Page 18 of Sinful Curses
His fingers ached from the rocks and his weight; he was tired and famished, but he would gladly kill anything that came at him. The only problem was he had to go over the wall without a weapon in his hand as he didn’t have the room to maneuver his sword free.
He stopped to survey the top again as he prepared to scale the remaining distance before launching himself over the top of the wall. He’d have to move fast once he got up there and roll to avoid whatever might be waiting for them.
Shoving aside his exhaustion and hunger, he scaled the last few feet and planted his hands on top. He pulled himself up and over in one swift move that had him rolling away from the edge while reaching for his sword.
The blade made a snicking sound when it slid free of the leather sheath. He bounded to his feet as he prepared to slice through any attacker.
When he saw nothing, he spun in search of an enemy while he braced for something to crash into his side, emerge from the rocks, or descend from above. Nothing moved.
As the realization that he was alone sank in, so did the reality of what was before him. Despite knowing he hadn’t imagined the shadow, Orin lowered his sword.
If a threat lurked here, he would kill it, but until then, he could only stand and gawk at the display before him.
“What the fuck?” Zeth blurted from behind him.
Those words perfectly described Orin’s thoughts about something he would have considered impossible before scaling that mountain.
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
If Sahira could lifther hands, she would have pushed her jaw back up, but she couldn’t do that when shock held her immobile. She glanced at Elsa to ensure she wasn’t somehow imagining this, but she was also gawking at the display across from them.
So, not my imagination and not a display.
It was another town that looked eerily similar to what they’d left behind almost a week ago. Except no extra houses crowded the street. Only the seven original buildings from Belda’s town stood here.
“Is that thepub?” Elsa asked.
It sure looked like it; this building even had balconies on the front. No one danced on them, and immortals didn’t flow in and out of the structure, but from what she could see, it was a duplicate of the one they left behind.
Here, on top of a mountain, the town wasn’t surrounded by sand. Instead, black rock created the roadway; the sun’s reflection off those rocks cast the town in a grayer, drabber light, but there was no denying the similarities between this one and the last.
“What is this?” she breathed.
Orin lowered his sword to his side as he started forward. His head turned slowly back and forth as he searched the town. “I don’t know, but we’re going to find out.”
Sahira removed her spear from where it had been attached to her back and started after him. She didn’t see or hear anyone or anything here, but her heart still raced, and sweat beaded her forehead while she waited for something to leap out and attack them.
The hair on her nape rose as the sensation of eyes burning into her neck tugged at her. But that was impossible; they were at the top of a mountain. The only thing behind them was a cliff.
Still, she felt eyes boring into her. To some unknown enemy, this could all be some giant game more atrocious than Orin’s.
As they crept down the rocky street toward the pub, she spotted the library, stable, jail, infirmary, mercantile, and granary. The further they moved into the town, the more she could see there was no eighth building here either.
The idea the figure eight symbol in the original buildings of Belda’s town might represent a possible eighth building could be wrong, but it made sense to her. Nothing made sense anymore as a chilly wind blew through the town.
The temperature here wasn’t unbearable, but the higher they climbed, the more they left the perfect temp of the desert behind. Sahira shivered as she huddled deeper into her cloak.
“What in the name of Hecate is going on?” she whispered.
“Maybe you should ask your goddess to get us out of here,” Orin said.
Sahira shot him a look but refrained from saying anything. Pointing out that wasn’t for the goddess to do, or how she worked, would be pointless to this Neanderthal, and she wouldn’t argue with him about it in the middle of this place.
When they stopped in front of the pub, she examined the wooden facade. A sign with the wordPubcarved into it hung above the door.
Nothing stirred as they moved down the road, and a heavy silence blanketed the air. From the outside, all the other buildings appeared the same too.
She couldn’t be certain, but the structures all looked like they were also in the same locations as the ones in Belda’s town. The distance between the buildings felt greater without homes and other businesses crowding the original ones.
