I got my feet over the balustrade and between the balusters, all my weight on my heels. I gripped the top rail, my butt pushed against it. The two stones hung inches from my feet, appearing to rest on nothing but air.

  “Just take a step, you coward.” My focus shifted from the stones to the ground hundreds of feet below. Just then, a gale whipped my clothes and hair. It wasn’t very strong, but it made me adjust my hands, and I almost lost my grip and fell forward.

  I turned, starting to climb back over the balustrade when another scream rose from somewhere around the fortress wall.

  “Goddamn it!”

  I faced back out to the empty air, and before another bout of cowardice could manifest, stepped forward. My foot landed beside the hovering pebble as if the air were stone. I shakily placed my other foot down. With excruciatingly slow movements, I crouched down to my hands and knees. The sensation under my palms was odd. It was sturdy as stone, but had none of the expected coolness—no temperature difference from the air at all.

  I pulled one of the small rocks from my inventory and tossed it a few feet forward, along the side of the terrace. It landed with a click, and after it fell still, I followed it, shuffling one hand forward, then the other. I continued that way until I reached a wall, and then turned left, the terrace at my back. It had taken me minutes to make it only ten feet. I focused only on the little rocks in front of me. I flicked it again, and sure enough, the invisible walkway continued along the wall.

  “You are a bastard, Dev.”

  I shuffled away from the terrace, sheer wall on my right and nothing ahead or behind. The only sanity I could cling to was the little rock a couple of feet from my face.

  I reached the first corner. I tossed the rock a bit too far, and it fell. The walkway's edge was only a couple of feet away from me. . I stared as the rock tumbled through the air for multiple seconds before cracking against the ground below, too far for the sound to be heard over the faint breeze. The proximity of the walkway’s edge and the image of the stone free-falling paralyzed me. My breathing became shallow and quick, sweat breaking out all over my body.

  Come on! Don’t chicken out now.

  I opened my inventory and withdrew another rock, carefully tossing it a couple of feet ahead. With an even slower pace than before, I navigated around the keep’s exterior wall. The scream rose on the wind again, louder, closer. I tried not to think about what awaited me at this hidden path's end. What could make someone scream with such visceral terror? Ironically, the ever-present edge to a long fall kept my thoughts focused on what was right before me instead of what I moved toward, which allowed me to keep going.

  Minutes passed for every couple of dozen feet as I painstakingly made my way. I was so focused on the next step that I nearly rammed my head into a wall. I stopped, momentarily placing my face into the wall’s corner and breathing in the cold scent of stone. With a final breath, I looked back at my little rock, scooted around, and flicked it forward a few inches. Another few minutes passed as I crawled across the invisible path, flicking then shuffling, flicking then shuffling, again and again until the rock suddenly disappeared in a long fall. The tips of my fingers were mere inches from the edge. I nearly fell forward as my eyes focused on the distant rocks and vertigo hit me, but with an exercise of will, I stilled myself, then gently rocked back and away from the edge. I slowly turned my head to the right, toward the wall, except there was no wall. Where stone should have been was a hole and a room beyond, broken stones littering the ground. Like a petrified goat, I fell to the right, landing on my side, once more back in the building.

  I embraced the stone floor like I would a life raft after having nearly been swallowed by the sea. The coolness soothed my tense muscles. I had likely only been on the invisible path for less than thirty minutes, but my muscles had become so tense that I felt like I’d run ten miles… not that I actually knew what that felt like.

  The woman’s scream, terrifyingly close, shoved away my relief and instantly replaced it with dread. I got to my feet and studied my surroundings. I was in what looked like a large storage room. Shelves were filled with dusty jars and piles of things long rotten. A door, barely attached to its hinges, hung crooked a few feet before me.

  I stared at the door. I needed to keep my momentum. If I gave too much thought to what I might find at the end of this, I would turn around. Not allowing myself consideration, I crept forward and pushed against the thick but splintered wood. It didn’t budge. I pushed harder, but nothing. It was stuck.

  Another scream destroyed the oppressive silence. Startled, my bulk slammed against the door, flinging it open with a crash. I stumbled into the room beyond, barely catching my feet before I fell.

  Two figures at the room’s far end claimed the whole of my attention. An extremely tall and extremely stooped man, looking like barely more than a skeleton covered in thick, ancient black robes, stood over a young blond woman chained to a crumbling wall by her wrists, arms pulled tight. The skin and flesh of her arms were peeled so the bones from wrists to shoulders were visible. Glowing green threads wrapped around the white of her bones, sickly green smoke rising from the coils. The green threads rose from her gory arms to the tips of the man’s spidery fingers, each of the digits twitching.

  I looked at the woman’s face. Wild and panicked pale blue eyes met mine. Cynthia, Elaine’s friend and my coworker.

  Like a clown from a horror movie, the skeletal man’s bald head slowly turned. Two glints of green flame peered into me from deep black pits that were the man’s eye sockets. Dry and stretched lips split into a wide grin, exposing toothless, black gums.

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  “What do we have here?” The man’s lips didn’t move, but a raspy voice pierced my skull. It felt like his green-flame eyes had scoured my mind, burning the words into my psyche. “Could I be so lucky as to have two grace my humble laboratory?”

  The glimmer of green within his eye holes winked out, returning after only a moment.

  “Ah, I see.” The voice burned through my brain. The smile disappeared, replaced with a ghastly scowl. The pain of his words intensified. “You have disrupted my eternal ball. Like a rat, you snuck into my home and destroyed art three hundred years in the making.” His green eyes bore into me, piercing me to the ground like a pin through a beetle. I couldn’t look away as his eyes scoured my mind, leaving it empty of all but terror and pain.

  “It’s no matter.” His voice rebounded within my skull. “With two of you, I will craft beauty so great the High Gods themselves will rise from their sphere to bear witness.”

  He turned toward Cynthia and yanked, the threads connecting fingers to bones snapping with the sound of crackling fire. The moment his eyes left mine, thought returned to me. Rather, a single thought bulldozed my mind and took control.

  .

  I turned and sprinted back the way I’d come. I flew out of the hole in the wall, nearly careening over the edge but barely caring. The fall would surely be better than facing those horrible green eyes. Thoughts of Cynthia’s splayed flesh spurned me onward. Tears of shame stained my cheeks.

  I returned the way I’d come, stumbling as my stamina waned. Still, I pushed forward as fast as my legs could take me, barely noticing that the previously locked door to the ballroom was once again open. Some time later, I stumbled into the village center and burst through the door to Clark’s inn.

  “Henry,” Jeff said, jumping to his feet, concern creasing his face.

  I opened my mouth, but could do nothing but gasp. My lungs burned and my legs wobbled. The weakness overcame me, and I fell to the wooden floor.

  “Get some water,” Jeff called to someone. Then he was there, above me. “Take your time. Catch your breath. You’re safe.”

  Nearly a minute passed before I’d recovered enough for words to make it between the gasps. “I found someone… one of us.”

  “Where?”

  I took a few more deep breaths. “One of the bosses has her… He’s torturing her.” I couldn’t bring myself to say Cynthia’s name. Whatever Dev was putting us through, the pain was real. The torture was . Someone I knew was being tortured, and I did nothing to stop it.

  “Can you take me?” Jeff’s voice was firm but kind. He wouldn’t judge me if I declined, but he’d go regardless. Cynthia’s screams echoed in my head.

  “Yes.”

  I ignored the other people who stared as Jeff pulled me to my feet. He was shockingly strong, even accounting for his muscled physique. “Are you ready?”

  I accepted a mug of water from Clark, downed it, then nodded. I didn’t meet anyone’s gaze as I turned to leave the inn. Shame at abandoning Cynthia rampaged through me. Even if they didn’t know the extent of my failing, surely they’d see my absolute cowardice. For fear I’d abandoned someone to torture, running to thrust someone else into the horrendous situation in my place.

  I exited the inn and started back, Jeff in tow. The very least I could do for Cynthia was bring Jeff to her as fast as possible. He’d be able to help.

  We silently made our way through the empty corridors I’d traversed earlier that day. The sun was still high in the sky, but everything felt shadowed, covered in some dark awareness. We passed the bones of the two large skeletons that had been standing guard before the ballroom. Jeff grunted in what sounded like surprise. Any other time, I would have reveled in the subtle acknowledgment, but growing fear crowded out all thought. What would I do if the boss took Jeff too? Self-hatred rose in me. I knew what I’d do.

  We reached the balcony, and Jeff watched me dubiously as I built the courage to step out onto the invisible walkway. Still, he said nothing, following me easily once he understood the transparent stability. As we approached the hole in the wall, I slowed. “She’s in there. Beyond the door and against the far wall. The boss… he was standing over her.”

  Jeff carefully got around me and peeked around the corner. “The door’s shut.”

  I shook my head and shrugged. “It was open when I left.”

  Jeff entered the room and slowly made his way toward the closed door. I peeked around the corner, watching him with one eye, too afraid to follow or expose myself more. Sweat dripped down my forehead and back as I watched Jeff place a hand on the door’s handle. His muscles bulged as he pushed, but as with me, the door was stuck. He pulled up on the handle, then pushed again. With barely a scrape, the door slowly swung open.

  The room beyond was dim. I stared through. Green flickering flames floated throughout the space, a small shaft of light piercing the crumbling wall just above Cynthia. I could just see her, still chained, chin resting on her chest. She looked unconscious. Jeff continued forward, his sandals almost silent but audible within the still, cavernous room. I held my breath as Jeff reached the halfway point, sword dropping from nowhere into his hand.

  Hope rose with each of Jeff’s steps, but then Jeff’s movements jerked to a stop as if he’d hit an invisible wall. His body twitched. The looming, cloaked form of the boss appeared, standing beside Jeff as if he’d been there all along, fingers splayed out from within voluminous sleeves. Green threads extended from the boss's fingertips, tightly wrapping themselves around Jeff’s right arm. Jeff’s twitching turned to convulsions as the threads burrowed into his flesh, their green glow visibly squirming beneath Jeff’s dark skin. The boss was talking directly to Jeff’s mind, their gazes locked. I wanted to help, but there was nothing I could do. If I went in, I’d only get caught as well.

  I can come back later… when I’m stronger.

  The thought was all the excuse I needed. I began to step away, back toward safety, when Jeff’s voice boomed through the silence.

  “Fuck this!”

  He raised his sword, but instead of striking the boss, he struck his captured arm at the elbow. The blade made it most of the way through, but got stuck in the final inches of flesh. With an animalistic bellow, Jeff jerked forward, toward Cynthia. The rope of flesh connecting his upper arm to his forearm tore. Then he was free and sprinting. He barreled forward with no sign of slowing as he neared his goal. Jeff slammed into Cynthia at full speed. The weakened wall she was chained to crumbled outward, a hole appearing where she’d been. Jeff had gone the wall, taking Cynthia with him into the empty air beyond. A few moments later, I heard the crash of stone on stone. He’d done it. He’d saved her. The boss silently stared after Jeff.

  With a shake of my head, I slowly retreated from the hole in the wall, not wanting to wait for the boss to move and find me observing. Then, for the second time that day, I trekked back to Clark’s inn.