The voice was in my head and all around me, sliding under my skin, brushing against my thoughts like cold hands rifling through drawers, looking for things that weren’t theirs to touch.
Sadie froze mid-step. “Tell me you heard that.”
I nodded once. “Yeah.” My voice came out tight. “I heard it.”
The hum thickened, pressing down on my skull until my vision wavered. The voice came again, heavier now, like stone grinding against stone.
“To walk the Fold ... you will give what is owed.”
Sadie’s grip on her axes shifted, her knuckles pale in the dim light. She took a slow breath, her eyes scanning the cavern’s edges as if the voice might have a shape. “It’s not asking,” shesaid finally, her voice low. “It’s telling.” She glanced at me. “And my gut says this thing doesn’t let you walk away if you refuse.”
The hum seemed to pulse at her words, almost like agreement.
I stared at the bowl, my stomach knotting. This wasn’t my first bargain with ley lines and their demands, but I’d never had much to lose before. Now I had everything.
The silver in the bowl rippled, though no breath stirred the air.
“To pass where shadow births the light ... you must pay the price.”
The words slid through me like cold iron, heavy enough to settle in my bones.
Sadie tilted her head slightly, listening, though her jaw was clenched tight. “You hear how it says that? Like it’s already decided what it wants.”
“It probably has,” I said.
The voice returned, each syllable dragging like chains across stone.
“The road is bought with what you cannot replace ... to walk the Fold and look upon her face.”
“You speak in riddles, old friend. Tell us what you want so that we may be on our way,” I said, attempting to reason with the voice of power. Whatever this was, it was ancient. Perhaps just as old as the Fold and the worlds it bridged.
“The toll is what you hold most dear ... pay it now or remain here.”
I stepped closer to the pedestal, stopping just at the edge of its cold light. “What if we refuse?”
There was no pause.
“Then you will fade ... lost to the stone, your debt unpaid.”
The air shifted with those words; colder now, as if the cavern was angry and we were feeling its icy wrath.
Sadie’s hand flexed on the haft of her axe. “So much for negotiating a price.”
I glanced at her. “Would you like to take over?”
“Yes, actually.” She turned toward the cavern and spoke to it. “How about a secret instead? I’m sure the king has some pretty juicy ones?—”
“Seriously?”
Sadie shrugged. “Seems safer than whatever you hold most dear.”
“The price is set, the key in your hand ... yet only in loss will you understand.”
Fear prickled my spine. I slowly stepped backward, only once, but it was enough to trigger the ley line.
A screech of stone followed.
“What the fuck?” Sadie asked. “Vareck did you—” She turned and froze, her eyes locked on something over my shoulder. “The door is gone. The cave sealed itself.”
