“Unfortunately,” he said, tightening the grip on his steel—though I had to wonder, would a sword do much good against whatever made the air taste like death, sickness, and fear? What kind of weapon could we wield againstthat? “I’ll go first. Stay behind me.”
Toryn opened his mouth to argue, but Kalen shot him a quick glare. The fae of his Mist Guard were his closest friends—they were his family—and he accepted a lot of attitude from them that he wouldn’t from others. But in this moment, King Kalen Denare had taken over, and he had ordered us to stay back. And despite everything, I couldn’t help the flush that filled me with an intoxicating heat. He was the most magnificent being I’d ever seen in my life.
Kalen strode into the dark tunnel without a hint of fear on his face. I fell in behind him, while Toryn took the rear. The fae had to stoop, ducking beneath the low ceiling that skimmed the top of my head. Inside, the thundering sensation ofwrongnessonly grew stronger. And as we inched forward, I had to grind my teeth against the desire to turn around and run back the way we’d come.
Every single step made it worse. Every whisper of that wind against my face made certain doom thunder in my heart. It felt as though we were walking straight into the pits of the underworld, never to escape again.
Never to see light again.
The mists of the Kingdom of Shadow were nothing compared to this. Out there, even on the darkest night, a haze of light crept through the fog. This was nothing but black, so all-encompassing and endless, I could not even see the vague shape of Kalen in front of me. I could not hear anything, either, only my ragged breathing and my own boots scraping against the stone.
All I could hear was myself.
A sudden blast of panic slammed into me.
With a gloved hand, I reached out and found his waist, firm beneath my touch. Kalen was there. Instantly, the panic subsided. He was still with me. I was not alone in this place, lost forever to the darkness.
I didn’t know how long we walked like that. The moments felt like hours or even days. Time seemed to lose all meaning. I started to wonder if the gods had come and gone, destroying the world completely while the three of us were lost in the halls made of night.
A distant glow curved around a corner up ahead, and my entire body exhaled in relief as my vision began to clear. Kalen continued to trek ever forward, his sword held before him. I glanced over my shoulder to check on Toryn. He was still there with a grim set to his jaw. His eyes looked as haunted as my heart felt.
We rounded the corner and came to the entrance of a cave. The glow brightened, originating from a bleached white stone perched on a raised dais, and illuminated the moss-covered ceiling above it. Water dripped onto the jagged rocks all around us.
Kalen let out a low whistle, and the sound echoed, and echoed, and echoed, growing further and further away as if the caves tunneled deep into the dark earth.
There was nothing else in this place other than that white stone and the steps leading up to the dais just ahead of us. Something in my gut told me we should turn around now and leave, never to return. That feeling of wrongness permeated the air and sank into my skin, like the humidity itself was coated in it. We’d found what we’d come here for—there was a stone that likely held a god, just like the onyx stone back in Itchen had, like the stone in Oberon’s necklace had. We didn’t need to know anything more than that.
Toryn jerked his head toward the stone. “There’s something else up there. Looks like some sort of bench or seat has been carved into the dais.”
I followed his gaze, my heart thumping. Along the edge of the dais, there were indeed two flat sides of stone that were squared off on the tops. It was difficult to see more than that, but it clearly wasn’t natural. Someone had made those seats, but my mind screamed that we did not want to know any more than that.
“I think we should leave,” I said as the thickening fear washed over me.
Leave, leave, leaveechoed all around us. A shiver scraped down my spine, tingling right where Oberon had cut into my skin all those years ago—where my father had first cut, desperate to release my wings. Wings I’d always been certain I would never have.
But now…after touching that flower and being down here…
“We need to leave,” I said, louder this time, turning to Kalen with pleading eyes. “This place is wrong. We should not be here.”
“I know.” He gazed up at the dais. “But we need to see what’s up there. It could be important.”
I clutched his arm when he made a move toward the steps. “You once held out your hand to me when we stood at the edge of a cliff, and you asked if I trusted you. Do you remember? In that dream? And then I took your hand, and we leapt. I tumbled into a chasm with you. I trusted you when you said we should jump. Trust me now, Kalen. We need to leave.”
Kalen lowered his sword, searching my eyes for answers I did not have. How could I explain this deep-seated feeling inside of me? How could I ask him to leave before we got all our answers? We’d likely never again find the opportunity to come down here. The queen was hiding something big, something to do with the gods. Whatever it was waited up on that dais, only steps away from us now.
But we had to get out of here or something terrible was going to happen.
He reached out to palm my cheek, as he’d done a dozen times or more, but I hissed and stepped out of his reach. We didn’t know the extent of my power or if skin-to-skin contact of any kind was dangerous. I would not risk his life testing it.
His jaw clenched. “Are you certain of this?”
“More certain than I’ve ever been of anything. We should not be here, Kalen.Please.”
He nodded and traced an invisible line in the air, as if he were imagining running his finger along the edge of my jaw. “Of course I trust you. If you’re that certain we should leave, we’ll leave.”
I exhaled in relief. There was no reason he should turn away from that dais, but here he was, trusting me despite that. I yearned to reach out and pull him in close, but instead, I turned to go. And then I caught a blur of movement in the corner of my eye as Toryn rushed up the steps.
Kalen swore.
