Page 33 of Merciless Is My Crown

Proof of an ancient past.

Or a glimpse into our hopeless future?

I prowled the edge of the room, crouching down before the piles of bones. More, surely, than ever came out of a single body. I studied them closer now than before, wondering if this was every bone from all the Old Gods. Stuck down here in the dirt, forgotten and abandoned.

“Don’t touch anything,” Tavion cautioned hoarsely, the first words I’d heard from him all day. He could no longer hide the constant trembling, his body wracked with shudders, face as white as his gleaming hair. The tremors had grown worse these past hours, and I opened my mouth to say something, then snapped my lips closed.

Tristan’s narrowed gaze was fixed on Tavion’s shaking hands before his eyes lifted to mine. I shook my head slightly, praying he didn’t push the issue. Tavion didn’t want our pity, and gods help me, but I wanted to protect him from prying questions.

One more day until we arrived at Nightcairn, then Lucius and I could get him into bed and have one of his father’s healers look after him. Something in my gut wrenched. If Tavion couldn’t be healed, if he couldn’t ride, we’d be forced to leave him behind.

Something about being parted from him planted a panicked fear inside me.

“Touch nothing, do you understand?” I reiterated Tavion’s warning to Adele, who stared at the skulls with a mix of fascination and horror. “They…they do odd things to you if you touch the bones.”

Even as I said it, from the corner of my eye, Tristan drifted closer to the biggest one, his hand gripping the reins, his other resting on his knife, fingers twitching. As if steel would do him a bit of good.

“We truly have to walk through that?” Adele’s eyes glowed the same unworldly hue as the blue light thrown off by the portal, hair as fine as spider silk floating around her haunted, beautiful face.

“It’s like the warded wall above us separating Caladrius and Solarys, except it’s below ground. The warding magic feels cold when you step through, but the effect doesn’t last long, then we’ll be on our way.”

Not exactly true, but I didn’t want to scare her.

“Anaria,” Tavion hissed.

“Passing through the portal is the only way to reach Nightcairn Castle, Adele.” My mother’s eyes grew wider and more frightened by the second. “If we don’t?—”

“Anaria. Look.”

Tristan’s horse wandered untended across the crypt; Tavion caught him by the reins seconds before he plunged headfirst into the portal. I sucked in a panting breath, fear clawing at my ribcage.

Tristan was frozen, his eyes focused on something far, far away, staring and staring, both palms flattened on the skull’s rounded dome, resting over the empty eye sockets. Was that what I’d looked like? I wondered, before I snapped into action.

I crossed to Tristan, measuring his blank, empty expression, those glittering gold-green eyes staring inwards at nothing. But I knew exactly where he was.

Somewhere inside his head, he was reliving the past.

Tavion dragged me away. “Don’t touch him. When Raziel touched you, he saw everything you were seeing, and he couldn’t break free. The last thing we need is for you to get trapped inside that vision, too.”

No, I remembered how all-consuming those visions felt.

How I’d been there, on that snow-swept cliff, facing the Fae armies ten thousand years ago.

How I was that…god. Amalla.

“We have to get him out.” I glanced at Adele, her fist pressed to her mouth as if she was trying not to scream. “We can’t just wait for the spell to break. The longer he’s trapped inside, the more…” I rubbed my racing heart. “I felt too much while I was inside that vision, Tavion. Too fucking much.” My emotions flared like wildfire.

“I know,” he muttered, pressing his cold cheek against mine. “I know. I was there, too.”

Blood trickled from Tristan’s nose, pooled on his lips, then dripped from his chin onto his shirt. Still no flicker of emotion on his pale, hollow face, as if he was held captive by whatever awful scene was playing inside his head.

Tavion trembled uncontrollably against me, and this time, he couldn’t stop, a pained grunt sounding in his throat. I closed my eyes, swallowing down the tightness in my throat.

Tristan was frozen, Tavion could barely stand. Adele was so weak she swayed on her feet.

We couldn’t get trapped down here.

Who knew how long before the Oracle—or something equally deadly—found us?

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