“Fair enough, but how do we avoid them showing up?” asked Hypnos.

Séverin stared at the floor, frowning a little. “Did the room always look like this in the images the temple showed us?”

Enrique tried to think back to all the images that had flown through his head. He remembered sunlight haloing the ziggurat.

“The floor…” said Zofia. “It’s … it’s changing.”

Enrique’s eyes flew open. Sure enough, the glass floor before them slowly lightened. The stars faded. A tinge of blush seeped out from the base of the ziggurat. He turned to ask Séverin what he thought it might mean, when an unfamiliar sound tore through the air.

“What was that?” asked Hypnos, spinning around.

Behind them, the archway made by Hypnos’s fan still glowed brightly. Something flickered in its distance. Light off the water, perhaps?

“Séverin,” said Laila sharply.

Enrique looked to her. Moments ago, she had been rifling through the contents of their sack. But now she was holding the gilded box in a white-knuckled grip.

“The box is Forged,” she said.

Séverin’s eyes widened. “What?”

“I think—”

Something boomed in the distance, shaking the ground. Enrique lost his balance, his arms pinwheeling. Another boom rattled through the temple. Past the archway, stalactites crashed into the lake.

A high-pitched moan swept through the temple, raising the hairs on Enrique’s arms. Smoke and fog bloomed through the void surrounding the ziggurat. Above them, the lush forest ceiling trembled. Vines and branches clattered to the brightening floor. Enrique’s wound throbbed suddenly, and he winced as he brought his hand to cover it.

“What’s happening—” Hypnos started, but his words were swallowed up as the archway went up in roaring flames.

A blast threw Enrique on his back. The world spun. Noise bled into silence and back. Smoke burned his lungs, and he fought for breath, waving at the air before his face.

Just as quickly … the smoke cleared.

And when Enrique could finally open his eyes, he saw that he was staring at the sharp point of a golden dagger right between his eyes. Beyond it, standing in the torn mouth of the archway …

“Hello, friends,” Ruslan said, smiling.

PART V

31

LAILA

Laila’s heart had never beat so furiously. Moments ago, she had been savoring that very feeling. When they had entered the temple sanctum, Laila had felt as if her whole body had been rinsed in myths and honeyed light.

She had returned to her senses to find them sharp, honed as if by a jeweler’s lathe so that every sensation felt like a polished jewel. Even her blood moved sleekly in her veins. And perhaps the temple had changed something within her because the moment she touched the Forged box, she knew.

Ruslan had laid a trap for them.

But however the temple might have enhanced her abilities, it had not done so fast enough. Laila looked down to see a hovering, golden dagger pressed against her heart.

And she was not alone.