by Kayleigh Sky
They went from the veranda into a long narrow room. Here, windows lined one entire side, three in a row with glass, the rest without. The room was at least two stories. The floor was tiled, a fountain spilling water down the back wall. In front was a ten-foot-tall throne. “Goliath could sit there,” Isaac said to himself. “And I could be David.”
The thought gave him comfort.
Hang on.
On his side, hundreds of items covered a row of tables. Jeweled boxes, statues, books with painted covers, pottery, golden goblets, candlesticks, swords and knives, pieces of jewelry, and other things Isaac couldn’t determine. He veered toward it, and Solomon grabbed his shirt collar.
“You admire our things, human? Thousands of years of our history lies here, dug from the rubble of your destruction.”
“I was two,” Isaac snarled at him.
Solomon laughed. “You and your bestial breed are all the same. You fawn after gold. That—” Solomon pushed him at the table. “—is our heart.”
Games. He landed up against a square board marked off like a checker or chessboard. Small figurines for game pieces. An open square of cloth held dice. He couldn’t help but think of children. So many of them were dead, he knew. Human and vampire alike. Crushed or burned or drowned in the Upheaval. Starved or killed afterwards. No wonder Rune was who he was. Was it possible to absorb the energy of people? Because maybe that was what he’d done. Consumed the spirits of all of these lost children and the tormented cries of their parents.
Had Isaac’s parents thought they’d lost him before they’d died? Were they dead? Maybe they’d searched for him. Maybe they were alive but had given up hope.
Grief and guilt swamped him.
His gaze fell on some jewelry, bright, beautiful pieces. For happy times like parties and celebrations.
He reached for a piece, but Solomon yanked him back and shoved him across the floor. “Over there.”
He stumbled toward the throne, his gaze catching a light in the shadow underneath it as bright as the jewelry. His ears rang with the same desperation that had come over him when he’d taken the map from the dying vampire, when he’d followed Rune, when he’d demanded a contract at Comity House. Small choices piling like a pyre about to be lit on fire. He had a chance, but he didn’t know what the chance was, only that it was there, as bright as the light in the shadow. He said nothing now.
The throne was solid wood and polished to a shine that rivaled the jewels encrusted into its sides and crest. A symbol was carved into the back, and Isaac recognized it enough to know it was a letter.
Solomon grabbed his wrist and locked a chain around it. “Get under.” Under? He frowned, confused. “Under the throne,” Solomon added.
Oh.
With that light, whatever it was. Small choices, all coming together. He scrambled under, grateful to get away from Solomon’s grasp. But the vampire reached in after him, dug his nails into a hook that lay flush with the tile floor and lifted it. Isaac remained still while he locked the chain around his wrist to the floor. Under the throne. Was this the throne Rune had hid under? Had he ever been chained under it?
Moving back as far as he could, Isaac rested against one of the heavy legs, cold in the misty spray of the fountain behind him, and watched Solomon’s legs as he walked away. When he disappeared from sight, Isaac twisted to look behind him. The chain was dull and black, no part of it bright. Water glistened on the tiles, and—
There!
A coil of leather and metal and stones. He reached for it, but froze at a booming roar. Deep and ferocious. A shout that shook rock and tore at the air. Rune. Isaac gasped as it came again.
“QUDIM!”
46
Camiel Spills
An hour earlier…
* * *
The useless witch.
All Camiel did was chew his lip and stare at him. They stood in front of the statue.
“Well?” Rune barked.
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to snap your neck.”
Camiel took a step back. “I don’t believe you.”
“Try me.”
“I know what you’re going to do. You’re going to barter for Isaac, but you can’t. You know that. Are you forgetting that they’re poisoning us? That they’re turning us against our own kind to control humans? The treasure has to stay safe.”
The truth was, he had forgotten. In the chaos of losing Isaac and feeding Anin half his blood, he’d held onto the idea of the necklace like a rope dragging him from hell. It was the last one. Everything. The way to the treasure, and now the way to get Isaac back.
He frowned as his fuzzy brain worked on Camiel’s words. “What do you mean it has to stay safe?”
“It has been our sacred duty for thousands of years.”
Whose? “Why?”
Camiel ran a hand through his hair, his braids long ago had come loose and tangled in wild knots. “I’m a poor witch, and my teacher died. I don’t know most of what Abadi wanted to teach me.”
“But you know about this. You know about the treasure.”
He shrugged. “The treasure’s common knowledge.”
“Not how to get to it. Not about the map.”
Camiel nodded. “The vampire you met—Thomas—was a distant cousin and an enforcer, who was with us when we left Kolnadia. At the time I didn’t know Abadi gave him part of the map, not until he arrived at my house a few weeks ago. I barely remembered him. But he was family, and he had the map, and instructions that he was supposed to hold it until you became king. But he suspected the Adi were on to him, and you had disappeared. I had the other part of the map Abadi gave me with her cards. I always thought it was useless without her, but I kept it safe. When I saw Thomas’s half… Well, I gave him my calling card with an attraction spell. The spell lured you. But I was afraid it was only a matter of time before the Adi found me. I gave my part of the map to my cousin. His name was Larimar Glee.” Camiel shut his eyes and swallowed. “I never thought that would happen. I trust Anin. He’s brave and strong. He was supposed to get the map, but… Isaac got it.”
“You knew about this the whole time.”
“I knew the pieces on the game board, but not the point of the game.”
Rune growled. “You didn’t tell me!”
“I didn’t trust you.”
Rune leaned back against the wall, the fuzz in his head spreading into his limbs. He’d pushed his memories of the Upheaval as far back into his memory as he could. Nothing would ever change it or bring the dead back to life. He wanted to leave that darkness, but others reveled in it and dragged him back. He’d tried doubly hard not to imagine what it had been like for Abadi. What her last hours had been like.
“How did it happen?”
Camiel took a breath…
* * *
Twenty-one years and eight months before, thirty kilometers outside Majallena…
* * *
There were dozens of them, but Camiel hadn’t counted them. The ones who’d been enforcers before the war followed from behind, keeping a watch on their backs. Abadi gave Cammy her hand and smiled down at him.
“Do you remember all the cards?”
Cammy hummed to himself while he thought about it. “I think so.”
“Let’s start with the drabs.”
Years later, when he’d learned the human tarot, he knew that drabs and cups were about the same.
Back then he’d loved drabs. He was sociable and cheerful and loved to talk. Though he didn’t have much of a family, he had Abadi and a trade that set him apart. The drab cards depicted couples and families and market squares. Bright colors and happy scenes.
He talked as he walked. “… and the four of drabs is a family at a table in the gathering hall and…”
The ground erupted in front of them, rising and angling back, throwing them off their feet. Screams deafened him. Maybe he screamed. At first Abadi held onto him, but then he flew from her arms a
nd slammed into rock. He rolled away from it. His head filled with a thunderous roar. He clapped his hands over his ears and choked on dust. A moment later he threw his arms out as an eruption underneath him threw him into the air again.
And then it was done.
But it wasn’t quiet. That fact had stayed with him over the years. He forgot many things, but not that low moan that seemed to come from the rock itself. He dragged himself up onto his hands and knees. “Abadi!”
“Cammy!”
He staggered onto his feet. Dust clouded his vision, but he knew the shapes on the ground weren’t rocks. Panicky tears flooded his eyes. “Abadi!”
“Here, here…”
She pulled him into her arms.
“Queen.”
A pair of vampires appeared. Camiel didn’t know their names, only that they were the enforcers who’d taken up the rear.
“I’m not hurt. Help who you can.”
“The tunnel is still open,” one of them said. “You must go. He’ll come for you if he’s still alive.”
Camiel stared as she closed her eyes. “I can’t leave my people. We go together.”
“We won’t make it.”
“We’ll try.” Then she put her hands on Camiel’s shoulders.
“Wha-what happened?” he said.
“It was an earthquake, Cammy, but it’s over. You’ve felt them before.”
“Not like this.” Even at ten, he knew this was different. “The rock is crying.”
Her expression changed, pain filling her eyes. “You must do something for me. Only you, Cammy.” She held a coin in front of him, turning it back and forth. “This is worth six lio. That is more than the number of true hearts. You are one of the number, Cammy. But the most powerful true heart is Rune.” His eyes hung on the coin. “These words are yours, Cammy. Only yours,” she intoned. Her voice sank inside him like a fog, soft and diaphanous, swirling around his heart, in and out of his ribs. Rising into his throat and floating from his lips.
“Only mine.”
“Yet nothing belongs to us. We are servants.”
His eyes followed the coin as it twisted and turned and caught the small flashes of light that still burned.
“One day,” she said. “You must go to my shrine. Remember the true heart’s name. The Guardian of the Treasure. As bright as it shines, it is no more than a trick of the light. Never where you think it is. It is precious. As precious as you. As precious as my children. Follow the path, Cammy. I believe in you.”
When the coin stopped moving, he blinked. Shadows moved around them. Abadi kissed his forehead. “And I love you.”
She pressed the coin into his palm. The enforcer returned and waited at her side. “We have lost seven.”
Abadi’s face shuttered.
Seven? Lost them? Dead, Cammy realized. He swallowed and squeezed the coin.
A ripping sound drew his attention. Abadi was folding a piece of paper. She gave it to him and brushed his hair off his forehead. “Go. The light bearer will follow me. I want you to return to Kolnadia with Thomas and his enforcers. Pretend you never left and practice your spells every day.”
He nodded. “When will you come get me?”
She stroked his cheek. “We’ll see. I have something very important to do, and so do you. But first, I’m going to help the others get to Majallena. I might be gone a long time. Thomas will take care of you.”
Cammy stared at the folded parchment and the gold coin, precious treasures he had to protect.
When he glanced up, Abadi was gone…
* * *
Camiel took his coin from his pocket and held Rune’s gaze. “Why did you let me come with you?”
Rune stared for a moment. Why had Cammy wanted to come? There were a lot of answers to that question just as there were a lot of answers Rune could give him now. “You had the Royal cards,” or “I knew you weren’t telling me everything about the map,” or “I trust fate and fate led me to you.” It would all have been true, but the real answer was simpler. “My mother saw something in you. I wondered what.”
“And now?”
“I still wonder.”
Camiel snorted and handed him the coin. It matched the medallion around the statue’s neck, a negative image of the design, like a reflection in a mirror. Rune hadn’t considered that it wasn’t just a coin until after Camiel’s story. Now he placed it against the medallion. It wasn’t a tight fit, but it wasn’t meant to be. He pressed the pad of his thumb and index finger to the coin’s surface and forced it into a slight turn. The coin and the round design underneath it popped out, and a rumble shook the cavern. Rune ignored that and focused on a small compartment behind Abadi’s necklace. Inside was a small compartment containing a long titanium tube.
Rune removed it and held it in his hand. The tube was two pieces, locked together around the middle. Breakable perhaps, but the titanium wouldn’t make it easy. The lock was a long bank of twenty letters.
Rune gazed into Camiel’s slightly awestruck eyes. “Do you know the combination?”
He nodded. “It took me a while to piece together a lot of other things from that day, but she told me the combination. Remember his name. Your name.”
He tried it. Four letters. But the pieces held together.
He raised his gaze to Camiel, seeing the light spark in Cammy’s eyes at the same time he realized: Wrouyn.
He tried it again, and the halves fell apart in his hands. Inside was the necklace. The last one. Thought lost hundreds of years ago. He met Camiel’s gaze. Cammy’s lips parted.
The necklace, like the others, had a letter etched into it. “Lithma,” Rune said.
Peace. Something hurt inside him. His fuzziness turned into exhaustion. Peace was so far away.
“The treasure is yours now,” Camiel said. He gazed at the gap behind Abadi’s statue. “If it’s real.”
“It is, and it’s not there.” Rune stroked the underside of the necklace’s centerpiece. “This letter is like the design on your coin. It will fit into one of the locks that guard the treasure.”
“How do you know that?”
“You heard me mention the Rilith Collection. It’s housed in the Celestine Library, mostly cups and plates, but the biggest piece is a chest. I saw it when I was a boy, and I remembered that it opened with rings that fit into the designs carved on its lid. When I found the first necklace and saw the way the letter was cut into the stone underneath, I made the leap. And that’s why I realized what your coin was for.”
A shrewd look surfaced in Camiel’s eyes. “Is the library where the treasure is?”
Rune frowned. “I don’t know.”
But maybe it was. Celestine was the jewel of Ellowyn cities, its origins lost in time, though according to lore it had been built by those who’d left Rilith.
Doubt pulled lines between Camiel’s eyes. “What if you’re wrong?”
Rune shrugged. “I’m not worried. What’s a leap of faith worth without a little faith? Now go.”
Camiel’s face twisted. Torn probably. Wanting Anin, but fearing what Rune was about to do.
He squeezed the necklace in his fingers, relishing where it bit and dug into his flesh. “Go.”
Camiel drew back a step. “I always wanted to see the great Celestine Library.” Rune’s eyes narrowed, and Camiel grinned. “Another time maybe.”
A second later, he darted from the chamber.
What the—?
Uriah.
It had to be what Cammy meant, that he was going to send him back. But no matter. Rune would be long gone. He was out of time now, but for a moment he stared at the statue, frowning hard at Abadi’s face. The treasure she guarded had brought nothing but destruction. But it was his.
His destiny.
His throne.
His fated.
His honor.
47
A Change of Heart
“QUDIM!”
The throne room burst into a flurry of activity.
The dim lights seemed to flare, the seawater green wavering in front of him. But maybe it was only the adrenalin surging through him in waves or the sweat in his eyes. He wiped his face with his fist, forgetting the band of steel and jewels in his hand until it scraped his skin. The jewels glowed red, all red, but how could he see the color here? His hand warmed. He closed the band in his fist again.
One of the vampires laughed, a low, rough sound audible over the other shouts. Close.
Isaac shivered and drew back.
“On the south side,” somebody yelled.
The thunder of running filled the space. And then it was quiet, but Isaac sensed somebody there. He lowered his head all the way, cheek against the cool tile and stared. On the far end of the room, vampires stood. He saw the tips of their swords. But somebody else was closer. A looming weight. A face dropped down in front of him, upside down.
He jerked back, slammed his head against the underside of the throne, and cried out. “Fuck!”
Laughter boomed, and then legs appeared in front of him. The creature sat on the throne. It crossed its legs at the ankles.
Isaac wished he had fangs. Wished he could bite through the bastard’s Achilles tendon. It couldn’t bode well he only sat there like nothing was happening. Shouts came from far away, and then a loud scream, its echo running down Isaac’s spine like ice-cold water. He pushed back farther. With the tinkle of his chain came another throaty laugh.
Maybe he wouldn’t bother with the Achilles tendon. Maybe he’d go straight for the jugular.
But the thought made his stomach churn too. This wasn’t what he wanted. Swords and blood. He wanted a kitchen and people to cook for. He wanted Marcus to be alive, but that wasn’t going to happen. He wanted to spend a whole rainy day by a fire reading books with Jessa. He wanted…
