Chapter 12
Graysen
Kenton was on fucking overkill with the number of bodyguards escorting me through the bustling terminal. I was traveling amidst a small army I didn’t need, but I followed protocol like a precious little heir whose parents were terrified he’d be abducted and put up for ransom.
As much as it irritated me, I got it. My entire family was at risk now that the Children of the Harbinger knew we possessed Nelle.
If they got hold of one of my brothers, they’d use him to leverage her freedom.
If I ever got in their sights, they’d go for my head.
My death was the only way to free Nelle from the threat of the Alverac.
Grudgingly, I respected my brother’s wishes.
I changed into my armor as soon as I’d left Luther in command of the perimeter and entered the subway maintenance corridors—buckling weapons to my body, cinching loose straps of leather, ensuring the bandoleer was tight.
And now, down here in narrow confines, the guards and I traversed the rusty corridors, passing a pair of men who had helped send messages on behalf of Mela and Jiao.
Since our phones wouldn’t work down here, teams were strung throughout the catacombs in a relay system, passing messages from group to group to reach those stationed above ground.
More importantly, this team was set up so I could inform Sirro the moment I captured Yezekael.
We reached the ancient stone door leading to the catacombs.
Stone scraped against stone, raking at my inner ears as it swung open and we plunged into darkness.
The bodyguards kept pace as we jogged through the tunnels and down crumbling steps, only because I’d slowed right the fuck down so they could keep up.
Strobes of light from the guards’ flashlights swept over slick, dripping walls. The sound of our rapid approach spiraled out into the vast cavern as we reached the chasm that gouged the catacombs like a fat blade and split apart the honeycombed layers of tunnels.
The ancient voice of the Uzrek infiltrated my mind—Yezekael’s on his way.
Like a dumbass, I asked—Now?
I could sense the smile in the Uzrek’s voice as he murmured—Faster, Wyrm Tamer, if you want to get inside the hide before he arrives.
Hellsgate.
Urgency stabbed into my heart like a shot of adrenaline. Now! I had to go fucking now!
I launched into a run, stretching my legs long, my footfall echoing as I headed straight for the chasm, the sound of startlement and vexation rising from my army of guards as I tore past them.
One stride—
Two—
A third—
Loose rock rattled into the abyss as I leaped off the chasm’s edge, feeling nothing beneath my feet as I soared through the air.
Fucking glorious!
The heavy rope hanging off the support bracing dangled into the pitch-black void, and I reached for it just as my body began to arc downward.
My fingers clamped around the cord, and I swung outward, dragging the rope with me.
A swift loop around my ankle, and I eased my grip.
I slid fast, icy air carving across my face, blustering my hair.
The friction scorched through my leather gloves to burn my palms and fingers, and I gritted my teeth against the fiery pain.
Down, down, down, I slipped.
Faster, faster, faster.
The ground rushed up to meet me.
I let go of the rope and jumped the remaining distance. Pain barked through my ankles as I hit the rocky floor, tucking and rolling, flipping to my feet.
And then I was gone, with the roaring sound of my name cutting through the darkness high above.
The team of guards were furious with me, and I was pretty fucking sure I’d never hear the end of it from Kenton when he found out. I’d deal with his tongue-lashing later. I had to get to Mela now.
I hurtled deep into the bowels of the earth, fleet-footed and light, an assassin stealing across a village’s roofline on a moonless night.
My weapons were strapped tight to keep metal and leather from rattling.
I needed to be a wraith down here. There were creatures best left undisturbed, skittering up walls and across ceilings, their needle-like teeth clicking softly in the dark.
I streaked through long, straight passages that never seemed to end, dashing down twisting stairwells and ghosting past the teams positioned along the warren of crooked turns leading to Yezekael’s nest. Darkness clung to me like a cloak.
My thoughts were the only company I had.
If anyone in my family had come to seek me out at the market, I was glad it had been Caidan.
I didn’t check myself on what I’d said quietly to Nelle, nor how I’d spoken to her either.
He’d have overheard the worry in my tone, the warmth too.
And maybe some unconscious part of me had let him hear it, to use it like a weapon.
Out of all my siblings, he was the closest to cracking. He knew what we were doing was wrong.
However, I could fucking kick myself for not taking the time to speak with him.
Too late I realized he’d arrived from the Keep with my weapons and armor—something he could’ve sent staff to do, yet he’d chosen to do it personally.
He’d wanted to tell me something, but as soon as Nelle and I stepped out from the secret passageway leading to the Purveyor of Rarities and into the market, I’d been bombarded with messages.
Notifications had exploded across my phone.
Updates from my people and Mela detailing each stage of the trap being constructed for Yezekael.
I had to hand it to Mela, the V?duvas were fucking crafty, and pulling this off did need a delicate touch.
Then came Jiao’s message: get to the catacombs now. The V?duvas had set the trap.
Among the messages were a few from Caidan too, demanding to know where the hells I was, then announcing he’d arrived at the market.
The onslaught of information about the hide had been so overwhelming that I hadn’t cared why he was there.
I was too busy replying, too busy mentally rushing through everything I needed to act on, to give Caidan the time of day.
I barely had room inside my head for Nelle.
Still, I’d left feeling grateful the obnoxious fucker could escort her back to the Keep. He was the only brother I trusted with my little bird. And I wanted Nelle to spend time with him, so she could wear him down like I knew she wouldn’t be able to resist doing.
However, Nelle had been unsettled for some time now. Her unease slithered beneath my skin.
Something’s wrong…something’s wrong…
As I sliced through the inky darkness with physical exertion centering my soul and clearing my mind, I had time to think about the last moments at the market. There’d been a flash of guilt on my tongue like the cold sting of metal. Had it come from Nelle or Caidan?
And when I’d leaned closer to her, brushing my thumb across her knuckles, had I caught a scent lingering on her, something faint and masculine, different to the floral soap that clung to her skin and clothes?
Maybe…?
Maybe I was just going fucking crazy.
After I’d scented it, a spike of territorial aggression demanded I hunt down whatever caused it. But then… I’d shoved the hostility aside. There was too much to focus on. Too much to do. My bodyguards hustled me from the market, and we raced for the subway.
Just like Caidan, something had been up with Nelle too.
The memory of us standing beneath the tree with the clockwork metal birds nestled within its supple branches echoed through my head.
It had felt as if this was the last time we would see each other in this light, with warmth and sincerity in her gaze.
As if we were perched on the knife-edge of everything turning upside-down between us.
It was fucking stupid…
But I couldn’t shake the foreboding.
Then cool relief washed through my veins like a soothing balm, unraveling all the knots in my gut.
One of my last remaining problems had been solved. The major one. I’d known deep in my soul that the answer to my mother and Nelle’s situation had been tangled together in that book.
And now I was left with one remaining problem.
The hardest one to solve.
Qualities.
The Uzrek’s voice invaded my thoughts again—She doesn’t know what you’re up to, does she?
She won’t ever learn it either—I snapped back.
His laugh rumbled through my skull, like raining rockfall clashing against stone.
I mentally flipped him off.
Nosy motherfucker.
His laughter grew louder, heartier, before dying away.
My sweat-damp hair flicked across my forehead as I careened around a corner and burst into an enormous cavern.
It reminded me of a beehive. Rounded walls tapered inward toward a fissure in the ceiling where water dripped down, the stone above honeycombed with dark passage holes, leading off into who-the-fuck-knows-where.
Straight ahead, directly across from me, yawned the entrance to a bone-strewn spiral stairwell winding deeper into the earth.
I pushed harder, faster, ignoring the burn in my legs, the tightness in my lungs, the sweat rolling down the groove of my spine.
I shot across the chamber’s rocky floor and burst into the stairwell.
The steps twisted downward like a twirling ribbon, and my thoughts returned to the Purveyor of Rarities. I was still reeling from what I’d learned from Florin.
For the first time in years, I’d been given a sense of direction.
A feeling of solace. As if I had been floundering in an empty ocean and wearily latched onto an upturned hull tossed about by wild waves.
Exactly how I’d felt the moment I unearthed that dusty old tome of peculiarities in my family’s library.
I’d known the necklace of yellow diamonds my mother had worn would lead me somewhere.
Florin had given me a boon. A lead.
If only he’d paid closer attention, I might have more to go on than the Szarvas woman.
Who the fuck was she?
She’d caused my mother anguish for years. Enough that Mom had worn a symbol of her marriage to my father when she met the Szarvas woman for afternoon tea at the Monarch Tower.
The same Monarch Tower that suffered a strange power outage from a rogue lightning strike the day my mom was abducted.
And why had they arranged to meet in the first place?
Was it about my father? Or something else?
Maybe it was simply a meeting between Houses to discuss potential unions between their children. Kenton would’ve been at an age where consideration of House alignments through marriage may have begun.
I exhaled sharply in my mind.
Once I dealt with Yezekael, I’d figure out her identity.
But right now, down here, she was too far out of reach.
What could I do?
Nothing.
All I could do was keep moving, placing one foot in front of the other, choosing between left or right or straight ahead.
Mela and our combined forces had set the trap. I needed to get down there if I wanted to be part of capturing Yezekael. The sooner I had my fist squeezed around that creature’s throat, the sooner I’d learn why Sirro wanted it.
I ran through darkness, a whirl of speed and razor-sharp focus, down passageways, across chambers where a strange luminescence gleamed on coarse walls, skirting krekenn nests and dodging the burrows of slumbering stone eaters.
Down, down, down, until I reached the point the Uzrek had guided me to yesterday.
I slowed, dragging in lungfuls of cold air to douse the burn in my chest, carefully navigating the debris of the dead serpent strewn across the tunnel floor like rubble.
My men were there, along with Mela’s team, armed and ready, still as statues inside the abandoned burrow.
I bent and scooped up handfuls of dust, dirt, and shed stone eater scales from the crease where the floor met the smooth, circular walls of the serpent’s burrow, rubbing it over my armor and sweaty skin until I stank like the catacombs. Slinking past everyone, I ducked into the hide.
The V?duvas had cleverly built a false wall within Yezekael’s nest.
Mela turned her head over her shoulder. As I squatted beside her, a faint gleam from her golden necklace caught my eye—the same one she’d worn before.
Both of our lives were spinning out of control when it came to the people we cared about, but this was something we could control. Something we were both good at.
Hunting.
We shared a grim grin. A flash of white teeth in the dark.
Her thirst for blood simmered on my tongue, and mine smoldered like shadowy flames beneath my skin.