Page 81 of Thief of Souls
A muscle in Malechus’s jaw ticks, and then he pushes away from me, his brow clearing of any irritation. “Ah, my reluctant groom. I didn’t expect to see you here. I thought you disdained such attractions.”
“I find them tedious.” The look Mistmark gives me, however, is anything but bored. He’s clearly curious as to why I’m here, and perhaps asking if I want tobehere. “I find the entire affair tedious.”
“Ah, yes.” Malechus slinks toward him. “But the game is nearly done.”
“Mmm, perhaps.” Mistmark tugs his sleeve into place. “I do like your ambitions, however. It wasn’t enough to merely cross me, but now you’re going to take a tilt at Keir? My, my, someone has grown bold.” He looks at me directly. “You ought to leave, my lady. This isn’t a place for you.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” I smile at him. “All the dangly bits painted gold are kind of interesting to look at.”
Falion stares at me as if he can’t quite work out what type of woman I am.
“Falion will escort you,” Mistmark says, and Falion’s head tracks toward him as if to saywhen-the-sun-shines-in-the-Shadow-Lands.
“That’s very kind of—” There’s a hissing sound across the grotto.
A trio of rambunctious fae have levered open one of the sarcophagi and are peering inside it. One of them screams as if he sees something staring back at him, and then he tumbles inside the enormous casket.
“Those fuckingmorons.” Malechus’s face goes white with rage. “Do they have any idea what they’re doing? There are dragon spirits leashed into that stone—”
The sarcophagi simply explodes outward.
Falion’s eyes widen and then he slams into Mistmark, wrapping his arms around him before they both vanish. I stagger to my knees behind one of the remaining sarcophagi, with Malechus—of all fae—shoving my head down.
Screams echo through the grotto. And then laughter. Malechus, however, is not laughing.
“Stay here,” he growls, pushing to his feet and stalking in the direction of the explosion.
They’re… gone.
Not merely across the cavern. But gone. Completely. Out of line of sight.
Falion Sifted him somewhere beyond this room, which was, until this point, something I considered impossible.
I gape at the room, slowly lowering my arms.
One of the wreaths is on fire. The grotto is mayhem. Half naked males and females spill from small nooks, clutching arms across breasts and buttocks. Malechus strides through it all, seemingly intent upon murder.
I couldn’t get a better distraction if I’d tried.
* * *
I circleone of the enormous coffins, the one that calls to me the most.
It occurred to me that there’s one place to hide someone right out in the open, when you don’t want them found. Somewhere that you can keep a close eye on your prisoner. Somewhere that nobody would ever be able to escape from.
A stone tomb, built to house a dragon’s spirit.
I press my hand against the stone and lean my forehead there.
“Forever,” Soraya whispers in my memories as she slices her dagger across the palm of her hand, forcing blood to well. “You and I against the world forever.”
We bound ourselves to each other that long-ago night.
The link between us is still there, buried deep in my heart and chained down by treachery.
I reach for it and metaphysically dust it off, and on the inside of the sarcophagus I swear I feel her suck in a sharp breath as if she feels it too.
That son of a bitch.
