But the shadows reveal nothing.
Gods damn it, where are they?
Titaia moves toward the section of the wall where Nyssa and I saw Keres vanish—where the strange marks are carved. My eyes follow her as she draws a small knife from her pocket and presses the blade to the tip of her finger, drawing blood.
I step closer but stop in my tracks as she presses her bleeding finger to one symbol—an inverted triangle divided by a horizontal line, with a teardrop hanging from its lowest point. A faint crimson light glows. My breath catches as the smooth stone morphs into the coarse texture of a wooden door. Handleless yet responsive, it swings open at her touch, revealing a concealed passage beyond.
Titaia fidgets before turning to face me. “Are you ready?”
I can only nod, still trying to process what I’ve just witnessed. Titaia has just revealed and opened a hidden door with her own blood. I’ve never heard ofgoiteíacapable of producing either of these phenomena. Could the markings carved into the locked door in Keres’s room be activated in the same manner? Is any blood enough, or is it the bloodline itself that serves as the key?
The questions rush through my mind as I step into the passageway behind her, and as soon as we cross the threshold, the door swings shut.Darkness swallows us, and I reach out, my hand colliding with the cool metal of a door handle on this side.
“The outside will appear as marble again,” Titaia explains as she pulls an aura from her pocket and a cool glow of light surrounds us. “We don’t need blood to leave, only to enter.”
“That’s a neat trick,” I murmur, turning to face her and the passage beyond. The tunnel is a yawning black abyss that stretches before us like the throat of a great beast.
My skin pebbles, either from the dampness in the air or from the faint scent of copper and decay. But as Titaia offers me a small smile, I follow her, my heart beating a staccato rhythm that surges with each looming shadow as we venture deeper into the mountain’s belly.
The walls are jagged and uneven down here, with small trickles of water running down them like sweat on a feverish face. Our footsteps echo in the darkness, along with the occasional drip from somewhere up above.
It’s hard to tell how deep we have gone, even now that my eyesight has adjusted to the dark. All I know is that every turn brings us farther and farther away from any sign of life or civilization. While that should probably put me on edge, there is something about Titaia that tells me I can trust her. Raven would surely tell me I’m foolish for believing so, but it’s not like I’m about to tell her I’m a foreign spy here to steal a weapon. I simply don’t think she’s about to bludgeon me in the head and lock me in a cell.
We pause when the tunnel splits in two. Titaia points to the left. “This way leads to Keres’sworkrooms.”
The disgust coloring her voice leaves no doubt in my mind that whatever takes place down here repulses her. “And the other?”
“A tunnel that lets out at the eastern base of the mountain.”
I keep my face impassive as I store the knowledge away.
Titaia turns to face me, slipping a second aura from the pocket of her gown into my hand. “Are you sure you want to do this, Aella?”
“I think you already know the answer to that question.”
She nods, a grim set to her features. “I can’t go in there with you.”
“Why not?”
“She asks all those who try to walk past her a riddle—exactly like your first trial.” A frown lines her forehead, and she hesitates before she speaks. “If you get it wrong, you die.”
My heartbeat stutters. “Even outside of the trials?”
“It’s not her fault. It’s part of her binding.”
“The collar,” I guess, disgust rippling through me. The trial compelled Sphinx to kill Dehlia, and I imagine her death would have been gruesome. What else did they force her to endure during captivity?
Titaia nods. “I don’t know what Keres and my uncle have her guarding, but it can’t be good.”
Guarding.
My heart rate picks up at the word.
“You don’t have to wait for me.” I grip her hands in mine, giving them a slight squeeze. “I have a feeling it wouldn’t end well for you. I’ll find my way back, and if I bump into anyone, I can just say I got lost.”
She hesitates, looking torn between doing as I say or damning the consequences and following me anyway. The former wins. “Be careful, Princess. It will be rather dull around here if you die on me.”
“Well, I wouldn’t want you to get bored.”
