Chapter 40
We traveled on, wary of the stability of the tunnel. Again, it felt as if we continued on for a small eternity, but the sudden and familiar scent of lilac sent a bolt of hope through me. Pressing through the narrow turn, a pinprick of light appeared in the darkness.
We had reached the end of the tunnel and Iliseeum.
“Mist,” Casteel announced. “I can see it coming through the opening.”
I tapped his shoulder when he didn’t move. “Cas.”
He growled low in his throat but flattened himself against the wall, holding the torch high. As I passed him, I pressed a quick kiss to his cheek.
“That doesn’t help,” he grumbled.
I would’ve smiled, but I saw it—tendrils of thick mist seeping into the opening in the tunnel, drifting toward us.
I moved forward, sending up a prayer that Jasper had been right about my ability to pass through the mist and that my suspicion that it would not only allow me to do so but also scatter, making it safe for the others, was true.
The Primal magic rose from the floor of the cavern, forming wispy fingers as it stretched out toward me. I lifted my hand.
“I don’t like this,” Casteel muttered from behind me.
“It shouldn’t hurt her,” Kieran reminded him, but concern bled into his words.
The mist brushed against my skin, the feel of it cool and damp and alive . The eather retracted, lowering to the ground and then disappearing.
I exhaled roughly, looking over my shoulder. “It’s okay.”
Casteel nodded, and I moved ahead. The opening wasn’t all that large, only about three feet high and two feet wide. “You’ll have to crawl through.”
“Just go slowly,” Casteel advised. “We have no idea what is on the other end.”
“Hopefully, not a draken looking to serve up some flame-broiled red meat,” Emil muttered from somewhere in the darkness.
“Well, that put a pleasant image in my mind,” Delano replied.
Hoping for the exact same thing as Emil, I went down on my knees and inched through.
“Hold on,” I told them. There was more mist, so thick it was like the clouds had descended to the ground.
I reached out tentatively, and the magic scattered and thinned as bright sunlight penetrated what remained of the fog.
Squinting at the sudden light after being in the dark for so long, I slid out, my knees and hands skimming from stone to sandy, loose dirt.
One hand going to the blade at my chest, and the other to the wolven dagger on my thigh, I stood and took a step forward.
The ground trembled faintly under my feet. I froze, looking down to see tiny rocks and clumps of sand and dirt shiver. After a heartbeat, the trembling ceased, and I lifted my gaze. The mist had completely disappeared, and I was able to take my first look at Iliseeum.
My lips parted as my hands fell away from my daggers.
The sky was a shade of blue that reminded me of the wolven’s eyes, pale and wintry, but the air was warm and smelled of lilacs.
My gaze swept over the landscape. “Gods,” I whispered, lifting my chin as my gaze crawled up and up the massive statues carved out of what I assumed was shadowstone.
They were as tall as the ones I’d seen in Evaemon, those that had appeared to scrape the sky, and there had to be hundreds of them standing in line, continuing on to the left and right as far as I could see. Maybe even thousands.
The statues were of women, their heads lowered.
Each hand held a stone sword that jutted forward.
The stone women had wings sprouting from their backs, splayed wide, each touching the wings of the ones standing on either side of them.
They formed a chain of sorts, blocking whatever resided beyond.
You could only pass through under the wings.
They were beautiful.
“Poppy?” Casteel’s voice neared the opening. “You okay out there?”
“Yeah. Sorry.” I cleared my throat. “It’s safe.”
Within a handful of moments, Casteel and the rest made their way out, coming to stand beside me in silence. They all stared at the statues, their wonder bubbly and sugary.
“Are they supposed to represent the draken?” I asked.
“I don’t know.” Casteel’s hand touched my lower back. “They’re stunning, though.”
They truly were. “I guess we walk ahead and see if what they’re guarding is what we’re looking for.”
We started to cross the barren land, searching for any signs of life. There was nothing. No sound. Not even a breeze or the distant call of a bird.
“This is kind of creepy,” I murmured, looking around. “The silence.”
“Agreed. Perhaps this should be called the Land of the Dead,” Delano said as he walked under the shadowed wing of a stone woman.
A faint tremble stirred the ground under our feet. Casteel threw out a hand. We all stopped. “This happened before,” I told them. “It stopped—”
The ground erupted in several geysers all around us, sending clouds of dirt into the air and spewing small rocks in every direction.
“I’m assuming that didn’t happen last time,” Vonetta remarked.
“Nope.” I threw up a hand as clumps of dirt pelted my face and arm, and the ground burst open between Casteel and me.
Another funnel of dirt exploded directly in front of Emil, forcing him back several steps. He coughed. “That was rude.”
The ground steadied as the dust and dirt fell back to the earth. “Is everyone still with us?” Delano asked, wiping at his face.
We were.
“Careful.” Casteel knelt near the opening between us. “This is one hell of a hole.” He looked up, meeting my gaze and then Kieran’s. He rose slowly. “I have a feeling we may have triggered something.”
“Triggered what?” Emil asked, peering over the edge, squinting. “Wait.” His head tilted to the side. “I think I—holy shit!” Jumping back, he stumbled over his feet, catching himself a second before he landed on his ass.
“What?” Vonetta demanded, reaching for her swords. “ Details. They would be helpful at the—”
Between Casteel and I, the bleached bones of a hand appeared, fingers digging into the loose soil.
“What in the world of nightmare fuel is this?” Casteel muttered.
Those fingers were connected to an arm—an arm that was nothing more than a skeleton. The top of a skull appeared. My eyes widened in horror. Dirt poured out of empty eye sockets.
“Skeletons!” Vonetta shouted, unsheathing her swords. “Couldn’t you have said that you saw skeletons in the hole?”
Casteel cursed as another bony hand appeared, this one clutching a sword in its grip.
“Armed skeletons!” Vonetta yelled. “Couldn’t you have said you saw armed skeletons in the hole?”
“Sorry.” Emil unhooked his swords. “I was kind of taken aback by the sight of fully functional, fucking skeletons with weapons. My apologies.”
I stared at the sword—the blade was as black as the statues.
The same kind of blades I’d seen in the crypts with the deities.
“ Shadowstone .” An image of my mother flashed before me, of her pulling a slender, black blade from her boot.
“Their blades are like the one my mother had. That had to be a real memory.”
“Poppy, I’m glad you know it was real.” Casteel withdrew his swords. “But we should probably discuss that later, like when we’re not facing an army of the dead?”
“Question,” Delano called out, blade in hand as the top of a skull appeared from the hole nearest him. “How exactly does one kill what is presumably already dead?”
“Like super dead,” Vonetta clarified as the one before her was now halfway out of the hole, a ragged, dull brown tunic draped over the skeleton’s shoulder. Through the torn clothing, I saw a twisted mass of dirt beat behind its ribs.
Casteel moved as fast as bottled lightning, thrusting his sword into the chest of the skeleton and piercing the lump of dirt. The skeleton shattered, sword and all, breaking apart into dust. “Like that?”
“Oh,” Vonetta replied. “All right, then.”
I turned as Kieran shoved his sword into the chest of one.
There were about a dozen holes behind us—a dozen skeleton guards halfway out of the ground.
Another image filled my mind, one not of my mother but of a woman with silvery-white hair—the one I’d seen in my mind while I stood in the Chambers of Nyktos.
She’d slammed her hands into the dirt, and the ground had cracked open, bone fingers digging their way out.
“Her soldiers,” I whispered.
“What?” Casteel demanded.
“These are her —”
Free from whatever hole it had literally crawled out of, one of the skeleton soldiers rushed toward me, lifting its sword.
Slipping the dagger free from my chest harness, I snapped forward, thrusting the blade into the mess of throbbing dirt.
The skeleton exploded as another took its place.
Behind it, another skeleton soldier lifted its sword.
Kicking out, I planted my boot in the soldier’s chest, pushing it back into another.
Casteel shot forward, stabbing his sword into the dirt heart of the one closest to him.
I spun, slamming my dagger into the chest of the skeleton, wincing as the blade nicked bone before hitting the heart.
“Cutting off the head does not work,” Emil shouted, and I turned to see a…a headless skeleton tracking the dumbfounded Atlantian. “I repeat. It does not work!”
Vonetta whirled, thrusting one sword through the chest of a soldier, and her other blade through the headless skeleton. “You,” she said to Emil, “are a mess.”
“And you are beautiful,” he replied with a grin.
The female wolven rolled her eyes as she spun, taking down another as Emil shoved his sword into the chest of one coming at him.
Casteel shoved a soldier back as he jabbed the sword through its ribs. Behind him, a soldier raced toward him. I shot past Casteel, stabbing the creature in the chest—
The ground trembled once more. New geysers of dirt erupted, streaking into the air. “You have got to be kidding me,” Kieran growled.