Page 73 of A Curse So Cruel

“Mmmm I can taste it now, Tarlaz, how about you?”Elgen urges.

“Can you imagine something so strange?”he answers.

We turn down another corridor.

“I don’t get it. Surely you both ate food when you were alive,”I say.“You know, before you became trapped in the academy.”I pinch my brow.“Hold on, were you alive?”I still hardly know anything about these shadow creatures.

“In our own way,”Elgen replies cryptically.

“…So you ate food?”I prompt.

“We ate, yes,”Tarlaz responds, smiling wide and revealing a set of pointed teeth that gives me the creeps.

I groan.“Please tell me you didn’t eat entrails, limbs, or something equally as gruesome.”

He opens his mouth, but I hold up a hand, speaking before he can.“Actually, don’t answer that. I’d rather not know.”

He cackles, saying something in my head, but I don’t hear it. We reach the end of the corridor, and it splits off, branching to my left and right. The wallpaper has changed, no longer black filigree, but a pattern of roses surrounded by thorny vines that repeats over and over. And there’s something about it… I move to the left, stepping into the corridor and running my hands along the aged wallpaper as familiarity tingles through me.

“Not that way, girl,”Elgen hisses.“The dorms are to the right.”She moves in the opposite direction, trying to lead me away, but I don’t budge. I trace my fingertips over one of the black roses and get an odd sense of déjà vu. It’s like I’ve been here before, but I can’t remember when.

Torches line the walls and the flames flicker as if there’s a breeze, though I can’t feel anything.Bad, Shade. Don’t you dare go down the creepy corridor.I know I should listen to my instincts, but I can’t help myself. I came to the academy to find answers, and as much as I want to follow Elgen and Tarlaz to the dorms, I have to know what’s down here. This might be my only chance.

Slowly, I make my way down the corridor until we reach a reinforced, steel door. Again, there’s something so familiar about it, and when I reach out, brushing my fingertips over the metal, I hear multiple locks click as they unlock, and the door slides open revealing a stone staircase. A torch burns on the wall close to the door.

“What’s down there?”I ask the shadows who are keeping their distance from the door.

Neither Tarlaz or Elgen look like they want to answer, but it’s Tarlaz who speaks.“The dungeons.”

“Dungeons?”My voice is high-pitched in my mind.“Okay, well that’s terrifying.”

“Exactly, so come,”Elgen snaps, and had she been corporeal, I have no doubt she would have been yanking my hand and pulling me in the opposite direction.

“But,”I say softly,“there’s something about this corridor and this door… I feel like I’ve been here before, but I can’t remember...”

“If that’s true, then it’s probably for the best, girl,”Elgen says smoothly.“Some things are better left forgotten.”

I don’t like the sound of that, and I hesitate. As much as I want to know what’s down there, everything inside me is screaming at me to run. Swallowing, I decide to heed my own warning, and I turn away from the dungeon of death or whatever the hell is down there. I’ve only taken one step when a feminine scream reaches my ears. It’s low, as if carried on the unnatural breeze in the air, and the sound sends ice sliding down my spine.

Damn it, Shade. Just ignore the haunting scream.For all you know, it’s coming from a monster trying to lure you down there.I’m not a hero. That was always Blake’s job in our relationship, but no matter how badly I want to flee, I simply…can’t. I think of Kenzie and what she’d said about Leira’s disappearance. About all the missing students. What if they’re down there? Or what if whatever is happening in the dungeon, is what happened to me in my past? And what if the guys are in on it? That last thought makes my blood go cold.

Biting my bottom lip, I try to calm my racing heartbeat, and I move onto the first step, taking the torch from the wall.

“Foolish. Foolish, girl,”Elgen snarls, and I almost lose my nerve, but another scream carries on the wind, and I find myself moving. If I turn back, it could be too late for whoever’s down there.

“If I get captured or something, please find a way to tell Kenzie what happened,”I tell the shadows.“And Thane and the others,”I add.

“Pshhh,”Elgen hisses in my mind.“If you have a death wish, there’s no point in us playing the hero.”

“Gee thanks,”I mutter.

I almost expect the shadows to desert me there, but I’m glad when they follow, making creeping movements like they’re walking down the spiraling staircase with me. Curiosity keeps my feet moving, and I nearly trip twice, but I keep it together, heading down.

When I reach a stone landing, there’s no relief as I approach a barred door. Like the door at the top of the stairs, it unlocks when I touch it, and I step inside, faced with rows upon rows of barred cells.

“We shouldn’t be here,”Tarlaz mutters, sounding spooked.“The professors would not like this.”

But the strange sense of familiarity keeps me walking forward. The first cells are empty of prisoners. In each cell open iron manacles rest on the floor, a drain sits in one corner, and there’s a single metal cot fixed to the wall.