70. Everett #2
I tugged Vera up the stairs. She shouted a spell, and a shimmering shield burst into place around us.
The flames bounced off it as we reached the top of the stairs and bounded down the tunnel.
Bodies as tall as statues lined the walls, the same victims I’d seen in Arcadia’s dreams. The figures made of fire were still chasing us, and their flames shot up the hall, dancing over the dead bodies until they crumbled to ash.
We careened around a corner and into the main hall, where countless rows of statuesque bodies now caught fire.
One of the fire figures materialized at my side, so close the edge of my shirt started to smoke.
It lowered its faceless, flaming head to my shoulder.
I braced myself for it to attack, but to my surprise, it merely floated in midair.
“This one,” it hissed, the sound like spitting flames, “is marked.”
Vera shot a ball of shadows at its chest, and it went sailing backward. “What was that?” she shouted.
“A type of wraith, I think.” I remembered the similar spirits made of shadows back at the mausoleum. “The Elders must’ve summoned them.” I shook off its eerie words as footsteps echoed on either side of us, and Tessa raced into view, along with another woman who looked strangely familiar.
“Hey!” Tessa called, waving her hands in the air. “Over here!”
Vera nodded in acknowledgement. “Get back to the entrance!”
“What about Kieran? Is he here?” I asked Vera, looking around for him as we ran down the long chamber.
“He stayed back at the palace with Odessa,” she said. “Sloane came instead.”
“Sloane? As in, our maid?” That was why she looked so familiar.
We caught up to Tessa and Sloane, who smirked at me. “Not a maid.”
“I can see that,” I hummed.
We approached an opening. It looked like there had once been a door, but it was torn off the wall. I stopped short, taking in the wide space. There was no floor. “What happened here?” I asked.
“You missed a lot. I almost died,” Tessa said, panting at my side. “You’re welcome.”
Vera glanced behind her at the blaze working its way through the chamber of dead bodies. More fire wraiths floated from the inferno, deadly gazes trained on us.
Vera closed her eyes. With a hand stretched over the missing floor, she whispered a spell, and the cave trembled.
Small rocks and large stones dislodged themselves from the walls, and even more came flying from the depths of the hole in front of us.
Slowly, they fashioned a bridge that floated from our side to the opposite end.
“Go. Hurry,” she ushered. “I don’t know how long I can hold this.”
Tessa and Sloane gingerly tiptoed across, causing some of the rocks to sway under their weight.
Vera and I followed. I held my breath the entire time.
At one point, Vera’s foot slipped, but I clutched her waist to hold her steady.
We raced the last few feet and slipped inside a narrow tunnel.
It opened into a chamber with deadly spikes jutting from the floor.
“Just like last time,” Vera commanded the other two. Tessa instantly shifted into her smallest jaguar form and slithered her way through the gaps between spikes.
“You’ve done this before?” I asked.
Vera quirked an eyebrow. “How else do you think we got to you?” She shifted her phoenix wings wide and grabbed my waist, hoisting me high into the air. We flew above the spikes until she set me down on the other side with Tessa.
“I have to go get Sloane,” she said, taking off again.
“Why is our maid here?” I asked Tessa.
“It’s a long story,” she replied. “But she helped us find you. She was working undercover as a maid to spy on the Elders in the—” Her explanation was cut off by a scream. Both of our heads jerked toward the sound.
“Vera!” I roared, running headfirst into the floor of spikes. Tessa’s hand closed around mine before I could impale myself.
“Stop, Everett!” she hissed. “We didn’t come all this way just for you to get yourself killed!”
“I don’t care,” I snarled. “Vera could be hurt.”
“I’ll go check,” she promised. But before she could shift, Vera’s wings flew overhead, and she shot toward us with inhuman speed. She landed in a crouch, then stumbled to her knees. Tears and ash streaked down her cheeks.
In her arms was Sloane.
“No,” Tessa gasped. She rushed toward them. Sloane’s body was smoking, as if she’d been set on fire.
“It was the—the fire wraiths,” Vera said, voice hitching. “I couldn’t get to her in time.”
When I got closer, I saw blackened veins pulsing beneath Sloane’s skin, slowly turning it to ash. Her flesh cracked, and her eyes were glassy and dim. Unseeing.
I didn’t even know this woman, but she gave her life to rescue me. My chest tightened. I reached out and gently shut her eyes. “Thank you, Sloane,” I whispered. She would never know how thankful I was.
Silent tears slipped from Tessa’s nose. Vera set Sloane down and wiped at her own eyes, leaving more ash coating her cheeks. “We have to go.” Her voice trembled. “The fire isn’t slowing down.”
Sure enough, the sound of roaring flames wasn’t far behind. I helped Vera to her feet and kept a hand at her back as we ran. The air was heavy with grief. The ability to keep going while Sloane’s body was left behind weighed on us.
Another shock hit me when we rounded the next corner. Ahead stood Captain Starke battling two armored guards. His sword sparked against one of theirs as he blocked them, then whirled to jab his dagger at another.
“There they are!” one of the guards shouted, pointing at us. “We can’t let them leave!”
Vera took off at a run, shooting a whip of lightning at one of Starke’s attackers.
It wrapped around his neck, and she yanked him to the ground.
Tessa sprang through the air in her regular-sized jaguar form and tackled the other one.
His blade glinted as he stabbed her in the flank.
Tessa yowled and pried off the top of his armor with her claws.
Her teeth sank into his neck. Blood spewed from the wound, and he went still.
The one on the ground scrambled upright. Starke lunged and caught him by the throat, ripping off his helmet. The guard took one look at his fallen comrade, then back at us.
A disembodied voice rang out, as if coming from the stone itself. Arcadia’s words vibrated through the space. “Take him.”
My muscles clenched, preparing for the guard to come after me.
Instead, he grabbed Starke’s arm and vanished in thin air.