A Shade of Kiev 3(21)

Her beady eyes remained on me.

Another hiss came from her lips. Rhys’ eyes had become wide with alarm. I looked from the Ancient to Rhys, perplexed, as they went back and forth for several minutes. Finally, she bared rotten teeth and snarled at Rhys.

He fell silent and averted his eyes to the ground.

“What is she saying?” I hissed.

He looked over at me, frustration in his eyes. I managed to get to my feet and move toward him.

“Stay there.” His voice boomed through the chamber.

I was taken aback by the urgency in his voice and stopped in my tracks. The witch was glaring at me. My throat felt so dry it was now painful to breathe.

Rhys spoke again to the Ancient, now sounding resigned.

The Ancient nodded slowly, her chin grazing the edge of the pool.

Then her head dipped beneath the black liquid and she vanished.

What the hell is going on?

“You can come here now,” Rhys said.

I lost no time in stumbling over toward him and gripping his cloak.

“She’s not convinced that you’re ready.” Rhys said finally.

I looked back over at the thick black liquid. The Ancient’s liquid tomb was now still, as though it had never been stirred. “What?”

“She wants you to prove that you’re serious first.”

“Prove myself how?”

His eyes darkened.

“Doesn’t she trust your judgment?” I pressed.

“She always has in the past. But with you… She wants you to do something for her first.”

“What?” I was afraid to hear the answer.

Rhys paused, running a hand over his face.

“Let’s get out of here first.”





Chapter 20: Kiev





As planned, we met with Isolde in the courtyard a few minutes after the ritual ended. Even once she’d approached us, she still didn’t offer any explanation as to our destination. She just made us all touch shoulders in a circle and we vanished from the island.

Our feet hit solid ground a few seconds later. I opened my eyes and blinked, my vision coming into focus. We were in some kind of rectangular dungeon. It appeared empty at first but on a closer look, I noticed something strange on the floor. I walked forward to see what it was.

“Wait,” Isolde scolded, gripping my arm and pulling me back. “Follow after me.”

She walked forward and we followed.

As I approached within five feet of it, realization hit me like a brick.

A dark hole in the floor extended downward to form a tunnel. Its walls were made of a swirling, translucent substance. And beyond the walls lay a sea of endless black scattered with stars.

My siblings’ faces looked how I felt inside. They had seen one of these too. When they were first brought to Cruor from the Blood Keep.

This was a gate to the human realm.

I wondered now how many more gates remained secretly open and where they were. It brought back unwanted memories of the redhead girl I’d fallen for. Sofia. I’d said goodbye to her standing outside a gate like this. She’d given me one last glance before she let go of the edge and hurtled down into the abyss. The gate had closed soon afterward.

Prying my eyes away from the hole and swallowing hard, I looked again around the dungeon again.

“Where are we?”

“That’s not important,” Isolde said curtly. “Now, I’m sure you all know what this is.”

We nodded.

“So I’ll jump first, and you follow a few seconds after me, one at a time. All right?”

“All right,” Helina said, although she was trembling. I supposed her last memories on earth had been so traumatic that she now associated the human realm with pain.

I wrapped an arm round her shoulder. There wasn’t much I could say to comfort her though when I myself had not the slightest clue where we’d end up.

Isolde jumped through and disappeared.

“You go next, Erik,” I said.

He cleared his throat and nodded, stepping forward. He glanced up at us before diving in after her.

“And now you, Helina,” I said.

She trembled as she neared the edge of the gate. The suction began pulling at her hair. She jumped through.

And then it was my turn.

I was sucked down through that tunnel so fast I couldn’t keep my eyes open. The air pressure squeezed my body, making it hard to even gasp for air.

I landed on a hard surface. I climbed to my feet and looked around. We were in another dimly lit dungeon. Had I been a human I would have been shivering already. The cold was biting, the type that gnawed at your bones.

“Good,” Isolde said, straightening out her long black gown. “Follow me.”

She grabbed a chain of keys from a hook on the wall. She walked toward a wooden door in the corner of the chamber and pushed it open. We followed her up a set of narrow stone steps. We emerged through a trapdoor into a hall. Black chandeliers hung from the high ceiling. There was a click as Isolde locked the trapdoor behind us.