Page 75 of The Bones of the Cursed

Her brows pinch in confusion and she wiggles, as if to free herself, so I help her carefully down to her feet, her legs trembling. “Kai,” she whispers as she launches into Kailu’s arms.

Kailu’s eyes soften as he grasps her tightly to his chest. Anyone else and I would be jealous, but not with him. That has to mean something.

Alanis turns to examine the room with a sharp eye. I know the exact moment she sees what we all see. Her face pales.

“Is that…?”

Kailu answers her unasked question. “Paliri.”

Once the Queen of the Primal Realm, now bones and rot. Her body lays in repose at an advanced stage of decay.

“He kidnapped the queen and held her hostage?” Alanis breathes. “How did no one know this?”

Kailu shrugs. “There was so much upheaval when the Gods left and Iclas began his sacrifices. Paliri stayed out of the public eye after her father went missing, and she and her husband rarely left the castle. No one knew why. She ruled for a short while, but then resigned and passed her reign to her brother, Malakai’s father. No one saw her after that. After a hundred years, word of her and her husband’s death circulated. An accident up in the Rorane Mountains.”

Alanis’s eyes widen. “Oh my Gods. Iclas said he was in the Rorane Mountains.”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

Alanis takes a deep breath and tells us what was in the journal entry she found. All about Iclas and Paliri’s mating bond and how she turned her back on it because of her father’s wishes.

“That would explain why the Lost King was in the well,” Kailu mutters. “Iclas used him as the sacrifice to keep the portal open.”

Alanis nods. “When Iclas was going on in his ceaseless monologue, he mentioned he went to the Rorane Mountains, and that’s where he found Odessa. He felt a tugging sensation.” She looks at Elion and his paling face says more than words could.

Alanis is well-versed in those fateful tugs.

“How long would you say she’s been dead by the decomposition of her body?” Elion asks, scrunching his nose at the putrid stench of rot.

Kailu approaches on cautious feet to examine the body, as if expecting it to suddenly leap up and attack him.

“With how cold it is in this subterranean room,” he begins, “the body seems better preserved than if it would have been at a warmer temperature. She isn’t all bones yet. I mean, she’s mostly bones, but her hair is still there, and some flesh. I would say she has been dead for about a year.”

Elion sucks in a breath. “She died at the same time we came to the realm?”

If I thought Alanis was pale before, it’s nothing compared to now.

“He kept her hostage for twenty-three years,” she says, “and then killed her when he realized the key to the prophecy was back in the realm. He killed her because of me.”

I grab her shoulders and turn her to me. “It is not your fault. She probably welcomed death when it came. Iclas is deranged, so there’s no telling what she went through while captive here.”

Her exhale trembles. “You’re right. It’s just a lot to take in.”

I nod in understanding and softly kiss her lips.

Alanis approaches the door, pressing her ear against it. “I think it’s all clear. Maybe we should see wherever this leads. We might find others who have gone missing.”

“I think we should head back to the portal,” I say. “Get back to Percius, gain more information, and get help. Your brotherneeds a healer.Youshould see a healer.”

“Of course. I’m sorry, Elion. I wasn’t thinking.”

I join her at the door and listen for any sounds, my Fae hearing picking up a noise a level above us, but none on this level that I can tell. Slowly I open the door, flinching at the eerie silence that greets us in the corridor. I grab Alanis’s hand and begin to slowly work our way back to the center. There are no signs of anyone being here.

It’s almost too easy. My senses stay on high alert, unsure of what exactly it is, but something feels off.

As a group we walk through the back hall and I see the opening that the soldier told us about. The width looks just big enough for a grown male to squeeze through. The stones cracked and loose in some places, as if this hole was forcibly put here and not part of the original design. I peer out and the churning ocean greets me. Rough waves crash against the jagged rocks below, splashing me with mist.

We could easily climb down to the rocks, but the current would push us right back into them. Leaning out of the opening, I peer upwards.

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