The Drowned Gods, #2
Stranger Skies
by Pascale Lacelle
Contents
Chapter 20: Romie
Overview
Romie, Emory, and Aspen find the spiral ley door in a cavern of ancient basalt beneath a yew. Aspen’s scar and scrying cannot open it. Emory proposes a dreadful solution: a bone sacrifice—likely a rib. Their debate is cut short by the arrival of a sinister, unidentified figure.
Summary
Romie notes the ominous absence of the dark presence in the sleepscape and doubts her memory of Emory leeching magic on the ley, wondering if the force she fought was the same demon expelled from Bryony. She is relieved when the trio reaches the ley door.
They enter a hollow beneath a massive yew, the darkness echoing Dovermere until Aspen lights a lantern. The passage warms as they descend into a cavern of charcoal hexagonal basalt columns and steaming pools. A silver spiral etched in stone marks the door.
Drawn by a shared sense of destiny, Romie urges Aspen to try opening it. Aspen aligns her spiral scar to the carving and slips into scrying, but nothing yields; the rock remains inert.
Emory recalls that the Hourglass opened with collective blood and suggests this door may require a parallel sacrifice tied to witch magic—bones. Interpreting the “rib cage that wraps around the heart of the world,” they conclude a rib might be demanded, a realization that horrifies them.
Before they can act, a haunting voice speaks behind them. The lantern shatters, and they face a nightmare-like intruder.
Who Appears
- RomiePOV; uneasy about Emory’s suspected leeching; links sleepscape demon to Bryony’s; leads the push to open the door.
- AspenCarries the lantern; identifies basalt columns; aligns her spiral scar; attempts scrying; fails to open the door.
- EmoryRestrains magic at the ley’s center; recalls Hourglass blood offering; proposes a bone—likely rib—sacrifice to open the door.
- Unknown intruderArrives with a haunting voice; shocks the trio as the lantern shatters; described as a nightmare-like figure.