“Honestly, this is the smartest thing you’ve ever done,” I whispered to him. “I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this, Epsy, but I love you. You’re the greatest pet I’ve ever had, and you’ve made this whole thing more bearable since the first day. So, thank you, I guess.”
He didn’t answer, of course, but it didn’t matter, because we were coming up to the part where I’d have to climb out of the tunnel and up into the cellar beneath the Hall of Ebrus. Someone had left the hatch open, and that made me suspicious. An accident or a trap?
Fuck it, there was only one way to find out.
I missed the guys, missed how easy they’d made this seem, especially as I had to squat down in the river of shit to get enough upward momentum to grip the edges of the opening. Finally, I pulled myself out, though I was puffing and struggling by the end.
Epsy had me by my ponytail, dragging me. It wasn’t like his tiny weight could have any effect, but I appreciated the thought.
Looking around quickly, I was glad to see it was empty. Malak must have kept his word. I flopped onto my back, panting for a little while as I caught my breath. Well, I tried not to breathethatdeeply, since I smelled like shit. Really, really, bad.
Climbing to my hands and knees, then finally to my feet, I looked over the edge of the well into the blackness below. Goddess, I hoped it was a reset and not a weird hallucination, because I was about to jump into the abyss. If I drowned, I was going to be so mad.
I set Epsy to the side. “Stay here and keep watch, okay?” I didn’t want him to drown with me, if I was wrong. I also didn’t know what thetalwould do to him, if he did something outrageous like chew on it. No, up here was safer.
He made a soft chittering noise, and I stroked his head.
“I’ll be fine. When Vox gets here, I’ll need him to come down and get me. I’m depending on you, Epsy.” I placed him back on the ground and sat on the edge of the well. Pulling out my dagger, I sent up a little prayer, and pushed off.
I fell through the dark, thick water, thicker than it should feel, until I hit the ground with a thump. Winded, I sucked in air, but my eyes went straight to the statue of Ebretha, exactly where it had been in my memories of my last life.
“She said you’d come,” a voice croaked out behind me, and I spun. I couldn’t even hold back the gasp that burst past my lips. It was Yaron Vylan, but also… it wasn’t. He looked like he’d been dragged through the streets, scraped along the rocks of the Herelean Cliffs, then left to heal in this dingy hole.
“Yaron?” I breathed. Fuck, was he a ghost?
The man—ghost—in front of me winced. “No. Not Yaron. My name is Dermet. I’m his twin.Washis twin. Feodore tells me you murdered him. Well, Vox murdered him.” His voice wasso rough, it sounded painful. Like each word was choked out through vocal chords so damaged, it was physical torture to speak. I wanted to tell him to stop, but I had too many questions.
Why was he here? What had happened to him? Would he kill me?
Most importantly, why did his magic feel sowrong?
Instead, I went with, “Who told you I’d come?” Did the Baroness Vylan know I was here?
He shook his head. “The Goddess. She said this was almost over. That I had one more test, and then I’d be free.”
My eyes flicked to the statue of Ebretha. Had he lost it and thought the statue was talking to him? I mean, stranger things had happened, so maybe itwastalking to him.
He laughed, but it was a sickly, barking sound that I’d never forget. “No, she comes to me in my dreams. I assume the same way she comes to you. She said you’re here to destroy that… abomination.” Now he was looking at thetal,hatred on his face.
He sat slumped against the rough wall, a plate beside him, and I realized he had a manacle around his ankle. Was that what was making his magic taste weird?
He was naked, though this was the least confronting thing about his visage. So many scars. He’d clearly been tortured for years. Decades.
“Vox never speaks of you.”
I saw the hurt flash across Dermet’s face. “Understandable. He was little more than a toddler when I ‘died.’” He did airquotes around the word. “No one remembers. No one I want to remember, anyway.”
I tried to work out what to do, looking over at the statue of Ebretha, then back at him. “I’m going to destroy this, and then I’m going to free you.”
He let out a soft laugh. It sounded almost like Vox’s, if you roughed Vox’s throat up with sandpaper. “If only it was thateasy, little Recreationist.” He knew what I was. Maybe he really was talking with the Goddess. “Unfortunately, I’m as much a part of thattalas it is of me.”
Brain whirling, I tried to decipher what he was telling me. He’d been down here for nearly two decades with thistal.“The magic it siphoned—it’s in you now?”
He shrugged. “Some of it, anyway. Too much of it. It keeps trying to burst through my skin.” He pressed his fingers to the scars on his chest. “They let some of it out, but not enough. Never enough.”
He was in so much pain.
Throwing caution to the wind, I walked over to him, looking at his manacle. As I reached down to touch it, it felt cold. A burning, unnatural cold. It was old, tainted magic, and I didn’t know how to break it. Wrapping my hands around the metal, I grabbed each side of it and pulled, hissing as the cold seared my fingers.
