I inhaled slowly, forcing my breath to remain steady. My heart thudded a little too loudly in my ears, but I pressed forward.
The corridor sloped downward at a gradual angle, and the air grew colder and wetter.
My footsteps were unnervingly soft. The stone here drank sound and swallowed it.
I reached the end of the corridor and turned the corner. Looking back, I noticed a wall had come up, closing the way behind me.
A narrow tunnel stretched out ahead, dimly lit by the same sickly green glow that threaded through the rock.
This had to be the next stage. I knew from Dad’s speech that I had to be quiet. I let my basilisk instincts take over and padded forward. My suit-clad feet were silent on the cold stone. I slowed my breathing and made every step I took deliberate.
I focused on my matebonds thrumming in my chest without thinking, and before I knew it, the tunnel opened into a wider hall.
The walls were carved with runes that writhed at the edge of my vision if I tried to focus on them for too long. I kept my gaze slightly unfocused, attention locked on the floor ahead, on the rhythm of my steps so I didn’t think too hard.
Left.
Right.
Left.
Right.
Nothing happened as I moved deeper.
It felt like I had walked for hours, and maybe I had.
Time didn’t feel right down here. Fae magic wasn’t something I would ever pretend to understand. The air didn’t move. The temperature didn’t change. All that shifted was the thickness of the silence clinging to my skin and the way the green lines in the walls brightened or dimmed.
I took another step, and a faint buzz tickled against my skin.
Don’t think too loudly,I reminded myself.
The ward’s buzz dimmed.
I kept moving.
Eventually, the stone walls narrowed again, funneling me into a tight passage just wide enough for my shoulders. A faint drip of water echoed somewhere far ahead.
As my foot hit the wet stone, it sent a strange ripple down the tunnel, like a pebble dropped into a still pond. It rolled outward, bounced off something, then came back.
Voices burst around me, inside my head.
“I love you…”
My own voice was repeated back to me as flashes of moments between myself and my mates crossed my mind.
I took another step, and another memory slammed into me.
“—who ripped the DNA from my veins and duplicated it to murder us.”
The words slammed through me,louder, along with the memory behind them of me venting my frustrations about what the humans had done.
I winced, taking another step before falling into a contentment I hadn’t expected.
“You let aphrodisiac venom slip into the sauce when you were stirring it.”
“Aw, venom baby, I’ll fix that. I’ll make you fall deeply in love.”
