Cursed (Demon Kissed #2) (20 page)

“
What happened? What’d you
do?” Eric asked.

Breathing heavily I stood, and looked
at my palm. Without a word, I held it up. Apryl’s necklace was in
my palm, and covered in dark red blood. “It wanted blood,
brimstone, and silver. Greedy rock.” I meant it jokingly, but Eric
nodded.

“
Indeed. And you are
certain we have to go this way?” Eric looked around. The cavern
walls were paler, almost as if they’d been dry-brushed with gold.
He swallowed hard.

I turned to see what was concerning
him only to be confronted by a narrow golden passage. The floor was
lined with sapphires. The walls were real gold with a dull luster.
Etchings were carved into the precious metal revealing beautiful
flowers with jewel-crusted centers. It was beautiful. It was
beautiful. Oh no. My worried gaze cut to Eric for an explanation,
but it was Shannon who spoke.

“
This is the Lorren, isn’t
it?” Her fingers touched the golden wall gently. She turned back
toward us with her eyes as big as emeralds.

“
What’s the Lorren?” I
asked. “Where are we?”

She replied, “We’re in part of the
Underworld—the Lorren shows you everything you ever wanted, but
never had. It’s pure temptation. No one has passed through this
tunnel and lived.” Her gaze was wide, as her fingers pressed
against a golden lily.

“
How do you know that?”
Eric asked. He walked briskly toward her, and she turned from the
flower. His brow creased at the center when he asked again, “How
did you know that?”

She flinched, unable to back away from
him. I asked, “What’s the matter, Eric? Why wouldn’t she know
that?”

He turned sharply, with an agitated
expression, “Because only The Seeker knows that. Only the Seeker
knows what the Lorren is, and how it traps the Prophecy One. I was
supposed to use it to trap you, so you couldn’t escape. No one
escapes from this tomb.” He turned back to Shannon. “Answer me. How
did you know?”

Shannon tried to laugh it off, but
Eric was in her face. She rested her hand on his shoulder, “Eric,
it’s not…” but he shook her off.

He was practically growling now.
“Answer me. How did you know about the Lorren?”

She rolled her eyes, “Fine. I’m not as
saintly as you, all right? Are you happy now? I overheard Julia
talking about it. With you. I heard about the whole
thing.”

Eric’s expression softened, but he
didn’t back away. “When?”

“
I don’t know,” she
answered annoyed. “It was some time last year before you knew you
were tracking Ivy.” She slid past him and looked to me for help.
“Martis or not, I’m still a little bit of a snoop. How could I hear
part of that conversation and keep walking? Ivy, come on. Tell
him.”

“
She has a way of knowing
everything and never getting caught.” I shrugged. “Is that not a
Martis-ie thing to do?” I knew it wasn’t, but Eric seemed to think
it was on the same level as something really bad.

“
No, it’s not.” His amber
gaze bore into Shannon’s back. I reached for his arm, but he shook
me off. He turned toward Shannon, “So tell us about the Lorren.
Tell us why we can’t pass this way.”

Shannon’s eyes shifted between Eric
and me, but it was Eric she had to appease. He seemed very uneasy
now. “It’s what I said before. The Lorren can manifest temptations
specific to the individual who passes through the tunnel. It will
create the deepest desires that hide within your heart. The Lorren
uses it to isolate it’s victims, and leave them encased in gold in
their fantasy forever. The carved flowers and gems on the wall
aren’t carvings, are they?” she asked him.

“
No, they aren’t.” Eric
replied.

My fingers had been touching a rose
with a jeweled stem. I turned and asked, “What are they then? It
has to be a carving. The image was stamped into the gold on the
walls.”

“
Tell her.” Eric
said.

Shannon looked uneasy and walked away
from him. She stood next to me and stared at the flower. “They were
people. People who were trapped here. They became part of the tomb.
It’s part of the riches that lure new victims into the tunnel.” I
pulled my hand away, horrified. Each exquisite flower had been a
person?

Eric nodded. “Victims thought they
would be in ecstasy forever. They were given the thing that was
most desirable—the thing that they longed for but didn’t have. It’s
pure bliss at first.” His gaze met mine and didn’t waiver. “But at
the last moment of consciousness, their temptations twist into a
terrifying perversion of what they had desired. The victim’s horror
is frozen in time, as their body is devoured by the Lorren. When
the Lorren is finished, the victim’s remains are etched into the
walls. That is what the Martis intended for you Ivy. That was the
way to bind you so you could never return.”

I swallowed hard as horror poured over
me. “Eric, I did nothing to deserve this. How did the Martis send
me here? How did they do this!” I was about to burst into
tears.

He reached for my shoulder, as he bent
to look me in the eye. “They didn’t. The bond is pulling you
through here. Why we have to come this way is unimaginable. I also
don’t know if we can follow you. I couldn’t get past the Pool of
Lost Souls. I know who will be waiting in the tunnel for me. I know
what guise the Lorren will be wearing for me.” His voice trailed
off as his gaze shifted toward the golden tunnel.

Shannon said, “We’ll go through
together. That should help, right? As long as we keep putting one
foot in front of the other, we should be able to walk out the other
side. It’s stopping and giving into the Lorren that will kill us.
We can do this Eric. We’re Martis.”

“
No,” his voice was razor
sharp and his eyes burned with anger, “I’m not. Not anymore. They
cast me aside Shannon. They thought I turned on them. I may have
angel blood flowing through my veins, but I’m not one of them. Not
anymore.”

We stood silent staring at Eric. Such
an outburst was unusual for him. I wasn’t sure what to say, but I
had to say something. “Labels don’t matter. You are who you are.
You’re Eric. And you can do this. You have the benefit of knowing
Lydia will appear in there. You know it isn’t her. This isn’t like
the Pool at all. That thing tricked you into thinking she’d been
made a Valefar. She’s not. She isn’t down here, so whatever you see
in the Lorren isn’t her. You’re insanely rational Eric. You can do
this. Me on the other hand…God knows what I’ll see.” The thought
sent a shiver down my spine.

Shannon snort laughed, “Of course you
know what you’ll see. It will be Collin. So you do the same thing.
Tell yourself it isn’t him, that he isn’t in there, and keep
walking. And if you don’t, I’ll pull you.”

I gazed at Eric and could tell he had
a better idea of how hard that would be than Shannon did. But what
choice did we have? This was the way to get to Collin. We had to
pass through it. “So, stick together and don’t stop. We can do
this.” My words didn’t convince me we’d succeed, but they
solidified my resolve. And I wasn’t spending eternity in the
Lorren. Screw that.

Shannon walked in first
with her dagger drawn. Eric followed next, with me at the rear. As
we walked into the tunnel the etchings became more numerous and
more elaborate. The golden carved flowers had cascaded in bunches,
each with its own jewels nestled in the petals. My throat
tightened, as I breathed in controlling breaths.
Beware beautiful things
,
Collin had said. The Lorren was the most beautiful part of the
Underworld that I’d seen yet, which meant it was the most
deadly.

I slid one foot in front of the other,
waiting for something to happen as we walked into the golden
tunnel, but nothing did. From the looks of it, the Lorren was a
circular tunnel made from gold. It looked like a long slender tube,
large enough to walk through. Although we couldn’t see the other
end, it looked pretty straight forward—walk through the tunnel and
come out on the other side. As we walked deeper into the Lorren, I
looked at the flowers on the walls. They were people who didn’t
make it out. And the place was full of flowers. I swallowed hard.
We had to make it out. Staying together was our only option. We all
naturally closed any space between us. Shannon and Eric must have
been thinking the same thing. Silence surrounded us. The sound of
dripping water was gone. No grackle noises. No dragon’s wings. Just
the sound of our footfalls.

When we entered the Lorren none of us
thought it was very large. We were wrong. None of the things Eric
was taught prepared him for what happened. He was never supposed to
step foot inside the Lorren. His job was to capture me, kill me,
and leave my body here. When he refused, he turned his back on his
own kind. I looked up at him. He was walking next to me now. We all
inched closer to one another. My eyes were darting everywhere
trying to foresee what was coming. What happened was so incredible;
there was no way I could have seen it coming. The Lorren was more
deadly than I knew, and I was about to learn why.

As we walked further into the Lorren,
the golden flowers were plentiful. They rose off the walls like
they were cast in gold, and not just carved into it. I touched the
wall with my fingers thinking of all the lives lost in this place.
My stomach sank as the air began to move gently through the tunnel.
The three of us instinctively stopped. Shannon and I reached for
our blades, but it didn’t matter. It turns out that you can’t fight
the Lorren.

The gentle breeze became instantly
violent, and spun me around before throwing me back into the
shining wall. The room twirled as the wind forced us apart. Eric
was ripped from my side. The wind hurled his body deeper into the
Lorren and out of sight. At the same time, I heard Shannon’s scream
erupt and suddenly die. As I tried to peel myself off the wall, a
shimmering gold curtain formed around me. I pushed forward, forcing
one foot down at a time. The wind pushed me back. For every two
steps I took forward, I was pushed back one. My long hair whipped
about my face and stung my skin. Finally, I made it to the golden
curtain. I pulled it back and looked through. The golden flowers
seemed to sway as the violent wind died. The gale finally stopped,
and it was utterly still. There was no trace of Eric or Shannon
anywhere. They were gone. My pulse was thundering. I turned in a
slow circle wondering what would happen. Would the Lorren attack me
now? Would it send a fake Collin to finish me off? I had to get out
of there, but the spinning made me uncertain of which way I’d come
in. There were no landmarks, and all the flowers looked exactly the
same.

“
Eric! Shannon!” I called
out. But, the only sound I heard was my own voice echo back like I
was standing in an empty hallway. I breathed in deeply and ran
through the golden curtain. Neither end of the tunnel was within
sight. The wind had pushed me further into the Lorren before it
tore us apart. I clutched my face. This couldn’t be happening! I
knew staying still wasn’t an option. Freaky things would happen if
I stood still. The Lorren would seduce me if I stood still, so I
chose a direction and ran. The narrow golden hallway turned and
forked in separate directions. Fear clutched at my stomach as I
realized that this was not a tunnel.

It was a maze.

I slowed my steps, looking at the fork
in the golden path and wondering which way I should go. Each path
was equally ornate and looked exactly the same. Golden flowers
draped the walls as far as the eye could see. Not knowing what to
do, I shook my head and chose a path. I walked past hundreds of
golden flowers that were once living people. Now they were trapped
in gold.

Forever.

Panic was choking me. I took off at a
full run. It was only a matter of time until the Lorren presented
me with a temptation that I wouldn’t be able to refuse. But it
didn’t matter. This was going to be impossible. The Lorren wasn’t a
tunnel. I couldn’t walk straight through. I never thought it would
be easy, but I never thought I’d be trapped here. My fingers
touched the petals of the golden flowers as I slowed down my pace.
My eyes stung as tears tried to form, but I couldn’t let them. I
had to get out of here. Now. The problem was every path looked the
same. Row upon row of golden vegetation and gleaming gemstones
filled my eyes, but there was no way to know if I was getting
closer to the exit. The only clue I would have is when the amount
of flowers thinned out. And, where I was, they were still so thick
that the flowers hung off the walls in cascading mounds. Desperate
anger rose within me and I screamed. I wanted to punch something,
but there was nothing to hit.

My fingers threaded through the golden
jeweled flowers hanging off the walls. My muscles flexed in my arms
needing to release tension. An impulse shot through me and I wanted
to rip the golden flowers down, as if it could hurt the Lorren.
But, I couldn’t rip them away. They were people. Well, they had
been people. If it were possible any of their humanity was still
trapped within the flowers, I couldn’t destroy them in a fit of
rage. Turning slowly, I looked at the paths before me. I could do
this. Just keep wandering until the leaves thinned. Then I would be
out—either back at the beginning or at the ending.