House of Darken (Secret Keepers #1)(85)

Daniel shrugged. “Imperial is the underworld for all of Overworld, all of the different lands and sectors. Some of them are brutal. Some are gentle. But very few beings make it straight to freedom. Most land in the bottom three platforms, though.”

“We’re also very long lived,” Lexen reminded me. “Daelighters don’t die from natural causes. Our lands and the network keep us young and strong, so we have generally lived a long life by the time we end up in House of Imperial.”

That long life was still a concept I wasn’t quite able to wrap my head around. No doubt it was one of those things preventing Lexen and me from having a chance together. Seemed pretty unfair that fate wanted to throw us together – his soul choosing mine as the one and only – and then I was going to die in sixty years. I mean, I’d take those sixty years, but I wasn’t sure Lexen would want the same thing.

Shit, why was I even thinking about this? I was only seventeen years…

“What date is it?”

If anyone was surprised by my random question, no one showed it. “We have a different calendar to you,” Lexen replied. “But I keep track of both. It’s September 16th.”

My birthday was yesterday.

I had turned eighteen and didn’t even know, probably because I’d been stuck in an egg prison at the time. I’d turned eighteen without friends or family, without a single happy birthday or gift. Without my parents.

Lexen’s hand pressed into my spine and he couldn’t move it without dropping me, but somehow he managed to shift his thumb slightly. Letting me know he was there. “Breathe, Emma. Just breathe. I got you.”

The rumble of those low words in my ear jolted me from the soul-crushing sadness tearing through me, tearing me down. A hand brushed my cheek and I whipped my head up and locked eyes with Daniel. We stared for an infinite amount of time, a sense of understanding between us. We both lived with a pain inside that was threatening to destroy us.

“Don’t let the demons win,” Daniel said, his tone solemn. “Keep fighting them, badass.”

I actually laughed, shaking my head. I wasn’t much of a fighter. It fell a little too close to exercise for my liking. Maybe I could read the demons to death. That was more my speed.

Lexen dropped a little lower as we passed the gauntlet of monsters. I tilted my head back so I could see his face better. My position was awkward, but I saw enough to know he was fatiguing.

“How much longer do you have?” Daniel asked, his gaze lowering to the land below us.

“I’m going to make it another two,” Lexen bit out.

He was going to kill himself trying to save us, that was for sure. “Don’t push yourself, just go as far as you can,” I said. A thought hit me then. “Would it have been easier just to fly back up the top justice level?”

“There is no going back up to the top,” Daniel told me. “This land works very hard to keep you in the justices. It only lets you move in one direction.”

Great, we’d stumbled into the Overworld version of Ikea. We were screwed; we were never getting out of here.

“It’d be good if you can make it past the Maze,” Daniel said to Lexen. “It’s filled with tricks and riddles to solve. If you don’t use your wits, you could be trapped there forever. We’ll get through no trouble, but it will take some time. Time we don’t really have.”

We were above that land now. I blinked as I watched it below, trying to wrap my mind around the sheer size of it. From our angle, it was sort of easy to make out a path through the massive green hedges, but if we’d been on the ground, and had to navigate through the miles and miles of twists and turns, it would be next to impossible.

Lexen dropped a little lower again. We were only about twenty feet up from the top of the maze now.

“Go left!” I shouted down at a figure standing near a crossroads.

Daniel covered my mouth. “No helping, remember,” he warned me again.

I shook my head, dislodging him. “You’re not the boss of me. I’ll help if I want to help.”

Annnd I was back to belligerent teenager. Being told what to do was a huge pet hate of mine. Lexen laughed and Daniel wisely said nothing more. We dropped a little more, and I thought that Lexen’s wing flaps were slowing. Lifting my hand, I pressed it to his chest. I wished I could send some of my energy into him, my clumsy, unathletic energy.

On second thought, that might be more of a hindrance.

His thumb caressed my spine again, and I swear I felt it all the way to the tips of my fingers. My hand was tingling where it remained pressed against him. I was wondering if our energies were clashing together somehow, because it felt like heat shifted between us, when Daniel cleared his throat. “Legreto level,” he said.

Legreto level…

We had left the maze and were now over a platform of water. Sunlight brushed across me. For the first time it was warm, almost like I was outside. Pure magic, because there was still only darkness above. The Land of Legreto was stunning. I’d never seen clearer water, aquamarine in color as it thrashed around its level. There were pockets of land scattered along the body of water, land which disappeared at each rise and fall of the tide. It looked like you’d have to have perfect timing to be able to cross, jumping from one to another. I could see a plethora of creatures swimming in the depths of the water. Some looked huge and were shaped like sharks, so I was guessing it wasn’t ideal to be caught in the waters.