Page 19 of Sinful Curses
“My dad used to say curiosity killed the cat,” Elsa said. “Why do I feel like that cat right now?”
Sahira felt the same way as she stopped to study the library’s windows. Nothing moved behind their panes, but she felt eyes following her every movement.
Turning, she searched the distant cliff, waiting for a horde of monsters to climb over the wall and charge them.
CHAPTEREIGHTEEN
She heldher breath as she waited, but nothing stirred. In some ways, the absolute stillness was more unnerving. She knew how to fight a horde; she didn’t know how to fight whatever this was… if it was anything.
Without speaking, they seemed to decide to search the buildings later as when they arrived at the end of the road, they all turned back. The sun was starting to set, and the pub was the only place that might offer a place for them to sleep.
Orin’s booted feet thudded off the first step as he climbed them to the doorway. The heavy front door was closed, and she half expected it to be barred, but when he turned the handle, the door swung inward with a creak Belda never would have allowed in her pub.
When Orin went through the door, Sahira’s heart leapt into her throat. She hadn’t expected her sudden rush of concern or urge to lurch up the stairs after him.
She restrained herself as Zeth went through next, and she and Elsa followed. The wooden walls, three crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, and elegant bar with mirror backing were all the same.
Some stools lined the bar but not as many as in Belda’s pub. Just two tables sat in the middle of the room, while Belda’s pub was full of places where immortals could sit, relax, and enjoy a few drinks. It was an inviting place where they could forget they were trapped and scarog beetles could arrive to kill any of them.
Belda’s pub was spotless, despite its location in the center of the desert. This one was full of cobwebs, and dust rose to swirl in the air as Zeth, Orin, and Elsa moved through the building. The air was thick with a musty, stale aroma that hung thickly over everything.
Sahira remained in the doorway while she took it all in. She didn’t know where those cobwebs had come from; she hadn’t seen a spider in this realm since arriving, but those abandoned webs rippled in the air currents created by Orin’s passing.
Edging into the building, Sahira ran her fingers across the top of the bar and lifted them to reveal the dust sticking to their tips. Her passing had created two perfect streaks on the surface.
“There’s alcohol,” Orin said from where he’d strolled behind the bar to examine the contents. “There might also be water stored somewhere.”
That would be fantastic, and so would a bathroom and a shower. Her eyes drifted to the archway leading to the restrooms downstairs; there wasn’t a shower down here, or at least there wasn’t in Belda’s pub, but the bathroom above had one.
She shifted her attention to the stairs as longing twisted in her chest. She’d give anything for a hot shower and a chance to scrub away the sand stubbornly stuck to her.
She had to see something before she could give in to her urge for a shower. Elsa flicked the switch beside the door, and after a couple of seconds of flickering lights, the chandeliers blazed to life.
The dust coating them dimmed their glow, but the magic flowing through them illuminated the room. A chair scraped the wooden floor as Zeth pulled it out to settle his massive frame on it.
He pulled off a boot, tipped it over, and dumped sand and rocks on the floor. Sahira winced at the mess, but it didn’t make much difference in this place.
“I wasn’t expecting that much,” he muttered. “I hope there’s a broom around here.”
“With all this dust, I don’t think your pile matters,” Orin said.
“I don’t want to leave a mess.”
Sahira stepped into the archway as Orin set four glasses on the bar. Their clatter against the top was abnormally loud in this strangely hushed town.
Lifting her gaze, Sahira’s eyes widened at the symbol carved into the wall above her. The figure eight, or infinity symbol, or whatever it was supposed to be, stood straight up and down as it did in Belda’s pub and was almost identical, except for one difference.
The symbol in Belda’s town had three arrows piercing diagonally through it. One went straight through the top and pointed downward with a set of feathers on the other end. The one in the middle had an arrowhead on each end instead of feathers. And the arrow at the bottom also pierced straight through the circle, except this one pointed upward.
There was a difference between the symbol here and the one in Belda’s pub. The very top of the circle didn’t have an arrow piercing through it. Instead, someone had etched an arrow into the wall beside it.
That arrow lay on its side next to the figure eight. And instead of the top of the symbol only being the wall behind it, scratch marks had turned the entire top circle darker.
She tried to puzzle the thing out but was beginning to think she could ponder this for a thousand years and never understand it. Rubbing her temples, she closed her eyes against her dull headache.
Orin’s body warmed her shoulder as his cinnamon and clove scent filled her nostrils. She wasn’t in the mood for him right now, but she couldn’t deny that the strength of his presence helped calm her.
“What does that mean?” he muttered.
