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She bit her lower lip, gaze fixed on the Marks he couldn’t see. “Hopefully take us to the mirror gate?”
“By the gods, Scarlett,” he growled, clutching her tighter as the ground lurched beneath their feet.
But the air around them was shimmering. The various towering cliff sides and ledges were shifting as the earth shuddered again. Scarlett had a wall of starfire around them in the next breath, and her shadows covered them like a second skin as she shielded them from whatever was about to happen. Still the world shook around them.
“Travel us out,” Sorin gritted, another violent tremor making them both stumble.
“A little longer.”
“We can come back, Scarlett,” he insisted.
“There’s something bigger, Sorin. We’re missing something so much bigger. It has to be connected to the mirror gates.”
Before he could argue further, everything stilled. Scarlett looked up at him in question. He sighed, his lips forming a tight line. He didn’t like this. He didn’t like that he had no idea what they were walking into, what danger she might be in. But she was including him. She was finally letting him in on her plans.
Sorin gave her a tight nod. Her shadows tightened around them as she slowly lowered her starfire. Then the white flames disappeared altogether, and they stood gaping.
There were doors and balconies. There werebuildings. Bridges spanned between various levels, a network of paths connecting it all. They spanned farther than he could see. Up, down. Left and right. They seemed to be standing in the very heart of whatever this was. Everything was stone, and there were several places where the rock was crumbling or gone all together. Ancient and lovely and—
“Ruins,” Scarlett whispered. “These are the ruins of a city.”
“It would make sense if a mirror gate is hidden here,” Sorin replied, still trying to take everything in.
Scarlett looked down at her palm where the guiding Mark she’d drawn was still stark against her skin. “This way I guess.”
She stepped from his hold, her shadows going with her and swirling until two panthers stalked at her sides. She had a dagger in her other hand, and Sorin adjusted his grip on his short sword as he followed her deeper into the ruins.
They came to a decrepit fountain a few minutes later, and she turned, starting down a ramp that led into a crevice. Bits of debris crumbled as the ramp became a bridge, winding down into the dark. There were no railings or sides on the bridge. Just a fall to one’s death. Two glowing flames appeared above them, and he couldn’t help but marvel at her effortlessly using so many facets of her magic at once these days. Natural. A fate she had fought for so long.
“I feel you looking at me,” she muttered. “Stop thinking such silly thoughts.”
“What thoughts?”
“That you believe I’ve followed fate more than I care to admit.”
“All evidence does seem to point in that direction.”
She hummed in response. “I suppose we shall see who wins in the end.”
Once he would have said the Fates always win, but now?
They finally reached the base of the winding ramp, and Scarlett made the guiding flames flare brighter. She sucked in a breath. “Sorin?”
“I see them, Love.”
Doors. Giant onyx doors stood before them. Numerous Marks were etched into the doors, but in the center were three that were bigger than the rest: Arius, Achaz, and another he did not know. A triangle inside a circle.
But there were others he had never seen before as well, and it was these that Scarlett was tracing with her finger.
“These are the same as the language we found in the snow,” she murmured.
She swiped the dagger across her palm before placing it on the door, directly over the Arius symbol. There was a faint click, and she pushed, the ancient door grinding against the stone floor.
On instinct, Sorin tugged her back to him, his sword raised, but her shadows swept inside. They were both holding their breath, and it took a minute before she released hers. “Empty. There’s nothing in there.”
She gave him another shaky smile, and Sorin stepped forward, pushing the door open farther. “The others are going to kill us for going here without them.”
“Probably,” she muttered. She let the fire flare again, and Sorin saw it before she did. A ledge that ran around the perimeter of the room. He sent an ember from her flame to it, and the oil he suspected was there caught light, the chamber suddenly cast in a warm glow.
