Page 66 of A Fury Of Shadows

“Do you think we’ll find anything useful here?” the incubus asked when they started down a corridor in the west wing.

Tarang peered at the shadows, his tail swinging lazily.

“I don’t know.” Mae’s gaze swept the dust-covered surfaces around them. She wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination, but she could almost feel Nikolai’s presence in the air. “There’s nothing to lose checking the place out.”

They passed rooms containing furniture overlaid with sheets and a somber ballroom with dark, marble floors. An imposing library overlooked the overgrown gardens at the rear of the palace. The shelves were bare and the fireplaces cold and empty.

Mae wondered if Nikolai had spent time here, hiding in the many nooks and crannies it offered, poring over stories that brought him joy and brief moments of peace in a palace full of cruelty.

It wasn’t until they reached a spartan suite at the end of a dank, narrow corridor on the second floor that Mae’s stomach started churning. She sensed Nikolai’s existence keenly in the place.

Graffiti covered the walls of the living room. It was the first she’d seen in the palace. Vlad cursed as he read it.

“What does it say?” Mae asked in a strained voice.

Brimstone pressed against her leg when he sensed her growing distress. Hellreaver whined softly.

“You don’t want to know.” A muscle jumped in Vlad’s cheek as he scanned the suite. “This was where Nikolai and his mother lived.”

Mae’s heartbeat boomed in her ears as she explored the first bedroom, the spell bomb floating behind her shoulder casting long shadows on the floor.

It had belonged to a child.

The mattress on the narrow bed had been vandalized, the pale stuffing unrecognizable where it dotted the floor beneath in dirty clumps. The desk and chair near the window were scored with deep grooves where someone had attacked the wood savagely with some kind of blade. A paltry selection of clothes hung in a wardrobe. They had been mangled, likely by the same person who had damaged the rest of the room.

She found a smashed photo frame behind a chest of drawers. Her throat tightened when she picked it up.

Vlad appeared in the doorway, his grim expression telling the tale of what he’d found in the other bedroom. “What is that?”

He came over, Tarang keeping close to him. Mae wiped away the dirt covering the cracked glass with trembling fingers. Her breath caught.

It was a picture of Nikolai and his mother. He was sitting on her lap and looked to be about ten. Happy smiles brightened their faces despite the dark circles under their eyes and their thin frames.

Though starved and abused in the grandiose palace where she had lived as a prisoner, Gabriela Stanisic had been breathtakingly beautiful.

Mae’s heart broke when she turned the picture over and saw the inscription visible on the back of the photograph through the broken frame. It had been written in English and said, “Happy Birthday, my sweet Niko.”

Her vision blurred.

Vlad laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Let’s go, Mae.”

She stayed still for a moment, struggling to contain her pain and her anger. She took a ragged breath, removed the photograph from the frame, and tucked it in her pocket.

They bumped into Lou on the landing.

“You should see this,” the super soldier said in a deadly voice.

Mae shared a troubled look with Vlad. They followed him.

CHAPTER25

Lou ledthem to the uppermost floor of the palace. It housed a fraction of the number of rooms on the lower stories. Mae discovered why when they entered the grandiose space that crested its southern half.

It was an arena. One with a domed roof that was currently open to the elements.

Ice trickled through Mae’s veins.

This is where Nikolai fought Oscar during theTrial of Blood. This is where Gabriela Stanisic died!

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