Lady Richwell? My jaw unhinged, ice sliding through my veins.
“Mother,” Penelope sobbed, terror cracking through her usual venom. “Mother, please. Help me!”
The corpse’s lips peeled back, revealing blackened teeth. She leaned close, her voice a guttural rasp. “One of us.”
She sank her claws into Penelope’s shoulder. The girl screamed, not the shrill tantrum I remembered, but the cry of a daughter betrayed.
For years, I had wished Penelope gone, but not like this. Not devoured by the woman who once kissed her goodnight.
The eyes of my tormentor locked with mine. “Don’t stand there, you idiot. Do something!”
Sparks tingled in my fingertips. “Penelope!” I lunged toward her, and strong fingers sealed over my mouth. Arms bandedaround me, dragging me back. Panic surged until Thorne’s smoky scent filled my lungs.
“Don’t. It’s too late,” he whispered in my ear, voice rough. “I won’t let them take you too.”
Penelope’s screams echoed down the tunnel as Lady Richwell dragged her into the dark. “No, Momma. No!” Penelope cried. “Let go of me, you old bat.”
I went limp against Thorne’s grip, tears scalding my eyes.
“It’s okay. I’ve got you.” He set me on my feet. “This way. While they’re distracted.”
My hand snug in his, he led me away. Once we stopped, I threw my arms around his neck and held tight. “I’m so happy to see you,” I mumbled into his chest.
He gripped the back of my shirt, arms tightening as if reluctant to let go. “I felt you, your terror, and regret. I feared the worst.”
A voice cleared, and I raised my head.
Drazen peered at us. The crystal he held cast his face in a soft glow. “Sorry to interrupt, but Kronk thinks he found something.”
“Now that we are underground, I can sense a great many things.” Kronk pressed his hand against the dirt wall and closed his eyes. “Down this tunnel, there is a large open space. It could be where the prisoners are kept.”
“Or more monsters.” I shivered.
“This way.” Kronk took the lead.
We followed him in silence, Thorne keeping my hand tight in his grip, our arms brushing.
After an eternity, Kronk swung out his arm, blocking us from going further. He turned, raising a finger to his lips. On silent feet, he inched toward an opening in the wall and peeked around the corner.
A putrid scent wafted in the air, threatening to expel my breakfast, and I dragged my collar over my nose and mouth. Whatever he’d discovered in that tunnel wasn’t alive.
Please don’t let it be Speck.
Thorne crept closer, peering inside.
“What is it?” I leaned into his shoulder, whispering in his ear.
Slowly, we slipped through the entrance. Inky darkness greeted us, and I clung to the back of Thorne’s shirt, blind to what waited in the void. Golden light from a solar crystal pierced the veil.
“Blessed flames.” Drazen’s hissed curse thundered in the silence.
Even Kronk was speechless for once.
Curiosity scratched at my insides. I shoved between them, peering into the cavernous void. We stood at the top of a ridge, the room a dome-shaped space. Below, the floor rippled and rolled like water.
My brow scrunched, my eyes straining. The harder I looked, the more the ripples turned into lumps. The lumps into heads. The heads into blackened, skeletal bodies.
Wait. Were those…?
