“May the dream-walkers find this,” she whispered, grabbing ink and blacking out as much as she could before the doors to her study slammed open.
She stood.
“What do you think you’re doing here? Warriors are not permitted on Mercy Mountain.”
Her voice commanded respect and authority. But I could tell it didn’t matter what she said or how she sounded—not when it came to the three armored warriors in front of her.
Michael grinned. “We’re permitted anywhere the council tells us to go. Grab her.”
Ariella kept her feet planted even though I could feel how badly she wanted to run.
General Tavean and Colonel Milda—the two who had almost taken me from Aspen in Elora—grabbed her and placed her in shackles.
“Ariella, High Scholar of the Thrones, you are hereby sentenced to death for conspiring against the Council of Righteousness.”
I yanked myself from the dream-walk, a horrifying realization sinking in.
“Her eyes opened. That’s a good sign, right?” Zera asked.
MJ gazed at me expectantly. Ichi patiently.
“They’re not just living voids. They were prisons.”
MJ leaned forward. “What do you mean?”
“Etan created Spinewalkers as prisons for sinful souls. He placed them here and experimented with them before Hell became what it is today. Before Lucifer. He hoped it’d be his ticket onto the council.”
“Is that why we could never figure out how they were getting in?” Zera asked. “The infected Damned were already here?”
“But that doesn’t make sense,” I said.
“No. Because the Damned are coming from the Immolation Circle,” MJ added.
“And Spinewalkers only live in Veil Forest,” I finished.
Ichi picked up her book and gently placed it at the center of the table.
Transdimensional Creatureslabeled the top of the page.
Listed beneath it were Soulhounds, Hellhounds, and creatures I didn’t even know. At the bottom, marked with a tiny asterisk denoting rarity, were Spinewalkers.
“They can move within the circles and dimensions.”
“If it’s rare, then Melanie must be controlling them as much as they can be controlled,” I murmured.
MJ nodded. “If she’s found a way not only to unlock the prisons, I don’t see why she wouldn’t have figured out how to pick up souls from the other circles too.”
Zera sat back, horror and disbelief parting her lips. “If these Spinewalkers have been here that long, and she’s infected every soul within them, plus gained more from the other circles, this won’t be a battle. It’ll be a massacre.”
MJ played with her bone knife and grinned. “Not unless we figure out how to eliminate them.”
“Or Sam cures the infection,” I added, slumping back. “In a few days.”
“Don’t like a good challenge, Lucille?” MJ taunted.
I slowly turned and met the wicked amusement in her eyes.
“I love a challenge.”
