Page 95 of Sinful Curses
One of them had pointy teeth that could easily shred the flesh from someone. She almost recoiled from their hideousness, but shock kept her riveted as she gazed from one unseeing skull to the other.
But are they unseeing?
The hair on her nape rose at the possibility of someone or somethingusing those eye sockets to watch her. With enough magic, it wasn’t impossible.
She almost slammed the door shut before stopping herself. She didn’t understand what was happening or what thiswas, but these stairs werefinallysomething new to explore, even if they creeped her out.
Are they real?
The idea she could be hallucinating this wasn’t impossible. She was functioning on little sleep, food, or water. Her mind might be seeing something that wasn’t there to give her a reprieve from the hopelessness of their situation andOrin.
That asshole.
Her teeth ground together as her rage over his earlier revelation momentarily doused her amazement. It had been hours since he’d told her what she could only assume was the truth, and she still had no idea what to make of what he’d said or how to process it.
She still wasn’t sure if he’d been telling the truth, lying to her, or starting some new, fucked-up game. Whatever the answer, she refused to be his pawn anymore.
She wanted to believe him though. He didn’t have a reason to lie to her about it except to screw with her more, but there had been a strange vulnerability in his eyes and a lack of confidence she’d never seen from him before.
Orin knew how to be many things and was quite capable of screwing with people until they went insane, but he wasn’t good at being vulnerable or faking it. That had been something new with him, something she’d never seen before.
And he was so thin before we had sex the first time in the Barren Lands.
There was no faking that. She hadn’t realized it then, but if he had been sleeping with all those women, he would have looked healthier out here for longer than he did.
He’d gone for a while without sex when she first entered the Cursed Realm, and he hadn’t looked that bad. The time between when he would have been with the last woman and when they had sex in the Barrens Lands was about the same, which meant he was most likely telling the truth, but she still couldn’t deal with it.
He was so screwed up in the head, and she couldn’t wait around until he figured it out… if he ever did. After getting to know him better, she knew there was a good possibility he wouldn’t.
The man was a complete idiot, and her dumb ass had gone and fallen for him. She’d kick herself in the ass for that for the rest of her life, but she had to live to do so, and escaping this place was a good way to guarantee life… or to ensure her death because these stairs looked as inviting as a steel trap. However, with no food and water here, they didn’t have many options.
But is it real?
She squinted her eyes closed and rubbed them before opening them again. The stairs and skulls didn’t vanish. They continued staring at her as those stairs beckoned with the promise of freedom or death.
With those skulls, death was probably more likely. They didn’t exactly scream a welcome to anyone who saw them unless that’s what the smiles were supposed to do. And if that was the case, whoever was behind these stairs had failed in their intentions.
When she rested her fingers against the white banister, the smooth coolness of it confirmed this wasn’t a hallucination. She grasped the railing before the knowledge of what it was sunk in.
Sahira yanked her hand away from the femur and wiped her palm on her pants as she realized that connected bones comprised the entire banister. No matter how hard she rubbed, she couldn’t rid herself of the feel of those things.
Stepping back, she grasped the door to close it while she went to get the others but hesitated before shutting it. What if she closed it and opened it again to discover the stairs had vanished?
What if I leave it open and something comes out to attack us while I’m gone?
After the scarog beetles and those spiders, that possibility decided it for her, and Sahira closed the door. She’d hate herself forever if she’d shut the door on their only chance of escape, but she wouldn’t take any chances of something evil coming out of there to eat them while she was gone.
Turning, she sprinted up the stairs and back to the others.
CHAPTEREIGHTY-TWO
“What is it?”Elsa inquired as she peered down the stone steps into the secret room below.
“A hidden room,” Sahira answered. “In the wall below is another door that opens into the area behind the pub. There’s one just like it in Belda’s pub. It’s how Radagast got into my room to attack me and where Orin and I hid after we fled the scarog beetles.”
“Shit,” Loth murmured as the three brownies leaned over the hole.
Elsa lifted her head to stare at Sahira with confusion and distress. “You’ve known about this the whole time?”
