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Sterling says something, but his words echo and distort until they’re incomprehensible. When Agnar replies, his voice is swallowed entirely, as if the air itself is eating the sound.

If Sterling’s hand weren’t still on my arm, I’d be terrified of losing them both.

As we venture farther down the passage, the temperature fluctuates.

One moment, my breath clouds before me, and my fingers numb with cold despite my flame. The next, sweat trickles down my spine, and I battle the urge to extinguish my fire because of the unbearable heat.

Agnar wipes his palm on his shirt before gripping his sword hilt again, knuckles white. Sterling prowls forward with careful precision, each step measured while he constantly scans our surroundings.

The farther we go, the stranger things become.

On my next step, the ground tilts at an impossible angle. I gasp, bracing to slide down it like a child’s playground slope, but nothing happens. My feet remain planted as if the ground were still level, though my mind screams otherwise.

“Don’t look down.”

Though I can hear him clearly again, Sterling’s advice comes too late.

I peek at the ground, and my stomach lurches with vertigo.

Ahead of us, gravity seems to reverse in patches. Loose stones float upward in spinning, cylindrical sections like inverted underwater whirlpools.

Agnar extends a tentative hand into one of these phenomena. Immediately, an invisible force pulls his arm upward. He yanks it back. “I don’t like this.”

I shudder. “The feeling’s mutual.”

We press on because we have no choice and dodge what we can. The passage narrows even more, and I inch through it only to find myself lunging forward and covering twenty paces in a single stride.

Sterling cradles my elbow to steady me. “Careful. The distances aren’t what they seem.”

“You think?” My next step barely moves me at all, as if space itself is fan-pleated, expanding and contracting at random.

To my left, a crack appears in the floor, widening into a chasm that didn’t exist seconds ago.

I jerk back, heart hammering.

The crevice seals itself just as quickly, leaving no trace behind. “It’s like the laws of nature are fighting among themselves.”

Sterling cocks his head to the side, as if listening to something only he can hear. His eyes carry that distant haze they get when he’s working with his magic. “The water. I can feel it everywhere.”

He extends his fingers, and tiny droplets of moisture appear from nowhere, coalescing into a thin stream. The water flows ahead of us along the tunnel, bending and curving to avoid invisible obstacles.

The unease dripping through me shifts into a languid trickle of fear.

I squeeze his hand. “What’s happening?”

“The water shows the safe path.” His eyes stay fixed on the liquid’s movement. “Where it travels freely, we can walk. We shouldn’t step where it distorts or breaks.”

I eye the stream with suspicion. “Because that’s not weird or anything.”

After Sterling nudges me, we follow the elemental guidance, growing more confident as we progress without issue.

Then the booms begin.

The first one, a low, resonant sound that rumbles through the passage like distant thunder, catches us off guard. We stop short, hands on our weapons. Another boom shakes the ground. Then another.

Followed by…silence.

Sterling sways into the wall. Afraid he might fall, I grab his arm.