Twenty-Six
The stone coffin and statue looked like a shrine made to Tianna. The flowers were fresh, as if they'd been placed there recently and the candles weren't missing much wax. They'd either been lit recently or magic kept the wax from melting.
Robyn had to have been there recently to pay his respects to her.
And as I looked at the carefully placed candles and beautiful delicate flowers I realized that he still felt her death. He loved her still after all these years.
Tianna's was also the only coffin in the room.
"Wasn't Robyn supposed to have been dead this entire time? No one questioned that there was no coffin for him?"
Julian shook his head. "He wouldn't have been buried with the Royal Family after what he did. He disgraced their name, he wouldn't have received his rites. Now, why he wasn't killed like Warren said he had been will be a mystery that only Robyn and Warren will know the answer to."
He moved to Tianna's stone tomb and pressed his hands against the side and pushed. Before I could say anything, the stone cover of the coffin moved, scraping stone against stone until he stopped.
Reaching into his jacket pocket, he pulled out the pouch from earlier and with his other hand reached inside the stone tomb.
I stepped forward screaming his name louder than I'd meant to. "Julian!"
He stopped as he looked at me. He gave a quizzical brow. "Afraid of the dead, Emylin?"
"I respect the dead, there's a difference. What are you doing?"
I didn't dare look at what he was doing with his hands. I didn't want to look inside, didn't want to add more fuel to my nightmares. I didn't need to see the decomposed body of a queen almost twenty years dead.
He ignored me as he continued.
I ran around the stone coffin and put a hand on his arm. "This is wrong."
I felt the muscle tense beneath my hand as he stared at me. His eyes were swirling in anger as he watched me. "I'm doing this, Emylin. There isn't a damn thing you can say to stop me."
I shook my head. "Do we need this, really need this? Or is this revenge? Are you desecrating this innocent woman's resting place because you know it will hurt him?"
He pulled his arms back and placed his hands on my upper arms. "What do you know of Tianna, Emylin? Other than whatever bullshit Robyn fed you while he paraded around as Damien?"
I was about to open my mouth but he continued.
"I can only imagine what he told you about her.
Innocent, indeed." He placed me against the wall and pushed on my arms harder than he'd ever done even in our trainings but not hard enough to hurt me.
"It's true. Tianna was loved and did a lot of good for the Underworld as queen.
But she and Robyn were together for decades and still, no heir was produced.
" He turned back to the coffin and continued with his work as I stayed still against the wall.
He showed no hesitation as he reached inside the dead woman's coffin where her body rested.
"So she took drastic measures. She dabbled in dark magic, forbidden even in the Underworld and made a deal with demons. "
I swallowed. "Demons?"
"Yes, demons." He didn't turn to me. "They've been trying to claw their way to our world and the human world for eons. We dark faeries have been the ones keeping them back since the very beginning."
The book had said the same thing, The Dark Kingdom to keep back the darkness in living things.
He grunted as he met some resistance as he worked inside the coffin.
"Then the queen goes and makes a deal that will bring them to our world in exchange for a child.
Well, she got what she wanted." He looked back and met my eyes.
"The demon ate her lifeforce from the inside as it grew in her womb.
Robyn wasn't wrong. The Light could have saved her life and the child's but they didn't - they let them die because she almost brought the Dark Ones through with her abomination of a child.
Sometimes the dead are not so innocent. Tianna," he said with emphasis, "was not innocent. "
He tugged on something inside the coffin and when he pulled his hand out a black necklace with a large emerald pendant shone at the end of the chain.
I couldn't look away from the necklace. "Did Robyn know?"
He shrugged as he tucked the necklace in the black pouch from before. "Maybe? Who knows? But I doubt he would have done anything against it either. Tianna had made up her mind by then."
I shook my head. How desperate had she been? "How do you know this?"
He walked around the tomb and pushed the stone closed. "This particular information I received from Warren himself when he had all of the Lords together to take back the crown. By then, it was too late for the Light Fae."
I couldn't stop the next question. "Did you help them?" I asked almost shaking. "When he killed the Light Fae - my people, did you help them?"
He looked at me and didn't miss a beat. "No."
I let out a shaky breath I wasn't aware I was holding.
"But my father did."
I swallowed.
"And my mother didn't do a damn thing to try and stop him.
She let him do it." He sighed as he rested his hands on the closed coffin.
He looked like he was struggling for words as he looked at his hands as they rested on the stone.
"I haven't grieved them because I wasn't attached to them.
Not like how you are with your parents. I envy that about you.
" He still wouldn't meet my eyes. "My parents - they weren't good people.
Hell, they were even worse parents but I am sorry that my actions led to their deaths. "
A noise in the distance startled us both making Julian look up into the darkness.
Followed by an unnatural howling that filled every crevice of the large catacombs.
It seemed to cut right through me. It was too loud, making me drop to my knees with my hands over my ears. I looked at Julian and he, too, was on the ground, his eyes tightly closed.
I felt something warm tickle my cheek falling from my eyes and nose.
I looked at the floor in front of me and recognized the crimson droplets as they fell on the stone.
I looked at Julian, he had blood coming from his eyes and nose too.
I could feel pain rolling through me cutting into me like hot searing knives all over.
Darkness danced in my vision and I felt myself start to slip into unconsciousness. I fell fully to the floor and Julian jumped into action.
He grabbed my arms and hoisted me up. He placed me in the corner of the room and pushed against Tianna's large statue. It barely budged.
Mustering what strength I could, I pushed with him and miraculously, it gave way. I didn't even hear the heavy stone as it moved against the floor over the howling in the catacombs. I could feel my consciousness sway under the pressure I was feeling in my head.
A sudden smell hit my nostrils and I knew I would puke right then and there.
It was the most disgusting thing I'd ever smelled in my entire life. The putrid smell wafted around us and Julian grabbed my hand, pulling forward towards where the statue was standing before. As I looked, I noticed that there was a hole under the statue barely big enough to fit through.
He slid inside first, his broad shoulders scraping against the stone. Once he was out of view, his hand shot out of the darkness beckoning me forward.
I followed and slid in as slowly as he had. The howling wasn't as bad as soon as I was under the floor but the smell ...
The rotting, rancid smell was unbearable ...
It was pitch black. I couldn't see a thing underground.
His arm grabbed my middle and pulled me to him. Somehow he was hanging on to something, swaying with every movement we made. "Grab a root."
I reached out as he said it and as soon as my hands felt the thick root I held onto it tightly. I tugged. It felt sturdy. I wrapped my wrist around it, then with my other hand held on to it tightly. "I got it."
"Don't let go."
As soon as he said it, I felt myself swing away from him like I was hanging onto a rope in a ropes course. The small light that had been in the room suddenly vanished from above us just scraping stone rang through the empty space again.
Then silence.
Only our panting breaths echoed in the large chamber.
A small green light appeared below us then another and then a whole flowing river of it. It was as if the water itself had green lights within it. It was much like the sprites that would dance in the trees except this time it was in the water. It lit up the space in an unnatural green light.
It would have been beautiful if it didn't reek.
Finally, after several minutes Julian cursed next to me.
My heart dropped. "What is it?"
"I dropped my phone in the river."
I laughed out loud. He was ridiculous. "Is that all?"
"If it was only water, I'd get it but considering what's below. I'm just getting a new one. The dead can have it."
I looked at the flowing river below us several hundred feet down. "What is it?"
"When our bodies die, it no longer can contain magic - the magic will eat our bodies after decades and turn into that sludge.
And sometimes if bodies are not taken care of properly - meaning if there is not enough money to bury them as they should be - you can have fresher body parts and intestinal juices in the river too.
The river Styx. It's harmless to us but it's gross. "
I felt bile rise up. "I think I'm going to be sick."
Julian let out a long breath of relief. "Luckily, I think that Charon didn't catch us. We're safe down here. We can specter straight home."
"The howling - that was Charon?" I asked.
"Yes," Julian answered. "Keeper of the Dead. Now you see why I wanted to avoid him?"
"Will he let someone know that there was someone in the tombs?"
I still couldn't see him but I imagined he shrugged. "Maybe. But we weren't caught. That's the important part."
My eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness and finally, I could see that we were holding on to roots on the ceiling of the catacombs with the river hundreds of feet below us. "Are we under the cemetery?"
Julian answered, "Yes. Each grave has a piping system that leads to the river. We used Tianna's to get down here."
I felt that bile again. "Oh, gods, that's so gross."
Finally, I could make out Julian's silhouette in the unnatural green light of the river. I could see him reaching out. "Now, swing over here so I can specter us home."
I rolled my eyes. "So bossy," I murmur. "Why don't you swing over here, Tarzan?"
Julian laughed out loud again and as I felt his hand wrap around the root I held, it suddenly snapped. I could barely register what happened before I started falling.
I couldn't scream and before I knew it I hit the slimy water.
Not water, the liquefied dead magic.
The muck covered me from head to toe. It was what I imagined falling into jello was like. Swimming through it was just as difficult and when I surfaced Julian was already at my side equally covered in slime.
As soon as our hands touched we spectered and with a deafening thud, we landed on a hard tile floor.
I turned over on my back and stared at the crystal chandelier over us panting clean air back into my lungs. I recognized our surroundings and laughed.
We were back in Julian's home.
The foyer of Skryens' Lord's lavish home.
Covered in slime.
Hands started touching me all over and I realized it was Julian checking for injuries.
I slapped his hands away, still laughing. "I'm fine, stop it!"
Julian's face popped into view. "Are you all right? Are you hurt?"
I laughed again, louder than before. "You're covered in slime!"
He smiled broadly, placing a hand on my cheek. As he pulled it away, thick green sludge stuck to his fingers creating a long elastic bridge between my cheek and his hand. "This is disgusting."
I laughed again until I snorted. "We're covered in dead faerie juice!"
Julian laughed as well and didn't stop when Naida spoke.
"Gods, you guys stink! Where were you?!"
I turned my head to find her and laughed when I did. She was in a long flowing robe with a hand to her nose. Her scrunched up face of disgust said it all.
I laughed again as Julian helped me up.
"We went for a swim in the Styx," Julian finally answered. He nodded towards me. "She has a knack for falling into large bodies of water."
I nudged him with my elbow playfully. "Neither times were my fault!" I grabbed my bag on my back and swung it forward, opening it. "I hope my book is okay."
Naida laughed. "Axel mentioned that you two were mad at each other. I knew it wouldn't last long."
I shook my head and turned back to Julian whose hair was uncharacteristically neon green. I frowned. The slime from the Styx wasn't so green that it would turn his black hair almost neon. I reached for the slime in his hair. "What the hell?"
As I pulled the slime away my heart plummeted. I expected the color beneath the slime to be black not white.
Not silver.
Not the same color as mine.
I'd learned early on that faeries when they use up their power or at a point of incredible panic, their hair color would change according to their magic. Leah, when she first unleashed her power went from blonde to black. Damien's hair was always black. Axel's was blue. Naida's was black.
Mine was silver because I was a light fae.
Julian's was always black until now.
I could hear Naida whisper his name behind me.
I watched Julian's eyes as they moved between me and Naida.
"Is this a glamour?" I whispered.
There was a long moment of silence between us.
Eventually, he sighed. "It's not a glamour." He paused. "I haven't told you the whole truth about me."
I swallowed, waiting expectantly.
He looked at Naida then back at me. "Our mother was a dark fae."
My heart beat wildly in my chest.
"My real father was a light fae. I'm half-light. Like you."