“I’m sorry, Kal,” Toryn called out behind him. “I can’t leave this place, not until I have my answers. I need to know what she’s been hiding all these years.”
A shuddering breath escaped my throat, but despite my growing sense of dread, I couldn’t blame Toryn. Would I have done the same thing in his place? If this were about my father, or Nellie, or Val, would I have been able to walk away from it? Likely not. The desperation for answers would taste like ash, and I’d never be able to wash it away until I understood everything. I’d been there, when it came to my father. When I’d finally faced it, when I’dneededto know the truth, I’d forced myself to watch it all play out in front of me, even though it felt like the claws of shadowfiends scraping through my soul.
Kalen’s face nearly crumpled. Fear shot through the bond, so thick and potent I found it hard to breathe. “Toryn, don’t do this. Come on. There’s something wrong with this place, and Tessa can feel it far better than we can. She’s right. We need to leave.”
“I just need to know what this is.” Toryn reached the top of the steps and spun in a slow circle, the light from the glowing gemstone bathing his face in silver.
With a sigh, Kalen took my gloved hand. “I trust you more than anything, love, but we can’t let him do this alone.”
And with that, Kalen started up those steps toward whatever dread awaited us.
My heart kicked my ribs. Steeling myself, I climbed the steps beside him, unable to walk away now. The closer I drew to the top of that dais, the worse my body felt. My back screamed in agony, and my teeth ached as if they wanted to pull themselves out of my mouth so they could scatter onto the bottom of the cave floor and get away from here, away fromthis.
Boots scuffing the smooth stone at the top of the dais, I joined Kalen and Toryn where they gazed at what awaited us. The terror within me was almost too great for me to look, but I forced myself to meet my fate. And then…I cocked my head, frowning.
Four rectangular compartments filled the space around us, backing up onto the edge of the almost perfectly square dais. Hewn from onyx, they would have looked like fairly unremarkable sarcophaguses if not for the five buzzing gemstones inlaid on the surface of each one. In the very center of those stones was the only carving—a unique constellation of stars, different on each of the four. And as we stared, every now and then, those stones shook. It was just a rattle, but it was enough to make me take a wide step back toward the white stone in the middle of the dais.
“What the fuck is this?” I whispered.
Footsteps echoed through the cavernous space. Heart in my throat, I whirled toward the sound. Queen Tatiana walked inside with a tight grip on Nellie’s arm. My sister shot me an apologetic look, and even though she looked none the worse for wear, a familiar rage stirred inside me, desperate to spill the queen’s blood just for touching her.
Dizziness washed through me, blurring the sight of the queen scowling up at us. I shook my head and gritted my teeth, and then shoved my hands behind my back to keep myself from doing something stupid.
Something about this place—it felt like Andromeda. And the overwhelming stench of it was calling to the power inside of me. I could feel it. It was like itrecognizedme, and the magic in my veins was desperate to answer the only way it knew how, with rage and hate.
Rage toward the fae who gripped my sister.
I fisted my hands and tried to shove it away.
“Mother, what is this?” Toryn demanded, striding toward the edge of the dais. “Let go of Nellie.”
Sighing, Queen Tatiana released her grip on my sister. Nellie stumbled forward, her wide eyes trained on the three of us. She started toward the steps, as if she planned to join us up here.
My heart leapt into my throat. “No, Nellie. Stay back. Don’t come up here.”
Nellie stopped, confusion rippling across her gentle features.
“That’s right,” Queen Tatiana said. “You don’t want to go up there. Because that’s where the gods are waiting.”
Twenty-Seven
Tessa
Even though I’d sensed those stone coffins held something related to the gods, the shock that went through me made me flinch. Queen Tatiana stared up at us with her hands laced together at the front of her glorious silk gown, and her eyes seemed to glow from within, brighter and sharper now, as if being down here in the presence of the gods imbued her with extra magic.
Knowing what Andromeda could do to powers, that was likely true.
“I don’t understand.” Eyes pinched, Toryn cast his gaze around at the four stone coffins. “The gods were banished thousands of years ago. They’re not here in this world. And even if they were, surely they haven’t been hidden beneath the Kingdom of Storms all this time. You would have told me.”
The queen pressed her lips together. “I am only to tell my heir. You are not it and never have been, no matter how desperately I’ve tried to convince you to take on that title.Thisis part of the reason why. Knowing about these gods…Toryn, I should not be the only one who has this information, but I swore a vow long ago to my father. I had to prevent anyone else from discovering they were here. And I couldn’t tellyouunless you won the trial. Or, I suppose, if you found this cave yourself, as you’ve done now.”
Kalen pressed a hand to the small of my back, and the warmth of him curled through me, chasing away the rage I still felt churning through my veins and the red that bled into the corners of my eyes. He urged me toward the steps. “We need to go.”
Queen Tatiana’s eyes zeroed in on me. “You can feel it, can’t you? Their desperation to get out?”
Wetting my lips, I nodded, but when I tried to speak, I couldn’t find the words. The sensation of the gods bore down on me too much, like a heavy weight that pressed upon my mind.
“I thought as much,” she said with a sad smile. “You see, it’s been getting worse.”
