Happiness isn’t blood on my hands. It’sZephyra. It’s her laughter, and her moans, and her whispers, and her breath in my ear as she snores softly with her arms wrapped around my middle. It’s her hopes and dreams and even her fits of rage and her infuriating attitude.
Around her, I feel human again. I feel…alive.
After this, I’m hers.
Maybe I’ve always been hers. From that moment she grabbed my wrist and threw my ass on the ground. I was just too stubborn—too stupid, too apathetic, too fuckingignorant—to notice. Not anymore. I’ll unbury Mortem’s heart, I’ll use it to save us, and then I’ll use it to take us wherever she wants. Anywhere in the world. So long as we’re together, we can figure out the rest later.
Listening to the pounding in my veins, the magicroaringin mybones, I tear my gaze from hers and force myself to look up at the mountain-sized double doors. Adamant and solid, not an embellishment in sight, save for the bioluminescent crustaceans embedded in the jagged stone. Two knockers hang in the center of the doors—megalodon heads with broken, swinging jaws—though there isn’t a handle in sight. Amaya tilts her head, examining them, seeking a way in when a soldier steps forward to touch the door.
“Don’t,” I command. “We don’t know the exact sort of alarm or security he’ll have in place.”
“We don’t even know if he’sgone,” Zephyra snarls, her frustration and anxiety boiling over. I don’t even need the bond to feel it. Toseeit.
“So what do you expect us to do, Warlock Stone?” Amaya asks. “Stand around here and stare at the damn things?”
I wish I had an answer for the princess, but as I stare at the megalodon skulls, my mind empties. Zephyra can’t stand to look at them. She focuses instead on her feet. Vesper sidles closer to the very mermaid she tried to killdaysago, and Gavriall shivers in his boots. This situation is bad. We need to be smart about this. We need a way in that doesn’t disrupt or triggeranything.
“Oh, just pull on the knockers,” Amaya says. “This is why we’re here.”
“I’m not so sure,” Gavriall begins uneasily.
But the doors burst open before he can finish.
Entirely silent—eerily so—they swing wide, nearly bludgeoning half Amaya’s crew in the process. Luckily, everyone manages to leap out of the way at the last second. Even luckier, no one emerges from the threshold.
“What thefuck?” Vesper breathes hard, gripping the bloodstain on her thigh and staring into the pitch darkness of the castle’s vast entrance.
“Is he here?” Gavriall asks in a rush. “Do you think this means the sorcerer is inside?”
“I’m sure he would lock them if heweren’thome,” Carmen agrees.
The man beside her—Valentino—shakes his head. “But this place is cursed, isn’t it? This doesn’t have to mean anything. Maybe the doors opened on their own. Maybe he doesn’tneedto lock them.”
“He doesn’t,” Zephyra murmurs. “No one enters this castle unless he allows it, and no one comes out. Ever.”
Our gazes snap up at that, eight dozen eyes staring into the gaping maw of the sorcerer’s playground.No one comes out. Ever.There is a high chance it will be the same for us. A high chance once we set foot inside, we won’t be able to leave.
“If anyone is feeling nervous orhesitant, you have my permission to return to the ship and wait for us.” Amaya seeks out her infantry, one by one by one. “There won’t be any room for fear ahead of us. We need to maintain our composures and sanity if we’re to navigate this wretched place. By the grace of Tempestas, eternal glory awaits all who stand at the helm of chaos. Who do not buckle before it butbowto it.”
Her soldiers stand straighter at the last, spines as rigid as their glistening breastplates and metal bases. The branded emblem of storm clouds and lightning across their chests sparks and glows with Amaya’s powers. Not a single one of them leaves. They don’t seem to even consider it.
“Good.” Amaya smiles, a genuinely proud grin, and turns back to the darkness. “Then, let us proceed.”
She walks through first, flanked by her second and third mates and then by all the others. Zephyra sucks in a sharp breath and follows after them. So I follow too. No longer listening to the magical war drums thrumming through me but keeping a watchful gaze on our cord. As dim as it is here, it could almost be invisible.
We cross the threshold easily. Too easily. And every single person except for Zephyra relaxes as light suddenly emits a comforting yellow glow around us.
The antechamber appears deceptively normal—for a merrow castle, at least. Halls shoot off from the large room like the hands of a clock, its walls a pale stone and the rugs beneath our feet woven of seaweed and kelp and embellished with smooth shells. A chandelier hangs low overhead, glowing amber crystals dazzling, refracting light off the walls. It’s almost… warm. Far warmer than Tower Arcana had ever been. It doesn’t feel frightening at all. I glance at Zephyra, but still, she stares solely at the floor.
“Now what?” Gavriall asks. “Which direction should we go?”
“Give us a moment to orient ourselves.” Amaya’s gaze narrows as she moves closer to examine the walls. She sticks her knife between chinks in the stone.
“Are these…” She pauses.Frowns.My stomach clenches.
“Teeth,” the princess finally declares, plucking one from the wall and holding it between her fingers, against the amber light. “These are human teeth.”
Fuck.
