50. Chapter Fifty
Chapter 50
“L ucien!” Rieka yelled.
Silence greeted her. The bastard had disappeared into thin air. The least he could have done was taken her out of there. So much for family!
Rieka rubbed her arms. She tried to keep the chill that was creeping through her at bay.
She had just exchanged one prison for another. Pale green crystals twinkled in the darkness, providing her just enough light so she could worry about what was hiding in the shadows. She clenched her eyes closed and focused on her breathing as she reached out with her senses. It was nowhere near as strong as it had been in the ballroom, but she could sense thin tendrils of faint emotions that skirted just out of her reach. If she concentrated hard enough, she could feel the humming of the pendant, like small vibrations surrounding her. Something cool and familiar crossed her path. A hint of ice that threatened to burn her.
Dante. Hope filled her, but she pushed it aside. He had gotten what he wanted. Access to the tomb.
The room tilted on its axis.
“What the hell?”
Rieka stumbled as the ground disappeared, and the wall behind her shifted, opening to a small corridor. Pale blue crystals flickered to life, but the meager light hardly penetrated the dark. A sense of foreboding washed over her. Instinct told her to run, but she had nowhere to go. She wasn’t alone anymore.
From the darkness, a shape formed. A familiar shape, and one likely to haunt her nightmares for the rest of her life. “Who is Lucien?”
“Hello, Idris.” Rieka stared at the traitor as she clenched her fists by her sides. Losing her cool would not help her. “A figment of my imagination.”
More like a nightmare.
“We wouldn’t want the guest of honor to not be here for the much-anticipated keynote event.”
Rieka bared her teeth. She could think of a hundred places she would prefer to be.
Idris took a menacing step closer to her.