Page 69 of In the Ravenous Dark
“I remember the way,” Lydea says grimly. Determined. She paces ahead a few steps, and we follow. “Here, this door.”
The entire frame is lined with skulls. All but the skull at the apex are lacking jawbones.
“It gets the message across, I suppose,” Japha says, eyeing it as Lydea opens the way for us. “The dead are silent in here, unless it’s the specific shade you’re calling.”
In other words,no guardians allowed.
The hallway stretches forward, darker than ever. And it’scompletelystacked in jawless skulls. They even curve around to cover the arched ceiling. The priest wasn’t joking when they said the room’s magic is in its stonesandbones.
“Delphia said she knew where to meet us,” Lydea murmurs after closing the door behind us. She hurries down the hallway. “Dear goddess, we have to get her out of here.”
I hope that whatever magic keeps out unwelcome shades is already working and that it for sure applies to guardians. Because what she’s just said could definitely raise suspicions.
As if my thought summoned him, I hear a voice behind me:
“Rovan? What are you doing?”
My heart leaps into my throat. Halfway down the hallway of skulls, I spin around to find Ivrilos standing behind me. He’s squinting, a pale hand on his dark crown of hair, looking for all the world like he’s just woken up with a hangover.
“Where have you been?” I demand.
“As close to resting as my kind can get,” he mutters, as if talking hurts. “What is this?” He gestures down the hall with his other hand, still clutching his head. “I felt the strain in our bond. It… woke… me, if you want to call it that.”
“Rovan?” Japha says over my shoulder. They’re looking at me with a concerned expression, as is Lydea. Of course, neither of them can see or hear my guardian.
“One second,” I say to them hurriedly. “I’m sure he’ll go away like the other guardians.” I turn back to give Ivrilos a significant look.
“How do you knowthey’renot here still?” Lydea asks.
Because I don’t see them. But she doesn’t know Ican. Damn her, she’s sharp.
“So you show up now, of all times?” I hiss at Ivrilos as he seems to get his bearings. “I’m about to go… uh, pray. Commune. Whatever.”
“No, you’re not,” he says, dropping his hand and glaring at me with more frustration than he usually betrays. The familiarity strikes me as sweet, somehow.
But I’m not going to let that ruin everything.
“Yes, I am. I’m going to try to talk to my father.”
Ivrilos’s face falls flatter than flat. It nearlysinks.
I didn’t have much hope, but I can’t help my breathless whisper. “Is my father down there? Have you seen him?”
He gives a single shake of his head, more like a twitch.
My throat tightens, and I feel a terrible pressure behind my eyes. He knows better than anyone what can be done to shades in the underworld. But I can’t think about that right now—either about my father lost in that horrible place or, worse, becoming part of that nightmarish city, just like Ivrilos’s mother and sister.
Gone, forever.
“Just be careful,” Ivrilos says, shocking me out of my dark reverie, “whatever you’re doing. I can’t do much when you’re in that room.” He nods toward the end of the hall. “To help you, that is. Graecus and Damios couldn’t even make it this far.”
I’m baffled that he would first think of helping me instead ofhindering me. He must know I’m up to something that I don’t want him to overhear.
I try to cover my surprise. “How canyoube here, then?”
“Rovan, we need to hurry,” Lydea says, but Ivrilos’s words keep me from turning away from him.
“You and I have a… deeper… connection, right now,” he says, wincing slightly, “that even the magic here has a difficult time silencing.”
