Chaos (Lanie Bross) - Lanie Bross Page 0,35

same side.”

Miranda’s eyes rolled toward him, like those of a frightened horse. But she wasn’t afraid. He knew that she knew that he wouldn’t kill her. “You can’t manipulate the tunnels without me. You don’t know how. I do. Rhys told me.”

“What are you talking about?” Luc tightened the cable enough to make Miranda go still.

“The tunnels of time,” she gasped. “I’m impressed. No human has ever found them.”

“Don’t lie to me,” Luc growled.

The look in her eyes changed. She barked out a laugh. “Don’t tell me you’re here by mistake.”

He pulled the cable even tighter and her laughter turned into a wheeze. She tried to pry the cable from her throat. Luc saw that she still wore Jasmine’s ring.

The anger was like a curtain; he couldn’t think anymore. He wanted her to die.

“Together we can bring the Unseen Ones down,” she choked out. Now she did look scared. “They can restore life to Corinthe. They can do anything. We’re on the same side, Luc. Don’t you see that?”

“No.” His arms were shaking from the effort of restraining her, and his lungs felt like they were being flattened. If he killed her, he might never find his way out of the tunnels. But he couldn’t let her live. She had imprisoned Jasmine among the Blood Nymphs. She had manipulated Corinthe, lied to her, used her.

Killed her.

Miranda’s hands dropped from her neck. Her eyes fluttered. “The tunnels of time will kill you …,” she whispered.

Now or never.

Luc stepped back, releasing her. The cable slipped from his numb fingers. Miranda gagged, sucked in a deep breath, and stood heaving and coughing with her hands wrapped around her injured throat.

“Good choice,” she rasped.

Luc surged forward and grabbed her hand. Her slender fingers made a fist, but he pried them open. “This,” Luc growled as he slipped the ring off, “does not belong to you.” It was only a cheap carnival ring he’d won years ago, but it was Jasmine’s—and he was determined to give it back to her. He squeezed it tightly in his hand before slipping it into his pocket. “Now tell me how the tunnels work before I decide to take my chances without your help.”

Rhys had said that time was infinite: forward, backward, past, present, future. All of these loops and coils around them, all of the liquid shimmer: it had to be time itself, flowing by.

Miranda lifted her head. She pulled her lips back, baring her teeth. “Can’t you feel it? The tunnels are trying to kill you. Your blood will turn to lead. Your lungs will turn to stone. The tunnels will destroy anything that does not belong.”

“There has to be a way.” He had made it this far. But now what? There were millions of cables and wires—probably billions of them. How was he supposed to know how to bring back Corinthe?

“You can’t help Corinthe if you’re dead,” Miranda said, as though she had read his mind. But she must know there was only one reason he would risk traveling the Crossroad again. “There’s another way. If we work together, we can both get what we want.”

Miranda was right about one thing: the atmosphere of the tunnels was oppressive. Luc didn’t know how much longer he could withstand it. The fight had taken almost all of his energy, and what was left barely kept his heart beating. He was having trouble staying on his feet.

“Promise me you’ll stay away from my sister.” He didn’t know whether Miranda had something to do with the attack on Jasmine, but he couldn’t rule it out. Not after Miranda had kidnapped her and used her to bait Luc into the Crossroad.

Miranda frowned. “I have no interest in your sister. If she’s in trouble, it’s not my doing. She drank from the garden, from the Flower of Life, which you cut down.”

“She was dying,” Luc said, his voice shaking.

“And you returned her to life. The Unseen Ones will not be happy. Their only concern is balance, and they are not happy. She drank the nectar, and now there are consequences. There must be balance. Action and reaction. Chaos and order. Death and life.”

Icy shivers ran down Luc’s spine, even though sweat ran down his forehead. “What are you talking about?”

“Only blood can feed the Flower of Life. Death to life, life to death.” Miranda’s black eyes glowed in the unnatural light. “It’s all connected.”

“More riddles,” Luc spat out.

Miranda ignored him. She was moving her hands along the blackness between the cables, as