Blood & Power [Book One of The City of Eternity Series] [✔]

1.17: Whimsy

I pressed my palm against the wall in an effort to steady myself. The twins hadn't wasted any time travelling down the tunnel, the darkness swallowing their forms whole. Alexander hadn't wasted a moment thinking about the dangers the tunnel possessed, simply hurrying along without a scrap of hesitation. Valentyna on the other hand had offered up some level of resistance; a few groans of unease escaping her mouth as her twin blundered into the void.

They'd left me behind, taking blind, cumbersome steps in their direction. In any other state, I would have preferred to be the one lagging behind, assessing the dangers and able to turn back before the others. In any other state, I would've been climbing back up the stairs with little in the way of wavering. Right now, however, I was stuck relying on someone that didn't want to be relied on. My only option was to continue on in the pursuit of help, disregarding how unavailable it seemed.

I let out a shallow breath as I trailed my hand along the tunnel, inching my way along slowly. The entrance in the home had finished releasing light only ten steps into the journey, leaving darkness to swallow my form much like it had the twins. With every shoe print embedded in the dirt beneath me, a disgruntled groan would leave my mouth, pain refusing to leave for more than a second.

The dim-lit tunnel gave little away. Despite my near-perfect vision, the walls of this narrow corridor left nothing to work with, not a crack or stone to ease me in. My fingertips were making out grooves in the wall that implied brickwork and time-consuming design planning; each groove led straight into another, only being interrupted by a clump of moss every so often.

Every agonising step left me pleading for the return of the boy, despite the gaping hole between us, he was my current salvation. I had to remind myself that each time I internally screamed his name and hoped he'd return to my side and guide me further into the tunnel.

I couldn't help but feel he could hear me doing this. The shallow conclusion came to mind because of the shuffling feet that returned towards me.

It hadn't taken long for the pair to return to my side at all, despite hurrying away so quickly. Alexander had hesitantly taken a grip of my hand through the darkness without speaking a single word. When I growled and jumped back he released a disgruntled sigh in response. I could hear him physically turning but he didn't move away from me.

"This is the only time I'm going to come back for you, Nika." He muttered, allowing me time to wrap my fingers in the back of his shirt with my right hand; a shirt I now realised was still damp with blood. I had to choke back the gag; old, drying blood was the least appetising and most nauseating smell I encountered nowadays. My free hand was keeping a flat palm on the wall to my left, a substance seeping against my skin that I couldn't bring myself to think about too hard.

"Just keep a grip on my shirt. That way I'll know where to send them to collect your body," He said through an audible smirk. I wanted to let go and succumb to the poison for the sheer inconvenience of it. But the thought of dying to something as mundane as the poison was too drastically out of my comfort zone. 'A stake to the chest and nothing less' was the motto Marianna and I tended to go by.