batted his hand away, but then couldn’t resist running my hands through my hair, trying to smooth it down and remove any remaining straw.
I looked around and discovered that I was in a gated flagstone courtyard, surrounded by low brick townhouses. The townhouses looked much less exotic than most of the other buildings I’d seen so far in Avalon, though the stone courtyard did add a bit of atmosphere.
A figure dressed all in black detached itself from a pool of shadow and approached. I couldn’t see him very clearly, because he wasn’t looking my way, but any brief hope that he might help me died when Kimber mutely handed him the horse’s reins. I guessed this was the wagon’s owner, Ethan’s horny friend, and I was really glad when he gave Ethan a brief nod, then led the horse and wagon away instead of sticking around.
“Student housing,” Ethan explained, indicating the buildings around us with a wave of his hand. “The university is just down the road. That’s my flat,” he said, pointing at one second story window, “and that’s Kimber’s.” He pointed at a window directly across from it. I took another glance at Kimber, but she still didn’t look old enough to have her own “flat.” Of course for all I knew she was some kind of weird Fae that stopped aging at sixteen and she was actually older than my mom. Then Ethan grinned again. If Fae got laugh lines, he would be wrinkled up before he was thirty. “But that’s not where we’re going.”
Kimber had come up behind me while he talked. She didn’t touch me, but I knew she was ready to grab me if I gave her half an excuse. Ethan pushed up the sleeves of his long-sleeved T-shirt and adjusted his stance like he was about to lift something heavy. Only there was nothing there to lift.
Behind me, Kimber snorted. “Stop being a show-off and get on with it.”
Get on with what? I wondered.
Ethan took a deep breath, then held his hands out in front of him at about chest level, palms down. Something made a scraping sound, like rock sliding against rock. Ethan took another breath, then slowly raised his hands a few inches.
My jaw dropped open when a set of flagstones lifted from the floor of the courtyard. Ethan moved his hands to the side, and the flagstones moved with him, revealing a ladder that disappeared into a dark pit. He set the flagstones down, then blew out his breath in a big whoosh. He was sweating and out of breath, but he smiled.
“I’m getting better at that,” he said, talking right over me at Kimber.
“I’m so impressed I can hardly stand it,” she responded.
Ethan looked deflated by her tone, but he fired back anyway. “I’d like to see you do it.”
From Kimber’s silence, I gathered she couldn’t. Ethan smirked at her, then lowered himself onto the ladder and began to climb down into the darkness. I shuddered and tried to back away from the pit, but of course Kimber was there, driving me toward the ladder. My voice was still useless, so I couldn’t even protest.
“It’s your choice whether to use the ladder or not to get down,” Kimber said, and another shudder shook me. I had no doubt she’d shove me right in if I didn’t force myself onto that ladder.
My hands were shaking as I lowered my legs over the rim and got my feet on the ladder. I wasn’t usually afraid of the dark, and I’d never noticed any claustrophobia before, but the thought of climbing down into that unknown darkness had me near panic. The only thing I wanted to do less than climb down was fall down with Kimber’s help, so I concentrated on taking one step at a time, hoping my now sweaty hands wouldn’t lose their grip on the metal rungs.
Below me, I heard the echoing murmur of Ethan’s voice, and a torch flared to life. I looked down to see him standing at the mouth of a tunnel about ten feet down. He beckoned for me to keep moving, and I just barely managed to unfreeze enough to take another step.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll catch you if you fall.”
Somehow that wasn’t as reassuring as I think he meant it to be. I kept descending anyway, anxious to feel solid ground beneath my feet. I hadn’t gotten all the way down when Ethan reached up and put his hands on my waist,