Shifting his hand as he’d done before, Raum used a claw to slice his finger and then pressed it to the middle of the design. The minute it touched the wood, the blood flakes simply blew off and dissolved into dust.
“You haven’t been here in a long time,” she guessed.
Without responding, he opened the door and went inside while she hesitated on the threshold.
The sound of him choking violently startled her, and she rushed inside without a second thought only to find him standing unharmed, fanning the air.
She immediately began choking as well. The dust was so thick, she could taste it, and a smell like rotten blood permeated everything. “What died in here?”
They backed outside to the fresh air—calling the air in Hell ‘fresh’ was a true testament to just how stale it was inside.
“Nothing,” Raum said. “No one’s been here in two hundred years.”
“So what’s the awful smell?”
He shrugged. “That’s just what dust smells like in Hell.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Of course it is. Because it’s not enough to have blood rivers and a blood sky. We need blood dust too.”
To her surprise, he laughed.
The change in his features was striking. His cheeks crinkled, and smile lines appeared at the corners of his eyes.
She blinked, and the expression was gone. He went back inside, holding his hoodie over his nose as he opened the two interior windows.
Unwilling to endure the smell again, she found a boulder near the front door and took a seat. Surveying the miserable valley that was somehow beautiful, she tried to plan and found she had no idea what to do.
She was completely dependent on Raum. Her strength was dampened in Hell while his was increased. Yes, she’d seen Murmur’s castle, but she had no idea how to get there now that they were on the ground, and she knew if she took to the sky, she would stand out like a sore thumb. A sparkling, angelic thumb.
This was why she’d made this bargain. This was why she had chosen Raum. Not because of his captivating eyes or mysterious allure, but because he was known for his skills of thievery and was the perfect accomplice.
He was the lone wolf. The quiet one. The silent protector. His even temper ensured he would think rationally and refrain from impulsive fits of violence.
And she’d been right. Everything had, thus far, gone according to plan.
She ought to feel excited. Determined. But instead, the deceit was eating a hole in her stomach. She may have sparkled like an angel, but what she’d done to get here made her feel no better than the demons eviscerating each other on that battlefield.
“I cleaned up a bit. It’s better.”
She twisted on the rock to find Raum standing in the doorway.
She stood. “Okay. Thank you.”
He disappeared, so she followed him, coming up short when she stepped over the threshold. The smell was still there, but it was vastly improved and overpowered by a sweet, smoky scent much like incense.
There was a small fire burning in a hearth she hadn’t seen before. A stash of mystery herbs smoked on a metal plate on a grate over top—the source of the improved scent. Across the hearth, a pile of furs was thrown over a narrow bed, ropes knotted around a wooden frame to serve as a mattress. There was a small table and two chairs below one window.
Behind everything, at the back of the cave…was a huge pile of gold.
Her eyes widened, and she realized Raum had not in any way been exaggerating when he called the dwelling ‘somewhere to stash loot.’ For that appeared to be exactly what it was.
“Where did you get all this?” she asked in awe, approaching the pile. It was stacked to the ceiling. Coins, goblets, plates, weapons, jewelry, crowns—if one could name it, it was here.
“I stole it,” he replied simply.
“From whom?”
“Everyone.”
