The Scarlet Assassin

Chapter Thirty-Nine

The entrance to the passageway behind me was sealed off by a stone door that slammed shut with a deafening bang. It echoed through the room but was drowned out by the nearing rush of water.

I turned and banged on the stone with my fist, hoping it'd do something. "Shit!" It wouldn't budge. From the openings in the walls, water began spewing out at an alarming rate.

"Fuck!" Sorin shouted. When I faced him, I saw he was at the other end of the passageway. It was sealed too.

And we were trapped.

"What do we do?" Sorin shouted over the rushing water that now touched my boots.

"Well, right now I'm wishing I'd just knocked you out!"

"What?!"

I shook my head and bit out, "Nevermind."

Sorin took a step from the tunnel and looked around. His face was drawn up in a sort of panicked grimace. "I fucking hate Targaryen."

My eyes scanned the entire room, but it was too dark to see a damn thing. The lantern's light illuminated only a fraction of the darkness.

Sorin pounded his fist against the stone again, his breathing heavy. "This is not how I die! I'm supposed to have songs written about my death, and I will not be remembered as the idiot who drowned!"

"Well maybe you shouldn't have stepped on the stupid plate!" I yelled back.

"Well at least I'm trying to do something instead of just standing there!"

"Doing something? Your fist isn't going to break through stone, you fucking moron!"

"It broke through the wood!"

"The wood was rotting!"

Sorin took a deep breath and said calmly, "We shouldn't be fighting with each other. If these are our last moments in this world, we should at least fuck one more time."

    I groaned and threw my hands over my hand. "I could strangle you right now," I muttered as I turned back to the door and tried to find an inscription or shapes or something. "I need light."

    Behind me, water splashed. "'I need light,' she says," Sorin mumbled under his breath. "Not, 'hey, do you mind coming over with the lantern?' or 'I'm sorry, let's have sex one more time'."

"You got us into this mess, and you're complaining about me?!"

"I'm just saying you could be nicer."

    "I'm going to cut off your dick if you don't hurry up," I snapped. Before Sorin had time to roll his eyes, his foot was hovering over another plate. My eyes widened, but I didn't have the time to say anything before he stepped on the tile.

    His body froze when he realized his mistake, that for the second time he'd stepped on a plate. Yet as we both waited in silence for the worst to happen, the opposite occurred. To my right, lights flickered as torches on the wall lit, and I was astonished to see wheels, gears, cogwheels, and other objects on the wall.

    "I'm done with this fucking country," Sorin grumbled, stepping from the plate and hastily followed me as trudged through the knee-deep water to the wall. "Whoever invents this shit needs to be medicated." We reached the wall and he scoffed. "What even is it?"

    With my brows drawn together, I mused, "An ancient Targaryen puzzle."

    "Oh, bummer. I forgot my puzzle-solving pants back in Ravaryn," he said sarcastically. I ignored him and began pointing to the gears and to the symbols carved into the metal.