“You’re not going anywhere either!” Callistina threatens. “You’re stuck here too!”
But she’s wrong.
I know this in my soul, she is wrong.
I look around to make sure, but I’m right. There is no tomb for me.
And it suddenly all makes sense.
My life as a human child has meaning. It’s not a good meaning, but still, it’s an answer to questions that have always plagued me.
Who am I?
Why am I like this?
Why does nobody love me?
Where is my home and why don’t I live there?
Where is my family and why have they abandoned me?
Well, my answer is clear now. They put me here on this earth. In this world. As this freak of a girl. On purpose. To… what? So I could stumble into Pell’s curse? No. That’s not why.
Humans are weak and have no magic.
Someone turned me into a human to steal my power.
Ostanes? She’s the logical conclusion because she did come to me in that magic-induced dream state and spill all kinds of cryptic info. And I was so sure she was good, and honest, and had my best interest at heart when we had that talk, but right now… right now I’m not even sure that talk was real.
I’m starting to think it was part of my curse.
Yes. My curse. That’s what this is about. Me.
I look at the men in the tombs and it all makes so much sense.
They are all human here because they are all in prison. And they are all powerless here because they are being held against their will. And they are all stuck here. They have been stripped of their monsterity to hold them in place.
And so was I.
I was a weak, pathetic human girl with no power.
Until I met Pell and started turning back into the monster I really am.
Just as I think these words, I hear a scream. For a moment, all the men shut up—even Callistina stops her threats. We are all listening to the wailing that soars through the maze of foggy tombs.
And I recognize it.
It’s not the voice of the man I know, but it is the voice of his monster.
“Tomas!” I yell. Then I am running, weaving my way through the tombs, trying to find the source of the scream. “Tomas!” I yell, over and over.
But I won’t find him here.
He’s not in this bottomless pit of a place.
He’s up top, where the sun shines.
I need to get back. And to go back, I must find a door.