Page 75 of In the Ravenous Dark
“You deserved that,” Crisea says, her hands on her hips.
I spin on her, fists clenched at my sides. She’s lucky she’s still on the other side of the stone slab. “Shut.Up.”
Bethea shakes her head in wonder. “You really don’t care aboutanyone other than yourself. I tried to tell myself I was being too hard on you, but you’ve proven it again and again. First with me, and now aprincess. I actually feel bad for her.” She gives a feeble, disbelieving laugh. “All you think about is helping yourself. You’ve barely evenmentionedyour mother.”
“I’m doing this for my mother!” I cry. “I’m trying to get her out of here. To getallof us out of here, and not leave the world to rot!”
Bethea blinks at me. “What do you mean? She’s not…” She trails off.
“Wait.” I squint at her as if trying to see her better. “What doyoumean?” My breath hitches. “Do you know something about my mother?”
Her expression freezes into place. She doesn’t respond. Crisea glances at her, looking afraid for once. Delphia covers her mouth with her hands. Only Japha looks confused.
“What about my mother?” I ask. I can’t get enough air in my lungs. “She’s being held somewhere…”
“No, she isn’t,” Bethea says quietly. “When you mentioned your mother earlier, I thought… You really don’t know?”
“Know what?” Already I feel something horrible building inside me. Some hidden knowledge. And when it bursts free, I might break.
“Rovan, I… I saw her here.”
“Where is she?” I gasp.
“She isn’t—” Bethea chokes, tears in her eyes. “She’s gone.”
“Where did shego?” I shriek. “I need to find her!” I’m suddenly moving toward Bethea, reaching.
“Rovan—” Japha tries to grab my arm, but I throw off their grip. Still, it’s enough to stop me in place. My hands are in my hair. The pressure builds and builds.
This can’t be happening.
“You won’t find her,” Bethea says, her voice light as a whisper.“She went where most people do after they come to the necropolis. I helped prepare her… her body.”
No, no, no, no, is all I can think.
“I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this.” She meets my wide-eyed stare as a tear tracks down her cheek. “Rovan, your mother is dead.”
And then I break.
24
I shatter inside, and yet somehow everything stays the same. I continue to breathe, and my heart to beat. Bethea and Crisea remain on the other side of the stone slab in the strange black room. Japha and Delphia keep close to me, but Japha watches me carefully and then reaches out to tug their cousin behind them, as if shielding her from whatever I’m about to do. Lydea is still gone. The same weak torchlight flickers over us all, and yet the glossy walls seem to be closing in on me. Crushing me to dust.
“How?” I say. My voice sounds hollow. Far away. Like it isn’t mine. “How did she die?”
Bethea shrugs helplessly. “I don’t know. Your mother and I were both brought into the necropolis together, after your trial. I was isolated with acolytes, and she was taken away. The next thing I knew she was laid out on a stone table a lot like this, and I had to wash her—her body. Her skin was very pale, like she had no blood—”
“Stop.” I can’t hear any more. I even cover my ears.
That’s why the royals wouldn’t let me see my mother. They haven’t been keeping her somewhere safe to ensure my cooperation. They killed her for whatever reason, practical or evil, and they’ve been lying to me this whole time. Using my gullibility to their advantage.
But no more.
I’m moving through the doorway and out of the room before I know it. The black walls and the people vanish, replaced by theskull-lined passageway. Gaping eye sockets flash by me. Japha follows, trying to keep up with me, saying something. I can’t hear them. I don’t see anything around me, really. My focus has narrowed to a single, needle-sharp point: the door at the end of the passageway.
Move, move, move.It’s the sigil I’ve used most of my life. The one I can form with barely a thought. I’m like the embodiment of that sigil. If I don’t move, I don’t know what will happen.
But then something stops me in my tracks.Someone.He appears as soon as I exit the skull-lined hallway.
