I’m about to greet him when I run smack into Silas’s back. He’s stopped to glower at one of the many nearby ice sculptures.
“What did you just say?” he seethes.
Everett sighs. “No one said anything. They’re frozen, remember?”
Frozen? Curious, I turn and take a closer look at one of the sculptures near me before my mouth drops open. He’s right. There’s a whole person in there.
“Holy fuck,” I scoff. “Youfrozeall these people and monsters and shit?”
Everett gives me a look like I’m slow. “What did you think they were?”
“I guess I thought you hired people to carve a ton of sculptures for your weird-ass high-end rich person taste in art,” I shrug.
“That makes no sense.”
“Makes more sense than you keeping a garden of living Popsicles.”
Everett rolls his eyes at me before turning to Felix. “We’re ready. Start the spell.”
32
MAVEN
Wakingup alone is my first clue that something is going on. My quintet wouldn’t leave my side unless they had a damn good reason, so I quickly set out to find what that reason could be.
I shower and dress to cover all the love bites I still wear as reminders of their vicious need last night. Tucking both my favorite daggers into the pocket of my sweater, I slip out into the empty castle. I want to find Silas first. My poor, tortured necromancer had to leave last night before I got to really enjoy him, thanks to his stupid fucking curse.
But before I get far, I run into Lillian sipping coffee and looking out one of the tall, gothic arched windows.
“Did the salt help?” she asks innocently.
Too innocently.
Still, if Lillian knows something is going on and isn’t telling me, she must have a reason. Deciding not to interrogate her first thing in the morning, I nod and join her to see what she’s looking at. It’s the castle’s largest courtyard, where the large greenhouse sits solitary and frosted over. Unlike the other courtyards I’ve seen, Everett doesn’t keep anyone frozen here.
“Your grave is in there.”
I blink at her. “I have a grave?”
Lillian smiles softly, but it’s sad. “Everett put it together. He even had Asher enchant flowers around the honorary grave so they wouldn’t wilt. He spent a lot of time in there, actually. Do you want to see it?”
My eyes narrow. On the one hand, I absolutely know Lillian must be using my morbid delights to distract me for a reason.
But on the other hand…
Well, who wouldn’t want to see their own grave?
“Fine,” I decide, since this will probably be fast.
She leads me down the hall until we descend a small set of stairs to exit into the courtyard. The snow is greatly disturbed here, like there’s been some commotion. When Lillian sees me noticing it, she smiles.
“Asher often brings his hellhound here to play fetch.”
Playing fetch with a hellhound? Not bad.
She says something about hoping the wards don’t keep me out as she unlocks the greenhouse, but I’m distracted when three ravens land on the top of the greenhouse, peering down at me. The big one that I’ve started to take a liking to croaks low in its throat, tipping its head.
Finally, Lillian lets me into the greenhouse, and while I sense the wards ripple over my skin, they don’t stop me. Stepping inside, I study the simple setup.
