Sevin: Lords of Satyr by Elizabeth Amber Read Free Book Online

which you could make out shapes once you got accustomed to it. No, this darkness was the black pit of his brother’s nightmares.

3
     
    S evin hunkered down in a crouch, his survival instinct kicking in.
    There was movement near him.
    “Luc?” he ventured.
    “Here.”
    “Anyone else?”
    Silence.
    Luc still gripped his arm, he realized. Sevin twisted, reversing their hold so that he now gripped Luc’s forearm. With his other hand he reached out into nothingness. Total and complete blackness. He stood and stepped out blindly, tugging Luc behind him.
    After a few steps, his fingers made contact with something cool and solid. A rock wall, uneven in places and roughhewn. Somewhere in the distance, he heard the steady trickle of water.
    “Where are we?” he wondered aloud.
    “Catacombs.” The word was a thready monotone from his brother’s lips. “The tunnels below the Patrizzi house.”
    “What? How the fuck did we get down here?” If these were in fact the very subterranean tombs in which Luc had been imprisoned for twelve years, he had to get them out of here. Luc’s grip on sanity was tenuous enough without subjecting him to this abomination.
    “Don’t know,” said Luc.
    Still holding on to his brother, Sevin moved forward, feeling along the wall with his opposite hand. “Well, figure it out so we can get back to the salon. Gods, I thought this place had been destroyed when Dane found you.”
    “This is a different section than the one that caved in,” said Luc. “But I well recall the general stench down here.”
    Other than the smell of cool earth, Sevin detected no such stench. He took the fact that the air was not stale as a positive sign. Perhaps they were close to some sort of exit. But he didn’t correct his brother. Luc had had a dozen cruel years to memorize every nuance of this place. If he said he recognized its scent, then he recognized it.
    Sevin continued moving down the corridor in what he hoped was the direction of the water sound, pulling an unresisting Luc behind him. “Has this happened to you before?” he asked Luc. “This instantaneous traveling?”
    “Some,” Luc admitted dully. “Only when these headaches are at their worst.”
    “And you didn’t think to mention it?” Sevin felt rather than saw Luc’s shrug.
    “I’m freak enough without adding to my repertoire, don’t you think? Besides, I’ve taken inanimate objects for the ride before, but never another person,” said Luc. “And never so far in one go.”
    When Dane had come to Luc’s rescue some months ago, Luc had somehow moved an overhead beam support, causing the cave-in that had killed Alexa’s mother and brother—his jailers. He hadn’t done it with his hands, but with his mind, Dane had said. This had been the first inkling his brothers had of his otherworldly talents. Luc had been tight-lipped when it came to anything regarding those, so they’d learned little more of them in the months since.
    “How do you usually get back to where you came from? In the same way? As quickly?” Sevin demanded, his mind racing. They had already drunk the elixir. When the moon came, they would both feel it, even down here where they could not see it. And then they would both require the surcease of a woman’s flesh.
    This didn’t worry him particularly, for he knew he could conjure Shimmerskins. He had done so often enough before in the salon. But he didn’t know how adversely a night in this place would affect his brother. Luc teetered on the edge of madness as it was. A night spent here might topple him into the abyss. They had to get out.
    “It’s not something I can direct,” Luc said, sounding frustrated. “It has only happened a few times before. Each time, it has taken longer to return to my starting point.”
    The wall Sevin had been feeling his way along abruptly ended. Reaching out, he searched for something to hang on to. Finding another wall at right angles, he forged onward. “We can’t wait for