Callum lingered at one as I searched for her, his fingers brushing the carved figure sleeping in stone against the lid. A flame still flickered in his palm, throwing shadows long across the chamber as water slid down the walls in thin rivulets, catching his flare until they looked like streaks of blood streaming over the divots.
Bones cracked beneath my boots with each footstep as a whiff of rose let me know Elva was close. The scent of fresh mint mingling with it told me I wasn’t the only one watching over her.
“How many?”
Of course, Ford hadn’t finished his interrogation.
“Why are you so godsdamned nosy, Ford?” Callum mumbled, not even glancing up from the tomb.
Ford threw his arms wide. “What? Haveyoumet anyone that speaks to a bird?”
I circled the tombs, letting my eyes shift, a flash of viper blue, gone before my next blink. “A raven, remember?”
But Ford’s attention was on Nezra, her own focus on the open arched doorway leading further into the cave. Though she didn’t seem to mind the inquiries, her voice aired with caution as she noted, “I speak every tongue the world has ever known.”
Ford whistled. “Why, though?”
A shiver threaded down my spine as I gravitated toward a looming statue that guarded a small tomb at its feet. A soft hiss hummed under my breath as my shadow shifted wrong, nearly throwing me off my feet at the shove against my skull.
Nezra sighed. “How dull would it be if I could only lure one kind to the depths to drown, strip bare, and then feed on what remains?”
Ronan and Killian both stifled a laugh, though Ford’s posture locked tight as steel. My hand brushed the small, slate tomb beside us, clearing dust from the faded etching on its face.
Nezra giggled.“I’m teasing.”Though her eyes lingered on the bones scattered among the stones.“We’re far more selective than that. And truth be told,” she leaned closer, letting the words bite, “it’s the marrow we savor, not the bones.”
Even I gulped at that one.
Elva startled, clutching the pendant at her throat when Inessa’s sudden laugh rang across the chamber.
My head tilted as the tomb before me shifted into the glow, a sliver of words on it now visible. I leaned down, blowing away the remaining dust and cobwebs clinging to the rest. “Nezra?”
She strode toward me, her raven launching from her shoulder as they neared.
“Do you readthislanguage?”
She bent down, gloved fingers brushing over the extinct lines. Her breath caught as she swallowed, and then whispered,“Life fears Death. Death fears Nothing.”
Fuck.
My stomach dropped as every vein iced. That was when I knewexactlywhere we stood.
A burning smell rose as Callum stepped beside me, his flame dipping low. He said, voice as deep as the carvings, “The tomb of Keres.” His eyes lifted to mine. “The death spirits.”
The death spirits were souls who had been sacrificed, condemned to watch the damned in the afterlife. Those too evil even for the Aureveil.
Rocks loosened, clattering across the floor as the others gathered around the tomb. Blue fire roared from Callum’s hands, splitting into twin orbs that hovered above us, igniting the entire chamber at once.
And what it hid.
We saw them then. Hundreds of tombs. Some small enough for children. Others built for Fae grown and hardened. Each engraved with the same words.
Life fears Death. Death fears Nothing.
My fingers ghosted where the curse mark stained my chest. “Ronan, what mountain are we in?”
His eyes shot to me. “Druin Mountain.”
Mine fluttered shut, my breath faltering as I reached to bring Elva closer, her lips moving in soundless prayer as she watched Elysian’s eyes glaze over in a blue as bright as Callum’s glow.
