I lurched to my feet, clutching Roz as I stumbled backward, then turned and fled the way I’d come. Yet even as the tunnel closed around us, I felt it—his gaze, burning, unrelenting …
Watching.
I ran through the tunnel, my lamp guttering in the draft. My sandals slapped against the ground, the corridor curving in dizzying spirals until I burst back into the large room littered with crates, and sacks, and the stench of rot.
Roz went feral and twisted in my arms, its tail snapping like a red whip as its tiny claws scrabbled against my skin.
“Roz—stop—” I hissed, but the little creature tore free, landing with a soft thud before darting across the chamber. It sprinted toward a far corner wherebroken amphorae sagged in piles, then began clawing at a shallow rise of dirt with frantic urgency.
“Roz!” I lunged after it. “Enough!”
And then … something pale appeared in the soil.
There was just a sliver at first, but my breath stuttered as I dropped to my knees and brushed aside loose dirt, helping Roz clear the rest. The soil crumbled beneath my fingers, revealing a long, bleached-white shape, thin and unmistakably solid.
It was a bone.
Roz kept scratching, but I scrambled back, my palms slipping on the dirt. My eyes swept the rest of the chamber in horror.
There were mounds everywhere.
Some small as sleeping dogs. Others long and narrow. All subtle enough to overlook if you weren’t kneeling in the dirt with a bone in your hand.
My breath snagged.
This wasn’t a storage room. It was a burial ground disguised as one.
I turned and bolted. Back through the crates, through the tang of decay, through the tunnel that felt like it was closing in on me. Roz skittered after me and I didn’t stop until I reached my chamber and slid closed the passage.
Roz darted beneath the bed as if it was frightened too.
I pressed my back to the wall, shaking so violently my teeth knocked together, the image of that bone burning behind my eyes.
Something was buried beneath this palace.
Many somethings.
And whatever they were … I had just uncovered a piece of a truth I was sure Sparta had never meant me to find.
Chapter48
The dream came again, the same as the night before.
A red kingdom drowned in light. The throne hewn from blackened stone. That faceless queen. The golden being with wings of fire and a gaze like a god’s final promise. He hadn’t looked at me in the dream this time … he’d staredthroughme, like he was already inside my skin.
I woke with my mouth dry, the sheets clinging to me like vines. My fingers trembled as I pushed them back. Menelaus had called for me only minutes after I’d crawled out of the tunnel last night, leaving me no time to gather myself from all I’d seen.
By the time I’d stumbled back to my rooms, it had been almost dawn. Between Menelaus and the dream, I was exhausted. It was the only explanation for how I’d been able to fall asleep.
“Good morning, Your Majesty,” Alcmene called as she stepped into the room. Her smile fell as she took me in, but she didn’t comment on my haggard appearance. Her silence was a blessing as she helped me get dressed.
By the time she’d tied the last sash around my waist, the ache the king always left inside me had dulled into something harder.
“As soon as you’re with child, the king should stop calling for you,” she murmured, trying to console me.
I didn’t want to think about carrying his seed though, so I rose without a word. She fell in step behind me, looking over the scroll that held my schedule for the day.
“Breakfast first,” Alcmene murmured. “The nobles are gathered in the throne room.”
