by Linsey Hall
Dust wafted up as the trapdoor opened, and Tarron laid it on the stone. Then he climbed down into the pit that was the scene of all my nightmares.
I followed, almost in a trance. As I climbed down the stairs to the cold dark dungeon below, my head buzzed and my skin chilled.
The corridor in the dungeon was narrow and tight. There were four rooms—two off of each side.
The familiar scent nearly made me retch. My breath grew shallow.
I followed Tarron as he peered into each room, pulling myself back from the brink.
I was an adult.
I was a stone-cold bitch.
If Aunt appeared here right now, I’d tear the information out of her and then kill her while smiling into her face and memorizing her screams.
There.
That made me feel a bit better.
Tarron turned to me, taking in my no-doubt pale complexion. My pupils had to be as big as saucers, and I wasn’t exactly sweating gracefully.
He frowned. “I won’t let anything happen to you, you know.”
“Thanks, but I take care of myself.”
But despite my snappy words, I appreciated it. And hell, I was no dummy. Tarron was strong as hell, with seriously powerful magic.
I was glad he was on my side. If it came down to him saving me or my pride getting me killed or recaptured, I’d sure as hell let him save me.
I drew in a deep breath and finished the search, determined to put this place behind me. There were no clues in the horrible little rooms, just cold and misery. I wished I could say that I put my demons to rest on that visit, but it’d be a lie.
I climbed out of the dungeon first, noticing that Tarron lingered by the stairs to let me go ahead of him. He didn’t say he knew I wouldn't like being alone down there; he just acted on it. Which I appreciated even more.
Once he’d made it up through the trapdoor behind me, I stepped around him and spit into the dark hole. “Fuck you.”
“I think we can do better than that.” He raised his hands, and his magic flared.
I stared at him, confused.
Then the earth rumbled below my feet, and I nearly jumped. I looked down into the dark hole, unable to see anything but the stairs at first. Then earth rose up, rocks and rubble pushing up from deep in the earth, filling in the dungeon so it no longer existed.
Warmth filled me like a balloon, so much of it that I thought I might burst or float away.
It was literally the most thoughtful present that anyone had ever given me.
Tears pricked my eyes, and I blinked, shocked.
I wasn’t a crier.
But damned if I wasn’t touched.
“What do you say we do the whole place?” Tarron asked.
I just nodded dumbly, then walked out of the apartment backward, keeping my eyes on the piles of rock that belched out of the tunnel, filling the room. He was bringing the earth up from down below in order to not damage the structural integrity of the tunnels.
I stepped out into the main street, where the tunnel was taller and wider. It didn’t take long for Tarron to fill the entire apartment with rubble. He brought so much up from deep in the earth that it filled the place until it was entirely gone. Just a wall of rock.
Then he lowered his hands, and his magic faded.
“Thank you.” I couldn't look away from him.
He just nodded, then looked toward the street. “Where to next?”
I tried to shake off the emotions that surged through me and focus on the task. “We need to do some recon.”
I tried my seeker sense, but was unsurprised to find my aunt’s location blocked. The paranoid bitch would have definitely bought a charm to protect against that kind of thing. She’d had a lot of enemies.
I spotted a figure at the far end of the street. Slender and small, his form didn’t look familiar.
Tarron noticed my gaze. “Who is that?”
“No idea.” I raced toward him, calling upon my unnatural speed that was a gift of my Dragon Blood side.
The stranger flinched and began to run, but I was too fast. When I appeared next to him and grabbed him by the arm, I realized that I’d been right. Totally unfamiliar. But he was definitely interested in what was going on near my aunt’s place. His pale green gaze moved between it and me.
His hair was limp and greasy, and the scent of burning garbage wafted from him. “Who are you?”
“None of your business.” I drew a dagger from the ether and slammed him back against the stone wall. “Who are you?”
“None of your—”
I pushed my arm against his throat and cut off his words. “You’re going to answer me, or I’m going to gut you.”
He paled, probably because he could sense that I meant it. I probably wouldn’t kill him, but I’d definitely hurt him to get the information I needed. The scent of his magic made it clear what he got up to in his spare time. You could hide a lot of things behind clever words and the right persona—but you couldn’t hide evil deeds from reeking through your magic.
“What do you want to know?” he squeaked.
“The man and woman who lived in the apartment we just destroyed—where are they?”
“Dead?”
“Dead?” I hissed.
“Uh, just the man.”
Uncle was dead.
Good.
“And the woman?”
“She moved to the forest.”
“Which forest?”
He frowned, clearly perplexed that I didn't know. I shook him.
“The one at the end of Midnight Lane, next to the cemetery.”
“Why’d she go there?”
“Had to. She had a run-in with a witch who didn't like her. The man died, but she was punished. She moved to the forest.”
“Punished how?” I didn’t hate the sound of that, to be honest.
“I don’t know.” He raised his hands. “I swear it. I just heard the rumors.”
“Did the witch clear out this whole street?” I asked.
He nodded. “Her magic left a stain here. No one wanted to stay.”
That explained the dead feeling to the place.
“How do I find the woman?”
“Just follow the path. There’s only one house in the whole forest.” He shuddered. “Place is awful.”
If it was too terrible for even a Grimrealm local, then yeah, it would be horrible.
I dropped him, then stepped back. He scuttled away so fast that he was out of sight in seconds.
I turned to Tarron. “Looks like we’re headed to the forest.”
He nodded. “Do you know where the cemetery is?”
“I do.” I led the way out of the tunnel, and we cut across the edge of the market, heading for another passage off the bustling space.
We passed two casinos and a shop with totally blacked-out windows. It reeked so badly my eyes watered, and I had absolutely zero desire to see what was inside. Finally, we turned down Midnight Lane.
Unlike Arition Street, there were no doorways leading off this passage. It was empty and quiet, the domed ceiling looming high overhead. As we neared the forest, the sound of night creatures grew louder. Crickets and bats.
We reached the end of the tunnel and stared out into a massive space filled with a forest. We had to be underground still—there’d been no elevation change—but the ceiling was so high above and it was so dark that I couldn’t see where it ended.
I could see the shadows of trees, however, and there were hundreds. They were enormous, with black bark and dark gray leaves.
“How is this possible?” Tarron asked. “There’s no sun down here for a forest.”
“Maybe they don’t live off sunlight.” I peered at the trees, trying to figure them out. “Because they don’t look like any trees I’ve ever seen.”
“No, they look dead.” He approached the closest one and pressed his hand to the bark. “And yet, they are not.”
“The path is there.” I pointed to t
he narrow, well-trodden pathway. It was so dark that I could only see a few feet down the path, but it was distinct.
“I could create some light, but I’m not certain we want to draw attention to ourselves.”
“Agreed.” I stepped onto the path.
As soon as I did, lightning bugs lit up the night around me. Hundreds of them, glowing golden and bright. Enough that I could see the woods around me.
“It seems there’s no need,” Tarron said.
I smiled, almost liking the lightning bugs. Not everything in Grimrealm was bad. We’d come from here, after all. So had Aeri’s hellcat, Wally. He was pretty cool.
Quickly, I made my way down the path, my heart beating louder and louder.
Tarron stayed close behind me, and I was glad he was there. As glad as I was that Aeri wasn’t.
The forest bustled with life, all of it slightly different than the life on earth. Whatever was feeding this midnight forest, it was doing a good job.
Sounds rustled in the trees around us, and I stiffened. “Do you hear that?”
“I do. Something is watching us.”
I wanted to draw a weapon from the ether, but that could signal aggression. There was no need to start a fight if we didn’t have to.
I kept my pace steady as I walked, searching the forest around me. The hordes of lightning bugs cast a golden glow, but whatever watched us hid in the shadows.
When the first projectile hurtled toward me, I sensed it more than saw it. I dived left, barely avoiding the narrow dart that whizzed by.
“Shields!” Tarron drew his from the ether.
I yanked mine out as well, crouching behind it as I surveyed the terrain around us.
I saw nothing.
“Quick little bastards,” I muttered.
“How do you know they’re little?”
“I think the dart flew from low to the ground.”
As if to prove my point, a tiny figure sprinted toward us from out of the woods, a narrow pipe raised to his mouth. His skin was blue and his eyes tiny. Spikey green twigs decorated his head, and he moved in a dancing sort of way, with great leaps and hops. He shot a dart right at me, then sprinted behind a tree trunk.
I raised the shield so the dart plonked off the surface, then looked at Tarron, who hid behind his own shield. “They have darts. Probably poisonous.”
He nodded sharply.
More of the darts banged against my shield. I peeked out at the forest and spotted a half dozen of the little creatures darting between the trees, shooting at us.
“Let’s go side to side,” Tarron said. “We’ll hold our shields behind us.”
“Behind?”
“’I’ll send a blast of wind out front.”
“Perfect.” I stood, shifting to stand nearer to him, and we blocked the space behind us with the shields.
His magic flared to life a millisecond later, a strong wind blowing in front of us. Every little creature that tried to shoot a dart saw his weapon lost to the wind.
When they began to move around to the side, I drew a dagger from the ether and hurled it. I sliced one beast through the arm, and it howled. Then another through the leg, and it limped away.
But there were so many of them. Even with Tarron’s strong gale deflecting the darts, they could sneak around from the back and maybe get our ankles beneath our shield.
The thorn wolf appeared a moment later.
“Burn!”
He woofed at me, then lowered his head and growled at the tiny monsters who surrounded us. They blew their darts toward him, but the little projectiles bounced off his thick coat of thorns. Burn growled and shot several thorns from his coat, which pierced the monsters straight through.
They shrieked and ran, and we were able to pick up the pace. Tarron never dropped control of the gale that kept us safe from the front, and Burn guarded our backs and Tarron’s side. I took care of my side, hitting another little monster with a dagger to the chest.
By the time the tiny creatures had disappeared, I was out of breath.
“Is that all of them?” Tarron asked.
“I think so. The forest seems quieter.” Except for a malevolent feeling coming from up ahead.
But I had a feeling I knew what that was.
“My aunt. I think she’s near.”
We crept forward on silent feet, following the path with Burn at our side. He sniffed the ground occasionally, growling low in his throat at whatever he sensed.
When we came across the house in the middle of the clearing, I stopped, staring.
It was made of bones.
6
“I thought your childhood home was bad,” Tarron said. “But this is…a fairytale nightmare.”
I nodded, taking in the thousands of bones that had been used to build the large round structure. The house was domed, created of bones piled up. Spiderwebs extended up from it, thousands of meters of it creating a white net around the place and up into the huge trees that loomed around. They were hundreds of feet tall here.
I’d never thought I’d say that the dungeon Aunt had kept us in was better than anything.
But it was better than this.
I sucked in a deep breath. “The man on Arition Street said there was only one place in the woods, so this has to be it.”
And somehow, I could feel her here. Not her magic, since she didn’t really have any of that. But the absence of a soul, almost.
I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t have a soul.
I started forward, my footsteps light on the ground so my approach was silent.
Tarron joined me, staying close to my side. I didn’t mean to, but I couldn’t help but draw energy from him. Support.
Whether or not he intended to comfort me, I didn’t know. But I wouldn’t dwell on it.
When I reached the wide front door—once again, made of bones—I stopped and drew in a deep breath. Then I pushed it open. There was no doorknob and no lock, which was odd enough, but the sight inside made me stiffen.
A massive spider crouched against the far wall, staring at me. Glittering, multifaceted eyes met mine, and the huge body was hairy and ugly. A strange nest was built into the corner, and the bones of dead animals lay scattered all around.
Next to me, Tarron drew his sword from the ether.
I couldn’t.
Shock rooted me to the ground.
This was my aunt. I could feel it. Could see it in her eyes.
“You look different.” I ran my gaze over her horrifying body. “Almost an improvement, really.”
The spider hissed, but when it spoke, it was with my aunt’s voice. “What are you doing here?”
I shrugged. “Came to pay a visit to family. We were so close, after all.”
She hissed again.
“Is Uncle really dead?” I asked.
“Dead as a doornail.”
“Or dead as your soul.” I felt nothing but seething satisfaction.
Would I kill her?
Maybe.
“How did this”—I gestured to her form—“happen?” I tried to make my voice sound sympathetic so she would tell me, but she could probably see right through it. I wanted all the gory details, my aunt’s misery spelled out in front of me.
Apparently I was a bit vindictive.
Who knew?
The spider tapped its front leg against the ground, an almost impatient gesture. Or worried?
When the words came out, it was as if she were desperate to talk. The energy between us was weird as hell, but that didn’t stop her. “Our bodyguard was killed two months ago. When that happened, the witchy creditor came for us. She killed your uncle and turned me into this…thing.”
The disgust in her voice was evident, and I tried not to smile widely. Not just because she was getting her just deserts, but because Aeri and I had killed that bodyguard. Aeri had delivered the final blow. She’d love to hear the results of her handiwork.
“And you’ve been alone here since?” I asked.<
br />
“The people of Grimrealm evicted me.”
“Ooh, rough.” I winced. She was too horrible for even the people of Grimrealm?
Yeah, sounded about right.
“Why are you here?” Aunt demanded.
“I need some information about how to reach the Unseelie Fae realm. I know that you were born there.”
The spider spat on the ground—or tried to. It was clearly a human instinct that she hadn’t gotten rid of yet.
Fates, this was delightful.
“Why did you leave?” I asked. “Was it because you were weak?”
I wouldn’t kill her today—as long as the Unseelie magic was out of control within me, I didn't want to do anything that could be construed as evil—but that didn’t mean I couldn’t stab her with my words.
“I wasn’t going to stick around there,” she said. Fangs clicked in her mouth, and it was an eerie experience to watch her speak.
“Because of my mother?”
“Bitch.” The spider tried to spit again, then looked at Tarron. “Who’s this?”
He stepped forward. “Tarron, King of the Seelie Fae. And if you don’t tell her what she wants to know, I’ll tear you limb from limb.”
The rage in his voice made me feel a bit warm, in a weirdly good way. It was almost as if he hated her, given what she’d done to me. He’d seen the dungeon after all.
“I’m not telling her anything.” My aunt’s keen eyes assessed me. “Perhaps a competition though.”
I raised a brow.
“A race to the top of the trees. If you win, I give you what you want to know. If I win, you use your magic to turn me back and stay with me forever.”
I shivered at the mere thought, then stiffened my spine. No way in hell I’d stay here with her, no matter the outcome of the race.
I was powerful. I wasn’t in chains.
I’d kill her before that happened.
I caught Tarron’s eye, and read the same thing on his face. He wouldn’t leave me here. I could almost feel the determination in him. There was a connection between us—unlike anything I’d ever felt. I could almost read his intentions on the air. Like some sort of weird pheromone.
Had to be the fated mates bond.
“A race, you say?” I crossed my arms. “No offensive magic, just race to the tops of the trees?”
