9. Dead Girl Walking
NINE
dead girl walking
A black spider scurries from a thick web on thread-thin legs. I feel the quick brush of its limbs against my cheek without fully registering what it is. A gasp shakes my lungs. Then Aelix snatches the creature and web midair only seconds before my face is veiled with it.
I peer back at him, and the sweetest smile touches his full lips. Warmth blooms through me, and I want to swim in the heat of it until Arcane shoves past us on the narrow set of stairs. My body jostles into the cold wall while I glare daggers at the broad span of careless shoulders.
“Where are we going, exactly?” Aelix asks. His words echo around the carved stone hall. The shadows are so heavy, I can’t see a single step in front of me, but I keep going.
From several stairs down, Lila’s flickering torchlight glistens across her hair as she whispers in the darkness, “To the catacombs.” Her voice crawls up the walls, scurrying around me on an endless echo.
“The catacombs?” I ask carefully.
A hesitant pause slips in before an answer is finally offered up.
“The academy honors their dead. By keeping them for all eternity.” Aelix’s tone isn’t proud. If I had to guess, that heavy growl in his words is totally laden with bitterness. “They say it’s to thank us for the souls we gift to our dragons, but I think it’s to keep the townsfolk from seeing just how many of us don’t actually graduate.”
“Oh,” I barely whisper. “How nice.”
“The nicest,” Aelix adds.
A cold wind chases goosebumps across my arms, and I shrink back from the feel of it, only to sink into the warmest chest. Heat burns across my cheeks, and I immediately step forward as quickly as I can, only to rush my footfalls into the heavy boots of the man in front of me.
Arcane’s head tilts just enough for the firelight to dance across his side profile. There’s a haunting beauty in him. His quietly contained anger radiates darkness into the depths of his gray eyes where something tainted and sinister shines through.
A sneer kisses his lips as he whispers back to me.
“Already trying to escape your Fated, Haunting?”
A sigh shoves from my lungs. I push past his snide remark, my shoulder bumping into his as I stride closer to Lila and closer to the cold, open doorway ahead.
“As if I’d run screaming from the only Deces brother who actually understands how to be a decent human being.”
“As if simply being human is some great feat.” Arcane’s words chase after me, surrounding me with the sound of his loathing.
“What does that even mean?” I shake my head at his complete nonsense, but his explanation stops me in my tracks.
“It means everyone praises us for being more beast than man.” His whisper drops low like a growl along my ear as he says, “Yet everyone is shocked when we show them just how feral we truly are.”
A shiver of understanding trembles through me, and I have to remind myself to keep walking and not look back. If I look back, I’ll get captured in the darkness of his eyes. And I can’t let him hold me prisoner when I’m so close to understanding something about myself for the first time since I woke up here.
When I make it to the landing, the thick smell of dampness seeps into my lungs. The light of the torch reflects strangely, and it takes me a moment to realize the room ahead of us isn’t a room at all. It’s inky black water.
“The channels down here are deep. The academy flooded them centuries ago as a means of protection,” Arcane explains, his chest brushing lightly against my back as all of us look out at the shadowy depths.
“Protection?” I ask carefully.
“Ghosts can’t pass holy water. They’re locked in their tombs of the catacombs.” Lila’s big bright eyes look back at me just as Aelix’s laugh hums out of him.
“You don’t really believe that, do you, Li?” But her silence is enough of an answer to cause all of us to fall silent.
“Follow me,” she instructs, and I carefully track her footsteps onto the narrow plane of space.
Her slender hands work a fraying rope that’s tied loosely to a brick pillar. The flickering light hints at a small boat that I can’t fully see.
“How do you know about all this?” Clawd asks with a pronounced worry line sinking in between pale eyebrows.
A smirk tickles my lips quietly. Is the big bully afraid of his black-cat girlfriend? Poor little prick.
Water flicks against my calves as a swooshing ripple tears through the dark surface. A yelp that I didn’t know existed within me comes rushing out as I backtrack on rapid steps to escape the strange stinging pain running down my leg. Big hands clasp around my upper arms, holding me gently.
“It’s okay,” Aelix soothes with warm palms pushing up and down along my arms. “It’s just a fish.”
A bit of embarrassment tinges my cheeks with heat until I realize that Clawd has also made a quick escape from the scary little fish as well: right into Lila’s arms. Pale knuckles grip her shirt collar as he tries to get in close to the calming energy his Fated seems to radiate off of her.
“I think it’s just a fish,” she assures him, and he’s fast to try to recover his ego as he smooths a hand across the fresh wrinkles of her shirt.
“Right. Yeah. I thought so,” he says before patting her reassuringly. “Just making sure you weren’t afraid.”
The briefest pause slips in before Arcane tramples it all to bits.
“Right, anyway.” He pulls the forgotten rope from Lila’s hand and unfastens it with nimble fingers. He bends to one knee and holds the boat’s edge.
Then those captivating eyes are looking up at me as he kneels on the wet rock. With the blackness rippling around his cruel beauty, he looks like a vengeful angel. Or perhaps the devil in disguise. It’s a strange current of electricity that I swear strikes through my heart itself as I hold his confusing gaze.
“Ladies first,” he says, but it isn’t the words of a gentleman. It’s a careless command. He’s efficient, as always.
He extends his hand to me, and I want to ignore it, but the very second my boot meets the ledge of the rocking boat, I find myself gripping his fingers for some sense of steadiness. The searing warmth of his other hand meets my lower back. His hold on me guides me to the nearest bench. On wobbling legs, I land on the hard surface. Moments later, Lila steps in on poised footfalls like she was made from the depths of this very water itself.
“Our great, great, great grandfather built these catacombs,” Lila says as she settles in next to me like we’re on our way to a vacation boat tour rather than a tomb. I shove the hair from my face and try to straighten in my seat. “He was a shifter. One of the academy’s best.” Her pride shines in her gaze, and I’m finding it a trend with the Deces siblings to capture their audience with cryptic words and beautiful starry eyes. “Our family is tasked with upkeep of the channels. Daddy would bring me here when I was just a little girl, and I’d play for hours while he worked.”
The smile that tilts my lips at the sweet memory she’s retelling is very short-lived as I imagine a dark-haired man that may be all too similar to Arcane in my mind. He brought a toddler to the burial grounds of his ancestors day in and day out.
And she loved it.
I consider the beautiful girl at my side. Her pale skin seems to glow in the flickering flames. The glossy straight tresses of her hair are a thick veil of blackness around her porcelain skin. She smiles at me, a true smile that shines in her pretty blue eyes.
Lila is sweet. Sinister. But sweet.
Aelix steps in, and his gaze never leaves mine as he carefully takes the seat in front of me. My nails sink into the ledge at my side as my stomach jostles uneasily with each new pair of boots that climb into the old wooden structure. Clawd’s big body comes in, his boot landing with a thud. Water surges up from over the edge, and a cutting breath deep in my lungs tells me this is it: we’re going under. I brace for impact of the cold, chilling depths below. But a steady voice calms all of my crawling nerves in an instant.
“I got you.” The heat of a big palm brushes my shoulder before he quickly pulls it back away, never fully giving me the comfort of his hand against my body. Arcane is there now. I can physically feel him. His presence surrounding me from behind without ever making a sound. He lingers, his gaze holding mine, refusing to release me to the world all around us but keeping me here, grounded with him.
I swallow slowly, nodding to him as well as myself.
“Make yourself useful, Aelix.” Clawd shoves a big wooden paddle into Aelix’s chest. The two men sit side by side together and glare daggers at one another for several tense seconds. It’s the most male aggression that’s ever been in one tiny rowboat. I’m suddenly worried about how we’ll ever make it through this trip, but then old oars are slapped into inky waves.
And we don’t have a choice anymore.
Time drifts around us in a serene setting of dense darkness before flickering light shines up ahead just around a big bend.
Holes are lined into pale rock walls. Some have names or numbers or years carved above them while others are just depthless holes left abandoned in the dark. A sinking sorrow fills my stomach, but that feeling only intensifies as I watch Aelix in front of me taking it all in. His brow is heavy, shadowing a newfound rage that shines with wildness in his haunting eyes.
“Dad used to bring you here?” he asks, his arms continuing to push us further into the deserted tombs of the dead.
Lila nods, but doesn’t fully reply.
“Why didn’t he bring us?” Aelix asks on a lower tone as if he doesn’t truly want to ask at all, but he can’t seem to stop himself.
“I don’t know,” Lila whispers, her eyes also eating up the glimpses of shining firelight. Her gaze doesn’t hold resentment, though, like Aelix’s. It’s amazement. Wonder. Fond memories. “I think he didn’t want to scare you.”
“Scare me?” Aelix scoffs but Lila counters him.
“It’s one thing to bring your daughter to work. It’s another to bring your sons to their graves.”
Aelix’s lips part, but nothing ever comes out. He sits stunned without a sound for so long, I can’t help but reach for him. My hand slides over his, and the chill of his skin seeps into mine. My heartbeat quiets when kind eyes meet mine. It’s such a warm feeling that he gifts me that I want to wrap myself fully around him and protect him from the death that feels like it’s reaching out to claim him.
Until . . .
“Let’s go, Unable Aelix. The water isn’t going to paddle itself.” Clawd’s big elbow spears into Aelix’s side, and without hesitation, Aelix’s fist lands with a crack across Clawd’s jaw.
Cold water lashes across my lap. A strange pain sears through me, but my gasp is cut off. The boat rocks, dipping in to drink up buckets of water at our feet as rage and fists fumble in front of me. My hand slips against the ledge, and cold water burns my knuckles instantly. Something slick slithers across my skin from beneath the dark water, and I pull back away from it, unsteadying the little watercraft even more. Heavy arms blanket around me with forceful strength. He pulls me back into my seat. I still in an instant. My nerves calm all the way to my core. A shaking breath leaves my lungs just as I look down at the solid black ink of the arms holding me against his warmth.
I hate how much I like it.
“That’s enough!” A roar of words echoes through the caves. Unseen creatures scurry across rock, and the water stills beneath us as everyone instantly stops moving. Arcane slowly releases his hold on me, and my heart lurches as his hands fall away. “Get us to that platform up ahead, and let’s get this over with!”
Aelix’s jaw tenses hard before he tears his glare away from Clawd and dunks his oar through the waters once more. It takes Clawd several seconds as he wipes the blood from his lip and finds his own paddle in the darkness of the wet floorboards. His calculating eyes lock on my right hand that I’m clutching to my chest. I peer down to find small welts forming across my knuckles beneath the water droplets, and I don’t know why I’m so quick to hide it away from everyone.
Clawd’s attention lingers on me for several passing seconds before he too dips the paddle into the water and pushes us forward.
Then we’re off again.
I don’t make a move. I don’t reach for Aelix; I don’t recede into the safety of Arcane. I just have to get through this. I’ll find my answers, and we can get the hell out of here.
Safely.
I hope.
My lashes close tightly together, and I consider my breath and the way it feels filling my lungs. There’s a dampness it holds there before my lungs deflate, releasing the heavy exhale into the silence. I repeat the process again. And again.
If I keep my eyes closed and focus, it almost seems like we’re not moving at all. Like I’m weightless.
Like I’m dead again.
My eyes fly open fast, and I immediately turn to Lila with too much force, sloshing our little boat in the stomach of the catacombs.
“Are you okay?” she asks on the softest whisper.
She can see me. I’m here. I’m alive. Goose pimples cover my arms, and the boat jostles against something hard as the nose of it drags along a solid surface.
“Yeah,” I say, but my voice is lost in the thickness of my chest, the single word coming out as a little breathy sound that I feel more than I hear.
The shiver racing through me fades as quickly as it came, but there’s a lingering sensation in its wake. A feeling of something . . . unnatural. Aelix takes my hand in his, helping me find my footing on the platform. My boot meets the smooth surface, and I stand with another cold chill wrecking my nerves. My shoulders lift, squaring but not giving me the confidence I want to hold in this school’s equivalent of a haunted tomb.
I can feel it. I can feel them .
“What’s that?” I ask as two small feet step forward at my side.
Lila glances up as Aelix and Arcane begin walking. The two of them look like mirrored shadows disappearing down a long, dimly lit hall ahead.
“That’s the Hell Well,” Lila answers.
I blink at those two disturbing words and consider the cutesy little monument at the center of the mouth’s entrance. Just behind the wishing well monument, the rocky walls grow narrower, leading down a grand vaulted tunnel with more of those ominous holes drilled throughout. Lila looks to me at her side, neither of us moving as Clawd ties off the boat just behind us.
“The holy water traps spirits here in the catacombs, but there are some they wanted to take extra precautions against. They bury them deep down below the holy water to ensure they’ll never rise again.” She swallows hard before adding on a quieter tone, “It’s sad, really. Being forced to walk this world alone is a terrible fate. And yet Death Rider Academy has somehow found a way to make it worse.”
The torchlight shines across the angles of the structure’s roof. A silver metal plate adorns the top of the smooth-cut stone at the pointed peak of it. A little dragon made of dark stone is curled around its top. The tail of it wraps fully around the top like the metal plate is something precious to the creature. That same metal circles the rim of the well. The metallic surface is so out of place among the jagged natural rock surrounding us.
I feel drawn to it. The three of us wander forward just like Aelix and Arcane, ready to find spirits waiting down the endless hall of graves, and yet . . .
I pause at its side, my fingers drifting out to run across the lip of the well. A stinging pain singes across my fingertips, matching the wound along my knuckles. I pull my hand back, cradling it to my chest once more as I look down into the dense darkness of the opening.
“Silver,” a deep voice says at my side. “Are you allergic?” Clawd asks casually, and I feel his gaze weighting me down like lead in my boots from the look alone.
“Maybe,” I whisper, and I’m faintly aware of the receding echo of Lila’s footfalls fading away up ahead.
“It’s to ward off evil spirits.” He’s still staring me down when he adds, “Just like the salt at your feet.”
I look down and find the toes of my boots lined up perfectly with a ring of salt that seems to circle the well. I don’t cross the line, but I intentionally lean my knees forward, testing the strange force that seems to press against my legs. I feel the energy of this place crawling under my skin with each passing second.
Holy water wants to burn a hole through my flesh.
I can’t touch the silver. Even something as simple as salt is now a full-blown obstacle for me.
I’m not dead, but fuck, maybe I’m not alive either.
“What do you think that m—” My eyes meet his for the briefest of moments, and something vile shines there in the jaded depths of his cruel gaze. His boot strikes through the line of salt fast and he lashes out at me even faster. A big hand catches the back of my neck. Sharp nails dig into the flesh, and I hiss from the sudden pain. Metal slams into my palms, and I’m holding myself back from the lip of the opening, but it’s too slick. Thick damp air fills my gasping lungs. The force of his hands shoves me forward even further, and my hips hit hard. My scream scratches through the throat of the well as I look face down into the darkness of it. I’m gripping his shirt, his arms, anything to keep me far away from the salty scent of the unseen water below.
“They say the dead float. Let’s see how buoyant you really are, freak!”
“No! N—nooooo!” His meaty hand slips through my desperate fingers. I topple forward; my kicking feet hit him hard, though I sadly don’t know where. Cold metal burns across every inch of my body as I slide right in. A stinging pain follows across my flesh.
And then I’m falling.