Bind Our Loving Souls by April Marcom Page B

door you
found.”
     

 
    Chapter
Ten
     
    My head felt heavy as the hand patting my
back pulled me out of the deep sleep I was in. I struggled to open
my eyes as I realized I was sitting up against something warm,
something I’d drooled all over. Enock! “Sorry,” I said,
perking up and wiping the saliva off of his coat.
    “It didn’t bother me at all.” He put a hand
on my chin and licked away what was dripping down over it, making
it even wetter than before and causing me to shiver. Enock took me
in his arms and stood, helping me to stand as well.
    “It’s five past the hour when all Halvandors
rest,” Enock said through a yawn. “If we go now, we should be
safe.”
    I remembered Enock showing me that Anvilayans
had an internal clock that kept time for them as we climbed out of
his window. Outside, I wrapped my arms around his neck as he held
me against him with one arm and raced all the way around the manor,
slowing to a stop at the top of the hill. Here, he sat me down and
we walked to the door.
    The chirping of insects and the gentle breeze
felt good. The moon shone overhead in a much clearer sky than it
had earlier that night. With the added aid of the light cast by
Enock’s eyes, the door was easy to see.
    “So, will your eyes always light up when you
see me?” I asked, stopping at the edge of the door.
    “Probably. As far as I know, only binding
yourself to the one you choose can put it to rest. When someone
becomes part of you like that, your eyes adjust with the rest of
your body.”
    “Oh.” I felt bad, because it just wasn’t
fair. I wasn’t sorry for being a human, just that Enock was being
robbed of so much because of it.
    “I don’t mind.” He placed a reassuring hand
on my shoulder and then knelt down to look at the door.
    When his hand touched one of the stones, they
all lit just as faintly as before. “Rocks from Cyron,” he said,
stepping onto the door, still crouching and running his fingers
over each one. “They’re guarding something…They will only open for
a certain individual.” He looked up at me. “Did they respond to
Helena?”
    I had to think about it for a minute. “No,
they only lit up when I touched them.”
    Enock got off the door, keeping his hand on
it, and looked at it for a moment. “Let me see your hand.”
    I knelt beside him and held it out. He took
it and laid it on the metal beside his hand. The stones became
brighter, followed by a series of clicks. There was a loud banging
sound at the top, making me jump back, and then more clicking,
along with a final bang at the bottom. It became much too quiet
right before the door opened a couple of inches.
    “It’s a good thing Anvilayans sleep so
deeply,” Enock said. I stayed where I was as he stood and pried
open the door noisily.
    A flicker of red ignited inside as I stood
and looked down at a set of old blackened stairs that led
underground. Enock held out a hand to me and we began our descent.
The red light intensified and bled brightly all over the stairs
when I took my first step. A white one came on with the second and
a yellow with the third. Three fist-sized stones were suspended
with heavy chains from the ceiling.
    I stopped halfway down at the horrifying
sight in the back of the medium-sized room. A birdcage sat on the
floor with a small, slightly human-looking skeleton in it. Mouth
hanging open and spine twisted, a baby’s arms and legs were lying
on the floor, sticking out between the wires. But the hands and
feet were much too long, and the jaw was twice as big as it should
have been. It couldn’t be human.
    “Is it Anvilayan?” I asked, taking another
step.
    “No. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
    It was scary enough, I almost turned back.
And if Enock hadn’t been there, I probably would have. But it also
kind of drew me in, because I had to know what happened in that
room.
    Yellowed paper littered the floor and a small
table against the right side of the wall. But there was