I know my rationale is sound and that this is the right course of action. That’s why none of them argue with me. But I still hesitate. I still stand at the top of the stairs looking down into the gloom that I just emerged from mere hours ago, that claimed Ruvan.
I’m doing this for him, for myself, for all of us. I clench my fists to keep my hands from shaking and I start down the stairs. Winny, Lavenzia, and Ventos are at my back. Even Callos came. He’s positioned himself next to me, surrounded by the other combatants.
“If we find another Lost, there’s no way we’ll bring it down,” Ventos murmurs.
“Are you getting more cheerful by the day, or is it just my imagination?” Winny mutters with a glare in his direction.
“I’m being realistic.”
“You’ve always been a bit of a pessimist, but you have been worse than normal lately,” Lavenzia chimes in.
For whatever the reason, Ventos always seems to take her more seriously. “We haven’t exactly had a lot going our way lately.”
“Think of all the information you brought back from the workshop,” Callos says. “We’ve made leaps of progress in our understanding of the blood lore.”
“Now you’re going to know the path to the workshop and it will be another place for us to secure and I’ll never see you again.” Winny seems a little perturbed by how much time Callos has been spending with the records and experimentation.
“Outside of the records, we do have a human. That’s certainly something no other covenant has had, and it’s worked out pretty well,” Lavenzia points out.
“Pale moon above, the vampir are never going to be able to live down the shame of ahumanbeing the cause of the curse breaking,” Ventos grumbles, though there’s a sarcastic note that’s never been there before.
“I’m right here, you know.” I glare back at Ventos. He has the audacity to grin. I roll my eyes. “Besides, if it’s a human that made the curse, then it should be a human that breaks it.”
“You have a point.”
“Of course I do, now, we should focus.” We’re back before the stairwell that leads to the room of casks. I can smell the elixir wafting up from the depths. I brace myself.
The remnants of the fight are everywhere, in the blood on the floor, the splintered shelves and casks. I stare at the spot where Ruvan fell. I expected it to hit me harder, to shock and numb me the same way that returning to Hunter’s Hamlet did. Perhaps this wound is too fresh; I don’t yet know all the ways it has damaged my psyche. Or perhaps I’m not slipping into the void of despair because I know that he still has a chance as long as I can keep pressing on.
I cross over to where I dropped my dagger. Now that Ruvan is in stasis I wonder if using it won’t injure him. But it might not be a risk I’m willing to take—drawing our power could break the barrier that’s protecting him by siphoning my magic.
“Old blood and orchids,” Callos whispers, kneeling by the Lost.
“Nasty monster, isn’t he?” Ventos grumbles.
“No. Yes. Yes he is. But that’s not…” Callos gently reaches to the Lost’s neck, grasping a fine, silver chain I hadn’t noticed in the previous chaos.
“What is it?” Winny asks, kneeling at his side. Callos says nothing, turning a small, tarnished pendant over in his hands, smearing off grime and blood with his thumb. “Callos?”
“Jontun.”
“What?” Lavenzia steps forward.
“It’s—he’s Jontun.” Callos slowly looks up. “This was the pendant of the king’s archivist. They modeled the ones at the academy after it.”
“We have to go deeper,” I declare, sheathing the dagger on my thigh. This discovery only supports my earlier theories of these halls.
“I’ll take you to the study we found.” Winny offers Callos a hand. He takes it with a nod. She looks to the rest of us. “We’ll meet back with you later.”
“Be on guard,” Ventos says, and we part ways.
In the back of the room is another staircase. Down Ventos, Lavenzia, and I go, descending farther, farther than I ever have before. It is as though we’re walking into the very center of the Earth.
Eventually, the sloping descent becomes less extreme, before it completely levels out. We walk for what feels like an endless amount of time through a rough-hewn tunnel deep within the earth. Our ears pop, and the walls become drenched with water, seeping from unknown sources. The water is so deep in some areas that we’re wading through. But we carry on.
The one good thing about the tunnel is that it’s impossible to be ambushed. Thanks to that, we make good time.
We come upon a section of the passage that is so thick with inky shadows that our eyes can’t see through it. I slow to a halt, Lavenzia at my side. Ventos takes up the rear.
