“Magestone.”
Tauria had only ever heard legend of the fae-incapacitating stone and matched his terror as she looked over the cell walls that sparkled with polished black. It was inconceivable to think she was standing in a cell lined with the fatal stone, which had been right under their feet all this time. She instinctively backed up a step, not wanting to get any closer to the mineral to find out if its full effects were true.
“Gods above…” Nik breathed, daring a step closer to Faythe who stood fully inside it.
“Care to find out what it feels like to be human?” Faythe taunted playfully. The prince didn’t match her humor. As he stared at her wide-eyed from outside the open cage door, she added, “If it makes you feel any better, it takes away my ability too in this amount. Only, it has no physical effects. I’m just as weak and human as ever.” She caressed the distorted black wall.
The material was lethal and alluring. Tauria even dared to call it beautiful despite its promise of torture. It wasn’t only her ability and her fae advantages she was afraid of temporarily losing—even as she kept her distance from coming into direct contact with the stone, she could feel its deadly beckoning, and her head throbbed at the mere sight of it. Though she didn’t know much about Magestone, it was obvious it had a more detrimental effect than being simply incapacitating. At least in this quantity.
“Do you think Orlon knows?” A dangerous question, and Tauria slid her gaze to Nik as she asked it.
The prince was pale when he turned to her. “It doesn’t look as if anyone’s been down here in centuries.”
It wasn’t a direct answer, and she didn’t press for more as she saw the dread that perhaps his father knew such a place, such a weapon, existed in his own castle. What use he would have for it was a fear not worth visiting now.
Something else caught the ward’s attention, and she turned her head to stare down the end of the cellblock. She only found another steel door, except this one was yet to be ventured through.
“What’s down there?” she asked, though she didn’t expect a real answer.
Faythe and Nik followed her gaze, and the human shrugged. “Let’s find out.”
The prince caught her elbow as she stepped past him outside the cell. “Do you ever stop to think anything through?” he scolded.
“What is there to think through?” she challenged. Tauria didn’t know if she admired or feared Faythe’s heedless bravery sometimes.
After a short stare-off, Nik didn’t form a counterargument, but the protest remained on his face. Faythe pulled her arm free and stalked for the end door. Tauria didn’t hesitate to follow. Something called to her beyond that door, and if there was a slight chance it was the ruin they sought, she had to find out.
Faythe unlatched the series of bolts that locked it, and Tauria noted there were far more security measures on this one than on any of the previous doors they had passed. A dark, unnerving feeling settled in her stomach, and her heart galloped with anticipation. The human strained against the final large latch sealing the steel door. Tauria was about to offer to help when the prince stepped past her. He put a hand over Faythe’s, and they exchanged a quick look. Tauria couldn’t read it, but it dropped her stomach for a second. Then Faythe backed away and let the prince undo the final lock that protected them from whatever was behind the door.
Nik pulled it open, taking a peek inside before either female could glimpse what lay beyond. He inhaled a subtle breath, audible enough that Tauria picked up on it, and her heart skipped a beat. There couldn’t be any immediate danger as Nik slowly slid himself through the small gap. Faythe quickly followed, and Tauria joined with heightened caution.
She took a long breath, and her mouth popped open at the large, cavernous dwelling that opened up in front of them. They stood on a ledge that had no railing or barrier to protect them against the fatal fall into the pitch-black, bottomless pit. Scanning around, she saw several levels and gaps in the stone that led off in various directions.
An underground labyrinth. Mercifully, there was no Magestone to be seen or felt in the cave. Yet it gave off a different kind of ethereal feeling.
“It’s here,” she said in realization. When her companions looked to her expectantly, she added, “The ruin—I can feel it.”
Faythe’s eyes widened. “Do you think you can find it?” she asked eagerly.
It was faint. The uncanny similar power she felt from the Light Temple. It quietly called to her, and she was confident, given enough time to scour the various passages, she would be able to track it down.
“I think so, but I’ll need time.”
Tauria’s senses spiked on high alert, but she couldn’t place what it was about the dark dwelling that screamed at her to run.
She heard it just as the prince straightened to tune in too. The whoosh of air—climbing, beating louder. Wings, she concluded, sounding down below. And with them, a terrible scent of death and decay rose from the pit.
Nik drew his sword, and at his obvious alarm, Faythe mirrored his movement. The slice of steel echoed through the otherwise soundless dwelling. Everyone braced in anticipation.
Then, shooting upward to their level, death greeted them in the form of wings and flesh.
Chapter 32
Faythe
“Run!”
Faythe didn’t argue as the prince barked the command, but two prominent thoughts surfaced in her split second of deductive thinking.
The first was that even if they attempted to outrun the beast back into the castle library, they would only unleash damning chaos on the unwitting occupants above. The guard might be able to take care of the problem before it caused too much destruction, but it would ultimately give away the passages they’d found.
The second was that if the temple ruin was down here, they had to at least try to locate it. And that meant eradicating the threat standing in their way.
Neither problem offered a desirable outcome nor held confident odds for their survival. Perhaps she’d gone utterly insane in her quest for the Spirit Ruin.
While she knew Nik meant to retreat back the way they came, back to the only confirmed exit…
Faythe darted right instead.
Her recklessly impulsive maneuver put enough distance between her and the fae that the winged creature, reeking of blood and decay, landed in that space to separate them.
And chose to face her.
She trembled at the ghastly sight of it but held her blade firm. The creature hissed as it beheld Lumarias, and Faythe’s eyes narrowed at the reaction. She didn’t expect a simple sword to be of much use against the creature, but its reaction told her it somewhat feared the steel in her palm.
Faythe took all of one moment to gauge the monster in front of her, and she was almost struck. The first thing she noticed was its ears. One was half-torn off, but the other was pointed, just like the fae. Its face was hideously disfigured and rotting with old wounds. Despite the neglect, Faythe could still make out features that would have once been just like Nik or Tauria’s, or even hers. It shook Faythe to her core to think of what could have happened to it to turn it into such a gruesome creature.
“I rather hoped you would hear my beckoning.” Its voice was distorted in a wicked croak that washed nausea through her. Faythe was surprised to find it could speak at all.
A chill slid over every notch of her spine as its words registered. Her first day in the library, she thought she could feel something. Which led her to the discovery of the hidden passageway.
Her throat turned bone-dry, but she choked out a response. “Who did this to you?”
The creature was beyond human or fae recognition. She wanted to test if its mind had been twisted beyond salvation too. It flayed its black, batlike wings, which were so shredded it was a miracle it could still take flight with them. The top and bottom tips were razor-sharp, and Faythe tracked them, knowing one swipe of the mighty wings could kill her.
The fae-like being took a step clo
ser, and she retreated in response. Its eyes danced with a predator’s delight, and she saw the hunger in them. She’d been lured down here all along. Though she could find it in herself to forgive her own foolishness and naïvety if it led her to find what she sought: the temple ruin.
As if only now remembering she wasn’t alone in the cavernous dwelling, her eyes caught the emerald of Nik’s already staring at her in wide-eyed terror. She could see he was deliberating every possible strategy to get past the creature of death and rescue her. It wouldn’t be possible, and it wasn’t what she needed from him either.
“You need to find the ruin,” she said into his mind.
His answering voice was near desperate. “I won’t leave you here with that thing.”
She didn’t have time to argue and couldn’t avert her focus from the monster for long. “You have to, Nik. Go now!”
Before he could respond, Faythe twisted and ran. She darted into a side passage and clumsily sprinted through the dark. Chilling laughter echoed through the hallways like a haunting caress over her skin, setting every hair on end. It had no direction, and she had no way of knowing how much distance she’d managed to put between them.
“You can imagine my delight when I caught the scent of a human above,” the voice sang. “It’s been so long since I tasted warm blood.”
She didn’t let the horror settle that it intended for her to be dinner. Something that once would have looked as normal as Nik or Tauria, despite its wings, wanted to feed on her.
Hurling around the next corner, she skidded to a halt in cold terror to find the creature already at the end of the passage. Even in the poor lighting, she could see its sly grin as it stalked toward her with predatory slowness. She stumbled back then stopped to angle her sword. Its smile faltered again at the sight of it, giving her slight confidence, and she straightened to strike. When it was close enough, she reluctantly tried its mind.
Faythe cautiously slipped inside but immediately retreated, physically spluttering at the nauseating dark feeling that rippled into her own body. She lost focus for a second.
It was enough.
Faster than any fae she’d seen, the thing was upon her, and she was slammed into the wall in a heartbeat. The force knocked the breath out of her, and Lumarias clattered to the ground as it clamped down hard on her wrist. She cried out in pain. She would have doubled over at the stench of rotting flesh if she weren’t pinned upright. It leaned its face of gore into her, inhaling deeply as it savored her scent. Faythe recoiled and gagged, struggling to keep herself together to find a way out of her compromised position.
Her left hand was free enough for Faythe to reach to her side. Pulling free her dagger, she plunged it into the creature’s stomach, and it released her with a blood-curdling shriek that stung her ears.
She didn’t hesitate. Pushing off the wall, she swiped Lumarias but only got a step away before a searing pain tore across her back. Crying out, Faythe fell to the ground, twisting to find the thing standing over her. But its eyes were transfixed on its own claws, which were coated in her blood. Slowly, it raised those spindly, decaying fingers to its mouth and licked the crimson liquid with a guttural moan. Faythe clumsily shuffled backward while it was distracted, battling against the searing pain as her wounds scraped the stone, loose debris catching in the open flesh.
Upon seeing her distance herself, the creature locked onto her with a look that was beyond human or fae—utterly monstrous and savage. It lunged for her, and with a cry, Faythe instinctivly swiped her blade.
She felt it connect and slice right across its abdomen. Black blood sprayed out and coated her, the stench so foul it made her eyes water and stomach churn. Its scream shot pain through her ears and mind, but the adrenaline coursing through her veins at the extra seconds she’d bought for herself had her twisting and stumbling back to her feet.
Her pain numbed enough in her instinct to survive that she threw herself down the winding paths. She had no idea where she was going. Each distorted hall she turned into looked the same, and dizziness made her sway into the sharp, unbudging stone walls. She was lost in the obsidian labyrinth. Breathing became difficult in her panic, and the waves of lethargy began to weigh down her steps.
At the end of the next passageway, she saw light—a beacon of hope that snapped her wide-awake. Faythe raced for it, crying out as she nearly met air below her feet and clawed desperately at the wall beside her to regain her balance.
A dead end.
She was one reckless step away from plunging herself deep into the abyss below.
Terror doused her as she heard the creature’s playful taunts catching up with her again.
Across from her was another opening in the stone. On a normal day, she would have judged it too far for her to make the leap safely. With her life on the line, however, her flight mode kicked in, and without thinking, she took a few backward strides then launched herself with everything she had.
Midair, she knew she wasn’t going to make it. At least, not completely. Her fingers caught the edge, tearing in agony, while her body slammed hideously against the stone. She gripped onto the jagged ledge for dear life, struggling against the wave of dancing stars that threatened to pull her under. Her arms wouldn’t hold her for long though, and as she tried to shift her weight in desperation, she couldn’t get the angle that would give her the strength to haul herself over the edge. If the creature didn’t kill her, the fall to its lair below would surely be her death sentence.
She felt utterly helpless and out of options.
Faythe then heard the fast approach of feet clapping down the hallway she sought to gain a foothold into. It wasn’t the creature—it still called chilling chants from behind. She tried—really tried—to hold on for as long as she could, but her grip faltered, and she let out a cry as she began her quick plummet into the dark pit, catching the horrified looks of Nik and Tauria above her, seconds too late to prevent her fall. While Nik looked fully prepared to jump after her, the last thing she saw before she was swallowed by the darkness was Tauria’s controlled arm motions.
Her body cut through the air, faster and faster, toward a certain death. Her fall was short, but her bones didn’t get a chance to shatter against the ground when the air around her stirred, encasing her from below to slow her down and break the impact.
Tauria’s wind! Gods above.
It still hurt awfully. She landed on the sharp, uneven floor of the pit, but she was alive.
Faythe took all of one second to breathe and thank the Spirits she had narrowly escaped a tragic end. She rolled, hissing as her hands cut on the razor-sharp sticks that surrounded her.
No, not sticks—bones.
Faythe shrieked, fumbling around to try to get her balance to stand. There were so many remains, piled so high she couldn’t find any footing on solid ground. When she twisted her head to the side, her blood ran cold and her heart stopped dead.
The small form she spied mere meters away had his back to her and was the only body that still had its flesh. She knew the human boy. She’d been the one to end his life.
Too horrified to make a sound, and too struck with nausea to move, all Faythe could do was remain paralyzed, unable to tear her eyes from the young boy’s form. She couldn’t even cry in her shock despite the remorse that froze her. She’d killed him, and his body had been heinously thrown down here, discarded like trash to be devoured by that beast. It was an immeasurably guilty feeling and something she didn’t think she’d ever feel atonement for in her short life.
A dark shadow appeared above. She knew it was the creature’s wings cutting off the small light source as the Grim Reaper incarnate swooped down to claim her. But she couldn’t bring herself to make any move to attempt to run from it. She deserved to meet her end here; for her body to be left alongside the innocent life she took.
Before the fae-mutant could land, Faythe felt hands hook under her arms, hauling her clumsily from the pit of bones. She stumbled frantically,
snapping back into her fighting senses. When she finally felt firm ground, she almost collapsed in relief and gratitude and spun around to meet the emerald eyes of her savior.
She would have embraced the prince in that moment if the loud snarl behind, followed by the crashing and snapping of bones, didn’t force her into flight mode.
“Go!” Nik barked.
She didn’t have to be told twice, and she twisted, once again on a frenzied sprint from the demon. The prince grabbed her hand as he passed her, and she almost felt as if she were flying as his immortal speed accelerated her steps immensely.
It was still not fast enough. The creature closed in behind them. They weren’t going to make it out by attempting to outrun the thing.
Before she could lose her nerve, she tore her hand from Nik’s and spun around, blade poised as she spotted the unhinged beast savagely charging toward her. To her surprise, it stopped a few paces away, its face contorted in animalistic fury as it beheld her sword.
Her head tilted when its eyes darted between her and Lumarias. “Niltain steel,” Faythe mumbled, realization dawning. She shifted the blade in her hand and stepped forward.
The creature hissed at her and flinched slightly in response. Faythe wasn’t foolish enough to think she could kill the immortal monster, but its reaction to her steel made her believe it was entirely possible. It was now clear the doors that held the creature in were also crafted in Niltain steel. She was sure it would have been able to rip them off their hinges despite the series of deadbolts otherwise.
Nik was beside her, his own blade angled, but his was perfectly ordinary, bright, silver steel. “Remind me to get an upgrade, will you?” he commented, not taking his eyes off the fae-mutant in front.
While his jest was made in humor, she appreciated the promise in his words. They would both be walking out of this cave alive.
The creature lunged without warning. Nik moved first, stepping in front of Faythe and bringing his sword up to strike.
Faythe had seen the prince in action many times, had even parried against him both with and without her ability. His skills in combat were second to none thanks to his centuries of honing them. Yet Faythe dared to say he was outmatched against the uncharted threat.
A Queen Comes to Power: An Heir Comes to Rise Book 2 Page 27
