Page 76 of Claim the Light
I stand at the top of the veil’s stairwell, peering down into the chilling space below.
A haze like a thin mist floats in the air between the step I’m standing on and the floor below. It looks like white stone down there, but the mist in the air tells me that when I leap off this step, I won’t reach that stone.
I grip a small, purple vial, which is filled with cold water. There’s nothing special about the water or the vial, but water was my means of escape last time, so I’m taking some with me.
“You don’t have to do this,” Beatrix says.
I turn to her. She hovers on the step down, a blanket pulled over her shoulders.
Isaac stands behind her and I’m quite certain he isn’t going to let her out of his sight for a while.
Micah is quiet where he remains another step down, hanging back. He doesn’t have to say anything. I know how he feels about me putting myself in danger.
“I don’t remember much of what happened before I blacked out,” Beatrix says. “But I think I said some pretty shitty stuff to you. If you’re doing this because you think you have to prove—”
“I’m not.” I want her to know she isn’t responsible for my choices, but more than anything, I want both her and Micah to hear me when I say, “I’m doing this because I won’t stop fighting for the people I love.”
I meet Micah’s eyes across the distance between us.
One corner of his mouth hitches up. “Come back safe.”
I return his smile, taking in the warmth it gives me. “I’ll see you soon.”
Then I step off the ledge.
CHAPTERTWENTY-EIGHT
Idon’t release my wings, allowing myself to drop without resistance.
My bare feet hit the mist first, the bright veil vanishes, and then I’m plummeting through the dark.
I come to an abrupt halt, suspended in what feels like infinite darkness. A vast and immeasurable space filled with spine-chilling energy.
The hairs on the back of my neck stand up, but this time, I’m not in a state of shock or desperately trying to reach my friends. I have the chance to look around—really look around—tilting my head and taking in my environment from different angles.
I’m surprised to discover that there are variations in the darkness. Striations in the air that could mean it’s not as flat and endless as it first appeared.
Releasing my wings but keeping them close to my sides, I study the space below me. It looks like it descends forever, but the longer I stare at it, the more I’m aware of disparities in the light at different points.
It’s another staircase.
Dark-as-night stairs, but they appear solid and one of the steps is only an inch below my feet.
Pointing my right toe, I brush the solid surface and the contact draws me down onto it.
It’s freezing, but I can’t regret my bare feet. I need every tactile sense to survive in this place.
Now that I’m standing on solid ground, the gleaming surface reveals itself even further. It’s inky dark and reflective, which gives the impression of nothingness, even though it is most definitelysomething.
Carefully, and slowly, I take a step down.
This time, I can move without a fight.
I don’t know for sure, but making direct contact with the surface below me seems to have opened up my ability to move around. I resolve not to lift off the ground if I can help it, since it was when I was suspended that I seemed to get stuck midair.
Taking the stairs downward, I arrive in another vast space. I can only see twenty paces around me. Everything beyond that is concealed in gloom.
I stop a few paces from the staircase, not wanting to go too far away from it, and then I raise my voice. “Dark magic keeper!”
