Chapter 7 Heidi
HEIDI
Silas is right. It only takes a few hours for the team to extract everything before it’s time to transport out of the tunnels under the citadel one final time.
Bright magic flashes, my inner animal has a mild panic attack, and a second later, I’m standing back on the Nether’s surface near the entrance of the excavation site. Groaning at the uneasiness in my stomach from transporting, I place my hands on my knees and breathe in and out slowly.
"Are you all right?" Everett checks as he passes by me with several more fae excavators who transported him up before me.
I wave off my brother’s concern, giving him a thumbs-up.
He joins Silas several yards away from me, where they’re having a serious discussion with the smaller team that's been waiting up here to receive everything.
Once my stomach has settled down, I straighten and see that the other fae are carefully checking the many boxes to see that everything has been transported safely.
The three sarcophagi are up here, too, near me at one end of the organized mass of extracted things.
It's a bustle of excitement and business, and the fresh spring air up here is a relief after the stale air of the cold tunnels.
Still, I can’t stop my attention from slipping past the giant hole in the ground where they decided to start excavating months ago, to the nearby remains of the Entity's citadel.
Towering onyx gates surround a veritable city once ruled by death.
The Entity's temple-like palace and massive arena are beyond those gates, partially destroyed from the Battle of the Citadel.
Spikes of adamantine surround the wall of the citadel, gleaming in the sunlight.
It's all empty now, but it's an imposing monument to how the Nether used to be.
The Nether is healing, regaining much of its color and no longer plagued by quite as many horrors, now that Maven spends her time cleansing this plane of existence.
But I can't help the chills that prickle over my skin from being so close to the citadel again.
My inner animal curls up in terror as this familiar area reminds her of the pain and loss I went through, chained up beneath this place.
The liches and their magic and the way it seared into me, toying with my empathy, ripping into my heart.
Sleep would have been a respite from the horrors of the month I spent in the Nether, but somehow, it always felt…unsafe. My inner animal was terrified of those dark, bizarrely sexual dreams wrapping around me like a hungry python anytime I drifted into that unnatural sleep.
I’m startled out of my memories by the sound of Athanis’s voice and realize he’s standing beside me now.
“Navigating skyward through so much dark earth is extremely unpleasant.”
Swallowing down the lingering trauma of the citadel, I make sure no one around will overhear before speaking to him. Luckily, everyone’s too busy to pay me any attention, now that my job guiding them in the tunnels is done.
“I’m glad you made it up here without getting lost.”
"You appear disturbed," Athanis notes, examining me. "Does transportation plague your gut with unease, or is something else amiss?"
"Just the transporting," I lie before smiling. "I'm good now, though."
“I am glad to hear it. Then the time is upon us for you to release my friend so he may not suffer at the hands of the corrupt one whom I foresaw.”
Wait…
"Right now?”
"Right now," Athanis agrees.
I try not to wring my hands. "Okay, Silas doesn't seem to trust Marwood, so I'm sure your concern there is founded—but are you absolutely positive that this is the right time for me to set your warrior buddy free? Did you see a vision of it happening here, like this?”
The dead priest huffs, shaking his head.
"Even Galene cannot see all outcomes of all things at all times, so of course, I was limited in my future sight.
I can only attest with the utmost certainty that if my friend's path ends in the hands of the corrupt leader, he shall suffer greatly.
He shall be kept in their facility under the corrupted one's experimentation, becoming a soulless abomination. But in your hands, his fate becomes sweet and wondrous.”
So this ancient warrior's fate is entirely in my hands right now?
Gods, no pressure.
I fidget, anxious. “I want to help, but—"
"Behold, there is none to stop you now," he interrupts, motioning around us. “Why forsake this opportune moment and risk his misery? Free him, Elise. Help me keep my oath and protect a soul of true nobility from such cruelty, I beg you.”
Looking around, I see what Athanis means.
They've started transporting some of the checked boxes full of fae relics away now—but just my luck, I'm the only person standing near the three sarcophagi.
Everyone else is distracted, including Brahm, who's taking a smoking break with a couple of other fae in the distance.
My heart is pounding, adrenaline making my hands shake. I expect my inner animal to be terrified of what’s about to happen, but she’s completely silent.
"Will opening the sarcophagus wake the sleeper?" I whisper to Athanis.
"Yes. I used holy magic to immortalize their slumber, but anyone may awaken these altered ones by sliding away the lid of their sarcophagus."
“Gotcha. And is your friend dangerous?"
"Not to any innocent, and certainly not to you," he assures me. “Please, Elise."
Gods, I really hope I don't regret this.
Taking a deep breath, I check one more time before turning fully toward the three sarcophagi, fully prepared to help this ghost out.
“All right. Let’s get this over with. Which one is he in?” I whisper.
Athanis pauses, staring at the three identical sarcophagi for long enough that I wonder if he’s glitching.
“Athanis?”
“Paradise pardon me, I…I know not.”
I blink at the ghost. “What do you mean, you know not?”
He’s still looking between the three sarcophagi.
“These coffins were created through the use of magic. The great Corruptor was overcoming us, and there was no time to engrave them with names or other defining characteristics. I knew which held my friend in the depths beside my remains, but now that the searchers have moved these, he could be in any of the three.”
“Lovely. Okay, then…who are in the other two? Would it be bad if I open the wrong one?”
Athanis looks me dead in the eye, his face somber.
“Exceedingly. One is a monstrous, wicked fornicator—Veld, a powerful incubus who long relished in tormenting his fated ones through his lascivious wandering. The other is Nivarrah, his only remaining fated one. She was once a performer praised throughout the land for her exceptional skill with illusory magic, but tormented by Veld, she became a jealous murderess of unparalleled violence. I fear what her mind has become since he has been in command of her dreams for so long. Freeing her would be exceedingly bad, as her magic distorts all aspects of reality until all five of one’s senses can no longer be trusted. ”
Holy gods.
“Okay, I’m sorry because I really wanted to help you, but there is officially no way I’m opening any of these sarcophagi now,” I hiss at the dead priest, wrapping my coat tighter around myself.
“What did you just say?” an angry voice barks from behind me.
I flinch and whirl to face Brahm, putting on my most casual, believably innocent smile as I realize he’s wandered all the way over here from where he was just taking a smoking break.
“Nothing, I was just—”
Brahm storms toward me, his expression and stance so hostile that my inner animal startles inside of me, going on the alert at once.
I’m expecting this unfriendly fae to chew me out or insult me, since Everett and Silas are on the opposite side of the excavation site and everyone else is distracted.
I don’t expect him to shove me backward, but he does.
The backs of my legs knock hard into the side of one of the sarcophagi, but I keep myself upright. My inner animal whines about us being in danger as Brahm looms over me, his face twisted and threatening.
“Hey, there’s no need for that,” I insist, shocked and dismayed.
“No need? You were just talking about opening these sarcophagi so you could steal from them!” he spits. He grips the shoulder of my coat, twisting it in his grip. “I saw you doing something with your coat. Did you grab something out of the sarcophagi and hide it in here?”
“No, I swear I didn’t—“
“You’re lying. Take it off,” he demands, yanking hard.
My inner animal doesn’t like that. I don’t, either, but his raised voice is making me freeze up, heart racing.
Athanis is trying to tell me something off to the side, and I’m pretty sure Noah is shouting something at Brahm from nearby. But when I just start to stammer again that I didn’t take anything, Brahm shoves me aside, sending me toppling to the cold ground.
“I’ll check for myself,” he snaps at me, leaning to open the sarcophagus I was standing closest to.
“Wait!” I warn frantically, scrambling to stand.
It’s too late.
He’s pushed aside the lid of the sarcophagus, and in the blink of an eye, everything changes.
The ground starts to move until it looks like a stormy sea, rolling and peaking.
Surprised shouts of the fae excavators sound nearby, and I hear Everett calling my name—but when they start running this direction, they somehow start running the opposite way.
There is no fire, but the scent of smoke fills my nostrils just as a fae woman sits up in the sarcophagus Brahm opened.
Nivarrah.
“No,” Athanis breathes beside me.
Her hair is light blond, her ears pointed. When her purple eyes lock onto Brahm standing above her sarcophagus, the ancient fae woman’s emotions crash into me.
Surprise. Terror. Wrath. Desperation. Hatred. Bitterness.
But first and foremost is a mix of panic and confusion.