Page 29 of Can you take it?

“Shut up, would ya? My fuckin’ head!” mumbled the man named Bexley.

“Why would you follow me, Eletha?” Anna snapped at her sister.

“Why would you follow me?” I threw back at her. “Because those are my powers and I’m not going to let you, or anyone else in your family for that matter, keep them away from me any longer. My father has done more for me than anyone and he’s going to retire, gods dammit, and I’m the only one who could be powerful enough to make that happen. I will not let you take this from us. I don’t care if I have to chase you through every single tier, you are going to give me that pendant and you are going to hand it over just like my father wanted. Do you hear me?” Anna’s voice shook.

“You are out of your mind if you think I’m going to hand this to you. I’m still tied to this magic!” My palm wrapped around the pendant, feeling the familiar inscription.

Bexley let out a low whistle. “Fiddling foxglove, if you all don’t stop fighting, we are never going to make it to the second tier and I’m out of mead.” He began to hum an old tavern tune absently.

“He’s right. We need to figure out how to get out of here. Eletha, Anna, how do we make it through the first tier?” Walter asked.

“How should we know? Neither of us have ever been.

The experiences are built individually for every fae. Tier one is Treachery; that’s all I know,” said Anna.

Treachery.

The adrenaline from the red keys match had begun to wear off and the dark began to settle deeper and deeper into my eyes. I figured I would start feeling around for…things, hopefully things that didn’t have teeth and could help us get out of here. Completely disoriented, I placed my palms on the ground before lifting them in surprise when dusty stone cooled my hands. They slid over the lightly textured stone of what felt like a wall and I used it to stand, bracing my head in case I hit something. When I didn’t, I stood to my full height and felt the soft movement of air in the darkness. It was easy to feel it whisper across my skin with my heightened senses in the dark. Eletha and Walter continue to squabble, I guessed from no more than twelve feet away. Bexley continued singing a classic tavern tune about wenches and the moon; Anna was the only one I couldn’t account for, but to be honest I didn’t care right then. All I cared about was getting out of this fucking place. Even though I wasn’t feeling quite myself and far from anything I would call heroic, I wouldn’t let this place change me anymore than it already had.

I continued my staggering movements, hands held out, waiting to either stumble upon a monster or fall into some sort of hole, likely filled with fire or lava or some sort of horrendous substance. Instead, my fingers stubbed into what felt like wood. Excitement thrummed inside of me as my fingertips greedily felt the dips and grooves of molding. It was a doorframe.

My hands wide, I continued to caress the door and eventually bumped into a solid round knob. I bit back a shout. I didn’t dare open it—somehow finding a door in the tiers was more frightening than if I’d touched the nose of a nocturneye. You couldn’t just open a door and walk out of the first tier of Tartarus…could you?

I quickly found the caveat to my easy solution when the tips of my fingers found an exact replica of the three-ridge molding. In disbelief, I found yet another door directly next to the first, only this particular one had detailing lightly carved into the wood. Shuffling my feet, I continued along the wall, stupidly surprised repeatedly when I found another door and then another. My arms stretched wide, I shuffled forward, attempting to form a layout in my head.

“What are you doing? Did you find something?” asked Walter.

“I—” I opened my mouth to tell him what I had found, but a tiny sliver of hesitation stopped me. If I found the way out, did I really want them to follow me again? Eletha said she couldn’t get us out, and earlier on the field, Anna had plainly stated that Kaohs could not do anything to me once I entered, but I found it incredibly hard to believe the God of the Underworld would not be able to do anything to get his two favorite daughters out.

“They are doors,” Walter whispered, obviously having done the same thing as I had.

“Yeah,” I said, a pit in my stomach. I hadn’t wanted him to find them. I had wanted him to stay and protect the girls while I continued on alone.

“Don’t tell the girls or Bexley,” he said under his breath. “I don’t want them to follow us into the other levels.”

I wasn’t sure what to say even though I had been thinking the exact same thing. The truth was, I didn’t want Walter joining me either and it wasn’t because I was worried he would die helping me—no, something icky and selfish had taken over me when I thought I killed Anna. I didn’t want to be responsible for anyone else but myself. I didn’t want to have to save Walter or risk my neck and lose my opportunities so I could give them to him. He had been a good friend since I had arrived, but I wanted to do this for me, and I wanted to do it alone.

“It feels like they line the walls. I’m not going near the others to feel, but it seems as though the whole room might possibly be lined with different doors,” he whispered. “I wonder what’s behind each one. I suppose we just pick one and see what’s in it. The two of us can kill whatever it is…hopefully. I see no other way to go about this,” Walter whispered.

“Agreed, don’t tell the girls or Bexley,” I said, trying to hide the irritation in my voice. “But we need to find out what’s on the other side, near the girls.”

“I’ll go feel around,” he said softly.

“Don’t let them know what you’re doing. They are both incredibly smart and cunning. If they figure out what we are doing, there is no shot at getting them to stay here and I don’t want anyone to follow me but you.” I cleared my throat, struggling to talk quietly.

Even without seeing him, I could sense his hesitation at my words. I could practically feel him dissecting the tone of my voice. “You okay? You seem…off.”

Warning bells went off in my head, commanding me to do a better job and be more careful about what I said—the same ones that always sounded when I thought something that I shouldn’t. Except now there was a new feeling of deception, clearing my thoughts and filling my veins with excitement. Something in the back of my head told me to be cautious and that I was letting this place get to me more and more by the second. If I kept this up, I would be no better than Mendax or the other heathens. A laugh escaped me. Mendax was in his castle in Unseelie right now with the love of his life and not a care in the world. I thought about all the horrible, villainous things Cal had done in her life, and look where she was. Not in the Ten Tiers of Tartarus being chased by an infuriatingly attractive evil witch. What had being everyone’s hero gotten me? Certainly not love or kindness or even a heart filled with good feelings. It had gotten me a chest full of scars, a lifelong unreciprocated love, a mother who hated me; it had gotten me killed and tossed into the pits of the Underworld. I wasn’t going to sacrifice myself for the betterment of another ever again, and I wasn’t going to give up on the things I wanted, no matter how foolish or unrealistic they were. I was sick and tired of being walked on so other people could follow their dreams and get what they wanted. It was my turn to get what I wanted, and I wanted desperately to take the pendant with the magic that I was tied to and get to the Elysian Fields.

“Nah, man, I’m good.” I smiled. It was second nature at this point. “But you should stay with the girls. You don’t need to fight through the tiers for nothing.”

He let out a long breath. “It’s not for nothing. I need the excitement, some adventure, and some time away from being Eletha’s lapdog. Once we make it to the tenth tier, you will go on to the Elysian Fields and I will go back to Eromreven. Perhaps they will have some new amenities at their parties by then.” I could hear the smile in his charismatic voice.

“Okay. We will do it together then, only us though. Find out what’s on the other side of the room. I have a feeling it’s more doors, but inspect each one as discreetly as you can. Check for anything that would indicate that it’s a door that could get us to the second tier. Remember, don’t let them know,” I reminded him, soon hearing him shuffle back to the other side.

Now I just had to figure out which door I was going to open to get out of here without him.

I almost felt bad—okay, I still did feel bad, but I was still adjusting to the new me and it caused a bit of guilt to churn at my disrupted feelings. Walter never acted fully Unseelie to me, so it was no surprise to hear that the endless debauchery of Eromreven, a place coveted by most Unseelie, had started to grow tedious to him. But still, as much as I liked him, he wanted an adventure, and I wasn’t a tour guide and this wasn’t a boys’ trip.