Page 66 of The Bones of the Cursed
No luck.
Maybe I just don’t have magic. Maybe Malakai is wrong about my bloodline. Maybe the magic I seemingly had before was a fluke.
I’m so frustrated I could scream. I sink to my knees, feeling the stress and exhaustion begin to overtake my body.
Iclas created this portal in the hopes Paliri would come back to him. It is possible the pattern could be something of meaning to Paliri instead of Iclas himself. There was an insignia at the bottom of the final written page in her journal, an entry specifically about Iclas.
Raising my head, I take a deep breath. If this doesn’t work, I will have to try the middle passage. I lift my shaky hand and close my eyes, focusing everything I can on my thoughts. Praying that magic runs in my veins, I start with the line and hurry to draw the half circle, finishing with the spokes depicting the rays of the sun.
A clicking sound comes from the lock and then another. The bolt on the door slides open.
I can do nothing but stare.
I have magic. Now more than ever I think back to the rumors. They were all right. It’s not as terrifying as I once might have expected.
Steeling my nerves, I pull the heavy door open and step through.
I squint my eyes, trying to adjust to the darkness in the roomas I count the men chained to the wall. The missing soldiers, though not all of them. Six went missing, and we found one in Bone Valley. That means there should be five in this room, but there are only two—and neither is Elion.
“Help us. Please,” begs a scratchy voice from the corner.
I hurry and kneel in front of the soldier. “Where are the others? Where is Elion?”
He coughs. “They took him a few days ago and haven’t brought him back. They took another one of our men, too, and he has yet to return. Did Levi make it out?”
Just the mention of Levi’s name blasts me back to the past. When I saw him injured in that foyer, I felt overwhelmed. Levi. The boy I once loved. The one who showed me kindness and helped me learn all about this realm and the creatures and people that inhabit it. The man I spent countless hours with around my table, laughing and joking with my brother.
The same man who broke my heart with his betrayal.
I shake off the memories and get back to work trying to figure out how to release them. “Yes, he did. Don’t worry, I am going to get you two out of here. Do you happen to know where they took the others?” When I reach for the shackles, I flinch at how cold his hands are.
He gives me a faint smile. “Who are you?”
“Alanis,” I whisper.
His eyes grow wide. “Holy shit. You’re Elion’s sister.”
I smile. “Yeah, how’d you know?”
“Elion talks about you all the time.”
My heart warms, knowing that even though my brother created this new family, I was always on his mind. “Why are you all in iron chains?”
The soldier behind me is the one who answers. “The ghouls who originally took us had us in regular steel chains, until one of our brothers somehow escaped on the way here. He had abroken leg from the attack, so he probably didn’t make it far. It was enough that the ghouls became concerned. None of us knew how Matix got out until they came back from chasing after him, whispering about magic. Apparently, he was from a Witch bloodline and used what little magic he had on an opening spell on the lock. After that, we were all shackled in iron just to be safe.”
I glance around the room, but no one has a broken leg. “And where is Matix now?”
“No idea,” the man says. “He was never in here with us in the first place. Matix and Hammon never made it here.”
I nod. “We found one of them, but he didn’t have a broken leg, so it wouldn’t have been the Witch.”
He lets out a breath. “So Hammon is all right, he made it out?”
My face must say it all.
“What happened to him?”
“It looks like the ghouls killed him and left him in Bone Valley. The creatures got to what was left of him. We weren’t able to identify him, but at least we know now so his family can find closure.”
