Page 159 of Hell Fae King
I picked up my pace, determined to find him. My upper body protested, the tight walls scraping my bare arms, but I pushed through it.
Because time was running out.
I could feel it in my bones. In my heart.In my soul.
A countdown had started.
The Source ticking away like a time bomb.
It’s going to implode.
And if that happens before Typhos wakes… the entire realm is going to go with it.
CHAPTER 39
CAMI
Into the creepy-as-fuck palace I go,I thought as I crept up the stairs.Because it’s totally normal to know where I’m going in a place I’ve never been before.
There was probably a rule I should be thinking about, but I couldn’t exactly go back now. Not when I was this close to learning what power was drawing me here.And who…
The hallways were vacant, but the scent of decaying roses lingered in the air. Not the most inviting aroma. Yet it drew me forward, my flat shoes silent against the marbled ground.
Actually, no.
My steps… weren’t silent. They seemed to whisper along the floor, the sound echoing softly in my ears. Which was strange.I’m not dragging my feet, so why…?
I slowly stopped walking, the line of thinking trailing off as the sound continued to float around me. I’d just traversed the stairs alone. There’d been nothing around me. Nothing behind me.So where is that noise coming from?
Turning, I searched the space for the source and found nothing but dying candles and dusty mantels.
My eyes narrowed. Because the whispering remained.Maybe I can’t see it…
That thought suggested this might be another mirage, a consideration that had my gaze narrowing even more. Because fuck this. And fuck Vivaxia.
I started toward my quarry again—that beacon of energy that warmed all my senses—just to pause as a gust of frigid air hit me from behind. Accompanied by that sound…
Spinning around, I tried to catch the cause of it but only found the soft flickering of candlelight once more. My jaw clenched. Either a ghost was playing with me, or I’d missed some sort of opening.
Like a portal,I thought, scanning the bare walls for clues.
My father had taught me all about those, how they could blend into anything, especially in the Hell Fae Realm. There were codes that activated hidden ones, too. But some didn’t require passwords at all. It just depended on where the portal led.
Tiptoeing backward, I listened for that raspy sound again and froze when a breeze ruffled my hair. Frowning, I followed the source of that airflow to a mirrorlike shimmer coming from the top of the staircase—a mirrorlike shimmer that hadn’t been there when I’d ascended moments ago.
It blinked out of existence as I approached, only to appear once more as soon as I stood in front of it.
My lips parted at the image on the other side, the familiar face one that seemed to make the stone in my hand pulse. Or maybe it was my own heartbeat coming through as I gripped the rock tighter than I should.
But I couldn’t help it.
Because it was my mother staring back at me, mouthing something I couldn’t hear.
After a beat, she held up her hand and pressed it to the mirror.
I studied it warily.
This was absolutely a trick, some sort of distraction from where I needed to be.
