Page 89 of Sinful Curses
She should check it too, but all she wanted was a shower, to ensure Zeth was okay, and some sleep. The trapdoor would be there in the morning.
She cast a protective spell over the door and, retreating from the room, hurried on toward the bathroom. Much to her dismay, when she turned on the sink, the pipes didn’t rattle or thump as unused water surged into them.
Nothing came out of them. Shoulders slumped, and feeling more than a little defeated, Sahira checked the shower to discover the same thing. This town had far less to offer them than any of the others.
Sahira retreated to the balcony and walked along it before descending to the pub. Zeth slept on the floor with a blanket tucked around him.
Lying on his chest, Loth lifted his head to look at her. “His heartbeat is steady. I’ll let you know if that changes.”
“Thank you,” Sahira whispered.
Feeling like she was dragging herself across the ground, she walked to where Orin and Elsa stood in the alcove to the downstairs bathrooms. Orin leaned against the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest as he stared at the symbol. Pip remained on his shoulder.
Before her eyes landed on it, Sahira knew she wouldn’t like what she was about to see. The set of Orin’s jaw and the irritation he radiated told her that much.
CHAPTERSEVENTY-SEVEN
When Sahira entered the doorway,her gaze fell on the symbol etched into the wall across from her. To either side of the symbol was a bathroom, but she didn’t have much hope they’d have water.
This symbol was different than the last one. The figure eight remained, but all the arrows had been removed, and the bottom of the hourglass was completely shaded while the top half was once again empty.
Beside the symbol, the final arrow had joined the two arrows from the previous towns. In the center of the X the first two arrows formed, the last arrow stood straight out. It was the bull’s-eye in the middle of the X.
“There’s no doubt it’s an hourglass now,” Orin said.
Sahira shook her head as she tried to understand what was happening. “But what does it mean? There’s nothing here, and I still can’t open a portal.” She tried to transport, but that failed too. “Or transport. What are we supposed to find here?”
She tried to keep the frustration from her voice but couldn’t stop it from rising as she finished speaking. It took everything she had not to start beating on the walls while tearing the symbol from them.
“Who knows,” Orin said. “These symbols have been nothing but a mindfuck since the beginning.”
“We still haven’t searched the town,” Elsa said. “There could be something here. We’ll find out in the morning.”
If the spiders don’t catch up to us first.Sahira kept that possibility to herself. They already had enough depressing shit to deal with; she wasn’t adding to the pile.
“There’s no water here either,” she said. “At least not in this building.”
“We know,” Orin said. “We already checked these bathrooms.”
Without replying, Sahira retreated to the main room. She shrugged off her spear and sack before setting them on the floor.
Sitting beside them, she used her good hand to dig into her pack and removed her last full water bottle. The others were already empty.
Removing the protective rag wrapped around the bottle, she used her teeth to uncork it before taking a sip and setting it on the floor. She placed the cork on top and slapped it down with her good hand.
Orin sat beside her and dug into his pack. He brought out a water bottle and held it out to her. “You need more than that.”
She waved the bottle away. “I’m fine.”
“You were close to that fire, and your hand is badly burned; you need more hydration.”
“We all do, but there isn’t any around here.”
“There isn’t anyinhere; there could be more outside the building. The grass is growing, which means this place gets rain. There could be a stream behind the buildings, like in Belda’s town. We’ll find out tomorrow.”
“That stream wasn’t in the last town. I doubt it exists here.”
“Then we’ll wait for it to rain. Either way, it doesn’t matter; you need more water than that. Now, drink.”
