“Yeah, I know.” She wiped her eyes, her skin moist and clammy in the fire’s glow.
I swirled the torch again. A flash of silver winked back at me in the darkness. I crept around the pit, holding the torch low until it caught upon the rungs of a wooden ladder, sparkling diamond hinges bolting it to the wall.
“Absolutely not,” she said.
I ignored her. Thrusting the handle of the torch between my teeth, I lowered myself over the edge of the pit. The ladder creaked but held, the treads worn and thick, allowing my fingers to grip securely. “’Den stay in ‘da dark,” I mumbled.
I descended quickly and the ladder immediately vibrated above me as she followed, her cloak swinging dangerously close to the naked flame.
The air choked as we lowered, thick, humid, and cloying. It coated my skin in a moist sheen. I couldn’t close my mouth around the wooden handle and the reek swirled in, lining my tongue and plunging down my throat. As soon as my feet sank into the sticky floor, I ripped the torch out and covered my mouth with my sleeve. Lilyanna did the same, her stomach convulsing as she heaved, but she kept it down.
She nudged me, and I lifted the light, simultaneously wishing it were brighter and snuffed out completely. The walls of the pit were hollowed from earth, smooth and towering, ascending into nothingness above us. As the flame alighted on its surface, gouges, nail marks, and teeth marks stretched upward, outlining furrows that were darker and slimier than the surrounding walls.
We both stepped forward, edging around the chamber while keeping our backs away from the wall. My heart hammered, pulsing in my ears, pulling my focus. Lilyanna kept a vise-tight grip on my arm, her head swiveling constantly.
The light caught on the edges of a door hewn from the earth. I ran the flame up and down searching for a handle. Deep divots dented the wood, but it remained flush with the wall. I kicked it, achieving nothing. Lilyanna squeezed my arm, and we moved on. Another three doors lined the pit, each spaced like the aisles within the benches upstairs. All had no handles, no windows, no give. All were locked.
“Let’s go. We tried.” Lilyanna tugged on my sleeve again. She still held the dagger clutched to her face with a handful of her cloak to smother the smell. The diamonds burned in the torchlight, glowing orange and yellow like a silent fireplace.
My magic, which had lain dormant, stirred. It stretched through my body in a languid prowl, tugging my shoulders to the right.
“This way.” I edged toward the center of the pit. My feet stumbled over the raised ledge of the platform, and Lilyanna crashed into my back. My hand dropped from my mouth and the unmistakable odor of fresh blood speared into my nostrils.
Lilyanna whimpered, glancing repeatedly over her shoulder, but the torchlight barely illuminated the dais, the rest of the pit swirling with shadows. They danced and wriggled, always just out of reach, pulsing as if with their own lifeforce.
Ash piled over the platform in an unbroken swathe, thick enough it covered my boots. Where the three people had been bound yesterday, now only a large box remained. The panes were all made of glass, impregnated with diamond veins that weaved down the joints.
Inside lay the woman.
Her body was limp, limbs splayed, her neck twisted. Skin the color of powdered snow peeked out from underneath soiled clothing. Congealed clots of blood stuck to the inside of her elbows, jugular, and inner thighs. No blood had spilled on the floor of the box, the walls, or the ceiling, but she’d been exsanguinated.
And there were signs of a struggle.
Ash handprints with clawed nails and stretched fingers covered every inch of the glass, streaking down the joints.
The box rattled.
We both jumped. Lilyanna stuck to my side like a second skin. Another thump and a fresh handprint marred the glass directly in front of us. “What?” I pointed at the mark, words sputtering on my tongue.
“Her spirit is sentient,” Lilyanna whispered. “If the body is not laid to rest, the spirit will seek revenge.”
“On whom?”
“Anyone it contacts, unless it’s controlled by a higher power. It’ll be bound to the location where it was separated.”
“The castle?”
She nodded. “The castle.”
“Stuff like this doesn’t happen down South, just so you know.” I freed my other knife, dropping my cloak from in front of my face again and trying to breathe through my mouth to mute the stench.
“It does.” She readied the dagger. “You just don’t believe in it.”
The box lurched, rocking onto its edge before crashing down in a cloying swirl of ash.
“Come on.” We both went for the joints, the blades skittering over the glass, unable to find purchase. I flipped the knife and slammed the butt against the glass. On the other side, the handprint pushed back. “Can we bury her when we get her out?”
Lilyanna rammed the butt of her dagger into the glass with a dull thud. Not even a single spiderweb crept through the surface. “It’s probably too late,” she gasped, “but we won’t know until she’s out.”
