Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
M y mouth fell open in horror as I took in the sight of the men I’d brought with me dead and mutilated before us, their hands filled with the treasure which was clearly cursed and had caused their grisly ends.
But it wasn’t their mangled bodies that had rage pumping through my body and adrenaline speeding its way along my veins, it was the consequences of this failure which I knew would await me back in Osaria.
“What the hell is this?” I demanded, pointing Cassius’s stolen scimitar at him.
His eyes widened as he found himself unarmed and held at the end of his own blade. I’d lifted it from him while the others were still screaming, my self-preservation instincts kicking in the second I realised the odds were turning against me.
Egos was going to fucking butcher me for this. We’d never lost this many men in one hit. Six of his best. Dead. Gone. And the other two we’d brought here lost to a basilisk and a fucking dragon. How was I supposed to explain away eight deaths to him?
I’d been one piece of cursed treasure away from joining them too but as I thought on the repercussions for this level of failure, I had to wonder if I’d be better to just claim a gem for myself and join those unlucky bastards in death.
Because I wouldn’t even have any treasure to bring back to him to appease his rage over this loss.
And I might have been the best, but there was no way I could compensate him for the amount of loot he would be losing without those eight men bringing him coin each day.
“I didn’t know that would happen,” Cassius breathed and despite the fact I wanted to murder him for this, I knew he was telling the truth because of the magic of the falls.
Fucking magic. I should have known not to trust this place the moment I felt that power on my skin. The gods had abandoned us and any power of theirs which lingered here was bound to offer up nothing good.
But Magdor had said he could take that coin from here, so I was willing to bet that she was right about that.
Why send him all the way here just to fall prey to some curse and die?
No, she wanted that coin which meant it was obtainable, and if that was the only thing in here that was then I would be making sure that I was the one to benefit from it.
Why the hell some old coin would be worth hiding within this fucking cursed cave I had no idea, but I was damn well going to find out.
Cassius’s gaze met mine for a moment and I knew he’d guessed what I was going to do, but I was the one holding all the cards here and I was always willing to bet on myself.
As his attention flicked to the sword once more, I knew what it would take to give myself the advantage I needed – short of running him through with it anyway.
I drew my arm back and hurled his precious sword back out through the waterfall, giving myself a head start as he stared after it in anger before I lurched away from him and broke into a sprint.
I raced forward, weaving between the cursed trees while making certain not to touch so much as a leaf on any of them and sprinting up the path that led to the coin at the back of the cave.
At the top of a steep hill, I could see the pedestal sitting in a beam of sunlight which cut between the boughs of the trees and the roof of the cavern in a way that was too perfect to be accidental.
There was old magic here and maybe even some gods were watching too, but I was owed more than a little fortune from them and if they weren’t willing to pay it back to me willingly then I’d happily steal it just like I did with everything else I needed to survive in this rotten life.
Cassius bellowed in anger as he chased me. He was fast, but he’d never had to run for his life on the streets the way I had, and I ran like the law was chasing me and I had a fire up my arse all at once.
Up, up, up the hill, charging to the top as fast as my fucking legs would carry me. My lungs burned and that fire born of a desperation to survive raced through my limbs, powering them on as I drew closer to the only prize in this cursed place which I could truly claim.
I could hear Cassius gaining on me and I swore as I ran on, urging every Fallen cursed Affinity which I possessed to aid me in my desperate attempt to get to the treasure first and steal it for myself.
I made it to the top of the hill and reached out for the coin, my fingers brushing against the stone pedestal, but before I could grab it, Cassius collided with me.
I hit the ground with an oomph as his solid weight fell on top of me and he took a swing for my jaw like the nasty motherfucker I knew he was deep down.
“Not the face, arsehole!” I barked at him.
I lurched aside, avoiding the blow with my speed and drove a sucker punch into his throat as a furious snarl escaped me. He coughed, aiming a thump to my chest in return and I slammed my knee into his crotch as hard as I fucking could.
Cassius wheezed in pain, cursing me out for the low blow and I shoved him off of me, kicking him in the kidney while he was down before leaping forward to claim the coin.
I seized it with a cry of triumph and held it high above my head as he swore at me from the ground where he still cradled his junk.
“I can’t believe you went for the balls,” Cassius growled as he rocked upright, his gaze set on the coin in my hand.
I whipped a dagger from my belt and aimed it at his heart as he tried to rise, warning him with a fierce look not to get up.
“I can’t believe you’re surprised,” I replied but my attention wasn’t really on him as the coin began to hum with some hidden power in my hand, a buzzing, burning sensation pushing beneath my skin that had my pulse skipping a beat as I feared our guess on this had been wrong.
Was the curse about to hit me? Would my skin be shredded from my bones and my screams be the last thing I ever heard?
I wasn’t sure if I should have been trying to release the coin but it didn’t matter regardless; my fingers seemed locked in place around it as that power grew and delved deeper into my bones and I doubted I could have let it go even if I tried.
My muscles coiled as if in anticipation of an attack, but none came, the warmth of the power in the coin simply settling inside me as if it had always been destined to remain there, the feeling strangely…right somehow.
Cassius glared at me with all the fury of a man who ached for my death, but he was on the ground and unarmed so he couldn’t really do anything but stay there until I lowered my blade.
Which I wouldn’t be doing until I’d taken all the camels and left him out here in the desert alone to rot for leading my men to their deaths and making foolish promises to ancient dragons.
In fact, he should be thanking me for not sinking this blade into his heart here and now, but I never had been fond of killing in cold blood and despite the murderous look in his eyes, I had no real desire to end his life.
I backed up a couple of steps, keeping the dagger ready to strike while giving myself enough room to inspect my prize as I examined it in the light which shone down from the hole in the cavern roof.
The coin looked old, like beyond an antique and maybe-it’s-just-time-for-the-trash, old .
The gold was intricately carved with a swirling design surrounding the outer edge and the centre of it held an image of a beautiful girl sitting with her knees clasped to her chest. She was naked, though the profile position meant I could only see the side of her body, every inch of skin painted with a swirling pattern that almost seemed to dance in the light.
From her back sprouted a pair of delicate wings which I studied for several seconds as I drank in the image.
It took me a moment to realise what it reminded me of, and a shiver raced down my spine as I remembered the book I’d once feared beyond all other objects.
The ancient text I couldn’t read and the hand-painted images that filled its pages.
Images of the Fallen. The Fae of myths and legend.
This coin didn’t seem to be as dark as that book in nature, yet I instantly mistrusted it for the memories it stirred in me alone, of pain and hunger, unanswered screams and my body being ruined for the twisted creations of the man who had marked my skin against my will.
I turned the coin over, finding an identical image on the other side and frowned as I made out some lettering on the edge of it.
“Kyra?” I breathed, reading the name as I tried to figure out what the fuck this thing was. Because the feeling I was getting from it said it was a hell of a lot more than some run of the mill gold coin. “What the fuck?”
I held the coin closer to me and rubbed at the grubby space beside the lettering, wondering if there was a chance that the dirt concealed more words.
A wave of power radiated along the tips of my fingers where they made contact with the metal, and heat built in the small object, making me suck in a sharp breath.
The coin started vibrating, trembling with some deep power and purple smoke rose between my fingers, spreading from the golden coin and engulfing me within moments.
I dropped the coin and it hit the rock with a thump so hard that the stone cracked beneath it while purple smoke continued to pour out of it.
I stumbled back and knocked into Cassius as I tried not to breathe in any of that smoke in case it was poisoned.
He steadied me on instinct, rising to stand at my side and we exchanged a look that agreed to put our argument aside for the moment as we stood in the face of whatever the hell this was together.
Not that I wouldn’t fuck him over if that was what it took for me to survive this shit, but I’d fight by his side if that was my best bet for survival too.
“Maybe everything in this place is cursed,” I breathed.