Blood and Feathers by Lou Morgan

Author:Lou Morgan [Morgan, Lou]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Action & Adventure, Contemporary, Fiction, Urban Life, Fantasy, urban fantasy
ISBN: 9781781080191
Google: GqcFywAACAAJ
Amazon: 1781080194
Publisher: Solaris
Published: 2012-07-30T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Down the Rabbithole

THE FURTHER SHE walked, the darker it got, and soon she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face. While this didn’t exactly make her happy, given the stairs she was climbing down opened on one side to a bottomless pit, she had no choice but to keep going. Fun as the only-forward stairs were, Alice was sure the novelty would wear off pretty quickly. She kept one hand on the wall, allowing it to guide her round and ignoring just how sticky it felt. It gave her something to concentrate on; something – anything – other than where she was going.

Mallory hadn’t helped, standing on the other side of the table and staring at her with his sad eyes, saying, “There will be people you know, Alice. People you trusted. Remember how I told you that we have always been watching you? Well, so have the Fallen. And just as we had you surrounded, so did they.”

“You had to tell me that now?”

“I thought you should be prepared.”

Like anyone could be prepared for this. She misjudged her footing and tripped, grabbing at the wall to help regain her balance. Her fingers sank into the wall up to the knuckle.

“Alright,” she said to no-one in particular, pulling her hand free with a revolting squelch, “That? That’s just about the worst thing ever.”

The whole thing was impossible. She had caught herself that time, but she had no idea how much further there was to go, and it was inevitable she would slip again in this darkness.

She closed her eyes, not that it made much of a difference, and listened to the panicked pounding of her heart... and suddenly there was light. She held her hand ahead of her and the flame in her palm was barely the size of a tennis ball, but it gave her a chance to look around. It wouldn’t take long to burn itself out. She had come to realise that using her own emotions was a little like running on reserve power – just enough to get out of trouble, but never enough to do anything constructive – so she tried to commit as much as she could to memory.

The stairs kept on sweeping round and down, always down, further than she could see. That was either extremely encouraging or incredibly depressing; she wasn’t sure which. Nor could she stop herself from looking at the wall her hand rested against. She wished she hadn’t. It was definitely not earth, although she’d known that. It was softer. And were those made by... fingernails? Three long parallel gouges that swept past her at shoulder height, then abruptly cut off.

The fire burned out.

On the plus side, it had burned up the jolt of fear she felt, and she was calm again as she set off into the blackness.

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