightning zipping between them before striking the ground.
“Tell me about this labyrinth!” I yelled as I rushed into the prison. “What has Mergle kept from me?”
I gripped the cell door, the bars bowing in my grasp, and tried to force myself inside Serwin’s head again. He garrisoned his mind and prepared for the assault. In my current state, I would not find a way in. I turned my focus to Mergle, out cold and withering on the cot, and probed the recesses of his mind. His body twitched, but his thoughts remained hidden in his unconscious condition.
Serwin’s words came out strained. “If you continue to press, the magic will kill him instantly.”
I let go of the bars and ran my hands over my head. Control slipped through my fingers like the wet strands of hair, and I didn’t know how to handle it. I’d only felt this once from Calista.
“Helpless.”
I spun around to find Serwin relaxed against Mergle’s cot, regarding me.
“I’m not in your mind. Your thoughts are broadcasting loud and clear as if you are screaming them.”
Helplessness. It was awful. I never wanted to experience it again. Remorse was another. It sat like a bolder in my gut for making Calista feel this dreadful emotion.
Jessandra came closer, inspecting my appearance. “What has happened, Roth?”
“Somehow Calista portaled out of our room and is running through the labyrinth.”
Her brows pinched. “Why haven’t you blipped out there and brought her back?”
I sighed and dropped my chin. “Because I can’t find her. She vanished.”
“That’s not possible.” She chuckled.
“It is! I watched her disappear through a wall and cannot sense her. She is no longer in the realm.”
Jessandra’s eyes widened as she stared through me, lost in thought. “Calista found a way out.”
I shook my head. “I don’t believe so.”
“Then where could she be?”
“I haven’t the slightest inclination.” I pegged Serwin with a hard look. “But something tells me they do.”
She rushed to my side, gripping the bars and resting her face between the slats. “Serwin, if there is an exit, you must tell us.”
“I cannot, love.”
“You would sentence us to death while you sit here holding the key?”
His jaw clenched. “Some of you deserve to be here.”
Jessandra jerked back from his verbal slap. “Am I one of them? Do I deserve this fate?”
“And if I said yes? Would you accept your punishment?”
“No,” she breathed.
“Why is that?”
“My tapestry was damaged. I don’t remember the before, only the here. How can I be held accountable for acts I don’t remember? That person ceases to be. Isn’t that punishment enough? To be killed and reborn, all threads and connections unraveled, never to remember that which made you who you were?”
“Some acts require eternal retribution.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the impossible. A minuscule tear crept down her cheek.
“We don’t deserve this madness,” she whispered.
Serwin switched his gaze to mine. “If this continues, you won’t suffer it much longer.”
“What does that mean?” I growled. “Are you threatening me?”
“Take it for what it is, Astaroth. A message.”
Beneath my seething, I felt that familiar twitch from the realm. Calista was returning. I opened the portal. “I must go.”
Jessandra stayed at my side. “I will go with you.”
“No. It is safer here.”
Her brows pinched, but I didn’t have time nor the knowledge to explain. I had to find out what the realm was hiding from me and sharing with Calista.