He takes one look at my utter state of panic, says, "Shit. Go to the dungeon. Nivarrah went there," and disappears again.
Just drops back into Limbo as my world keeps falling apart.
I swore I'd do it once when the Nightmare Prince robbed me of the chance to avenge my mother, but now?
I'm going. To fucking.Kill him.
His words don't sink in as I keep running toward the ballroom, my heart pounding so hard it hurts as I try not to picture how terrified Heidi looked last night. Howvulnerableshe is right now, unconscious and unable to fight someone as powerful and demented as Veld.
Every instinct inside me is screaming because the most important person in my existence is in danger. She's in the hands of that nasty fucking monster going gods know where, and for the first time in my life, I don't know how to fight back.
Just as I'm about to run into the ballroom, I freeze beside Ian, Kaenon, and Zak's unconscious bodies. Cursing myself for panicking earlier and not thinking of this sooner, I once again make sure I'm touching each of them before calling forth Arati's blessing to form armor around me.
Ian and Kaenon both jolt awake with ease.
Zak shouts in agony, scrambling away from me and clutching his chest like it's the center of his pain. "Motherfucking infernal hells, I told you not to?—"
"Veld took Heidi."
Ian is on his feet at once, helping Zak stand as he snarls, "Where?"
"Limbo. Crypt said something about Nivarrah in the dungeon, but?—"
Kaenon is on his feet at once, understanding on his face. "Veld wishes to torment Nivarrah through Heidi. If he knows she is in the dungeon, he will take my mate there."
Damn it, that actually makes some sense.
But I'm still going to kill Crypt for setting up a trap like this usingmyempath.
I turn and run toward the stairs down to the dungeon, but Kaenon calls, "Wait. I am swifter."
"What does that have to do with?—"
The words die in my mouth when he leaps forward, shifting in the middle of this vaulted stone Everbound hallway. Instead of a sabre-toothed tiger or a wolf, this time he's a mythically huge, majestic stag with deadly antlers branching off his head.
Kaenon the stag bends one leg and blows air through his lips, clearly inviting us to get on. Zak and I climb on at once.
Ian takes off ahead of us, faster on his own. When Kaenon straightens and leaps forward, I swear and wrap my arms around his neck, squeezing my eyes shut. Zak also shouts and wraps his arms around me, trying to hold on as Kaen picks up impressive speed, hooves clattering on the tiles of the castle as he follows Ian, who I pray to the gods knows where he's fucking going.
He does, because a second later, the massive stag stops at the top of a stairway that goes down. Zak and I fling ourselves off Kaenon's back just before he shifts back into his human form. Zak is still struggling with the after-effects of my holy magic, so I help him lean on me as we rush down the stairs, descending deeper and deeper to the bottom of this gothic behemoth of a fortress.
Except even before we get to the bottom of the stairs, my eyes begin to glow as a new, powerful magical signature sears itself into my brain.
When we step off the stairs, we're not in Everbound's dungeon.
We're in a maze of mirrors. Shifting, warping, bubbling mirrors scrolling with flickering images. Cautiously, I step into the labyrinth, glancing down at one of the mirrored bubbles.
It's an image of a fae woman sitting in a beautiful field, crying with a flower crown on her head. An incubus sits beside her—not a modern legacy incubus, but one with bat-like, leathery wings, claws, and a tail that curls behind him. As the fae woman sobs her heart out, the incubus laughs and takes the crown off her head, ripping it up before he kisses her cheek.
"These are Nivarrah's memories," Kaenon realizes as he watches something on another mirror slowly twisting beside us. Whatever he sees in it, he winces and looks away.
My eyes haven't stopped glowing as this magical signature continues to pulse in the air. Thanks to my sixth-sense gift for magic, I realize that, despite how chaotic and overwhelming our surroundings are, bending every sense, Nivarrah isn't far.
Zak braces himself against one wall of mirrors, still weak from me waking him up with holy magic. He looks around, frowning. "Where's Heidi and Ian?"
Echoing laughter fills this distorted, reflection-filled maze.
"Quoh isil ameu thuduil iseath, stulithi ani gèam?"a male voice croons from gods know where.
