“I’m Kali.” I outstretched a hand to the red-cheeked man clad in a pale-blue button-up shirt. Its shade, the cut, the lapels, they all nagged the recesses of my memory.
He must’ve worked at the Spire—the tallest glass building twirling around itself, like a spear about to pierce the clouds. All black-banded office workers were issued such uniform shirts to wear on the premises.
Only the folks with green wristbands could pick and choose their outfits. The state of their reproductive organs raised their worth beyond invaluable.
Rowan shook my hand. “I was told you and Zion took over the compound business in Gedeon’s…absence.” As if in afterthought, he added, “Sorry for your loss.” Before I couldthank him, he waved for us to follow him. “Come on. It’s a long walk to the cavern.”
We delved into the arched depths of roughly hewn walls. A musty and stale odor dried out my nostrils, the rotten reek invading my lungs and twisting my gut.
Darkness clouded tunnel after tunnel, our flashlights serving as weapons against the shadows. Uncountable night creatures with far too many legs skittered if caught in the illumination’s snare.
But eventually, the gloomy passage widened into a vast, half-moon-shaped space. Archways of pure blackness adorned the curved wall—nine passages standing in wait of a soul. The murkiness churning beyond their thresholds… If you displayed a second’s hesitation at a turn, they’d devour you to the marrow of your bones.
“Stay close to me. It’s too easy to get lost.” Rowan aimed for the fourth entrance from the right. “I collected you four, and I intend to deliver all. Don’t make me disappoint her.”
We fell in line after him, and I hissed to Zion, “Her? Will you finally tell me who we’re meeting?”
Catching my wrist, he positioned my flashlight under his chin. “It’s a surprise.”
I shuddered at the shadows swirling in the hollows and dips of his features. “Idiot.”
“Aprettyidiot, you wanted to say.” With a grin, he threw an arm over my shoulders, and we rushed to catch up with Eli and Ava traipsing behind our guide.
We took turn after turn, left, left, right, left again, until I lost any sense of direction and gave up on tracking our path. There was not the slightest chance I’d find a way back by myself.
“Gedeon would’ve liked this,” Zion whispered, surveying the neat piles of human bones filling the niches on both sides of thetunnel, as if the hollows had been made specifically for such a purpose—to display the end of life.
Skulls lacking their lower jaws sat on the ledges above the stacks of the disintegrated skeletons, their eye sockets as dark as the shells of bugs crawling out of them.
Zion brushed the forehead of a skull, leaving a light-colored streak, and rubbed the fine powder between his fingers. “Plenty of canvases up for grabs.”
My throat thickened. “Has Gedeon ever actually carved out a skull?”
“Skulls, femurs, pelvic bones. Anything with a large enough surface to etch the letters into it.”
It didn’t surprise me. After Zion had captured the guard who’d let me pass Ilasall gates for afavorand dragged him down to his basement, Gedeon had carved his name into the man’s chest.
“A fascination…” I mused out loud.
“He said it was about leaving a permanent mark.” Zion mindlessly stroked his left forearm, the burn scars hidden underneath the sleeves of a soldier’s shirt. “That they died having been branded by him—the owner of their deaths.”
“That’s—”
“Hot, right?”
It wrenched a snort out of me, and I couldn’t help but shake my head.
“Hey!” Spinning around, Ava fell back behind Eli. “Don’t leave me out of things. This place is spooky enough; give me something besides a bug to think about.” She jabbed a thumb at Eli. “This one is already a nuisance on my side, all sullen and moping.” Nudging him with an elbow, she teased, “You just can’t wait to get back home to read some more of Eislyn’s books, can you?”
Eli grumbled under his breath. “I need a break from you.”
Ava rested a hand on her chest. “That’s such a nice compliment. I’ll go to bed thinking about it tonight.”
I loved her. Truly. Nothing could derail her once she set her sights on something.
A short trek later, we neared the end of one of the endless passages. Warm light bathed the walls in a dim glow, deterring the army of shadows, and Rowan announced, “We’re here.”
Silhouettes glided across the opening, their expressions varying degrees of amusement and expectation.
