“No one will die today,” Ronen said, like he could command Death himself. “Lucille, do you know where the prince will be?”
I grimaced. Alexei was going to love this. “No.”
“So much for fucking strategy.”
Chapter
Forty-Eight
LUCILLE
After a lot of pissy comments, arguing, and planning as best we could with almost nothing, we stepped through the portal. It was different from all the others I’d traveled through. We didn’t fall or twist around in a light show. We moved slowly through what felt like sticky, translucent slime that stole our breath, until it felt like we were about to suffocate. Then we popped out, all of us falling to the ground and gasping for air.
“That sucked,” Oliver wheezed.
“Thatis what happens when portals are created by someone who doesn’t have enough power to sustain them,” Ronen said, helping me up.
There was no Lilith. No Aspen. No one else. Instead, we found ourselves in a stone tunnel lined with flaming torches. I turned,looking back at the mirror portal, then ahead. The dim path stretched away, then hooked to the right.
“Well, this is anticlimactic,” Oliver muttered.
“Someone lit the torches.” Alexei kept his daggers raised and attention locked on the turn, much like Ronen.
“They could be runed to stay lit,” MJ countered.
“And what Archangel or Seraphim would have the ability to do that in this kingdom?”
“Alexei’s right,” Ronen confirmed. “MJ, fall back. Alexei, up front with me. Let’s see where this leads.”
We all fell into formation and continued. MJ’s heels echoed through the damp tunnel, setting my nerves on edge. I squeezed the hilt of my daggers, approaching each new turn, expecting to see a demon, Lilith—even Aspen. But no one was there. She had to be toying with us. That was the only explanation for why we weren’t already being attacked. And once we were… then what? I almost hoped we’d be fighting Aspen. At least then we’d have found him. But that would only solve one of our three problems.
Something caressed the back of my neck and tickled the inside of my nose. My anxiety eased.
I glanced at Ronen, assuming it was his shadows, but he shouldn’t have any power here. He turned to me.
“We’ll find him.”
It was strange to hear the earnestness in his voice, stranger still that he refrained from using the degrading namepet. His feelings couldn’t have changed in a matter of days, yet he was putting aside his hatred for me.
Why?
I focused back on the path and frowned. “Is that?—”
“A dead end.” Ronen stopped.
How did that even make sense? “The portal can’t lead to nowhere.”
“It didn’t.” Oliver pointed at the stone ceiling to a trapdoor.
“Great. A tiny door where only one of us can fit through at a time. Easy pickings,” Alexei drawled.
“There better be something on the other side he can kill,” I muttered.
MJ patted him on the back. “Does our Bowel babe want to go first?”
Alexei pushed her away. “We should’ve left you at home.”
“Give me your knee,” Ronen demanded.
