The weapons, maybe? I couldn’t believe he’d be that much of a fool. Surely he’d keep the weapons in a more secure location that wasn’t just curtained off.
My foot hit air, and down I went, tumbling over stairs that banged against my back, my head, my legs. I couldn’t stop myself, falling fast and hard until I finally landed at the bottom and caught myself with my hands. I held back a cry, sucking in a sharp breath at the pain. It reverberated up my arms, and I clenched my teeth, squeezing my eyes shut and waiting for the waves of fire lighting my hands to pass. I took a few slow, steady breaths, the pain finally subsiding enough that I could notice other things.
Must and mold filled the air. I must’ve fallen down into a dungeon of some sort. That was what it smelled like. Not clean and fresh like the other parts of the castle. But old. Uncared for. Like no one came down here.
So what was Kairoth hiding?
I swallowed, taking deep breaths in and out to calm my hammering heart and my throbbing hands.
“Who goes there?” a raspy voice called out in the dark.
I stiffened.
The voice was feminine, and it sounded tired, alone. Frightened. I immediately felt a protectiveness over this person, though I didn’t know why.
“I know someone is there,” the voice said again.
It was too dark. She wouldn’t be able to see me, and I couldn’t see her. But maybe I could still make it clear she was right, that someone was here.
“Is it you?” Her voice turned dark. “You haven’t come to see me in ages. So if you’re here, it must be because you need something. Or maybe you’re feeling guilty over what you did to me? How you betrayed me? How you betrayed all of us?”
I stiffened. Kairoth... betrayal. Could she be a shadow elemental? Someone who survived after he killed everyone else? Maybe he took her shadow and trapped her, but why would he do that? Why not just kill her? I bit the inside of my cheek, unable to make sense of any of this.
“You know I will find a way out eventually. And once I do, you’re going to pay for this. You will pay for all of this.”
My hands found the bars, and I winced.
Cold hands wrapped around mine, and I jumped back, startled by the contact.
“You’re not him,” the voice said. “So who are you?”
I wished so badly I could say something. Instead I swallowed and waited. Not being able to speak had taught me that many times all I had to do was stay silent. People loved to tell me things, to reveal things. They tended to view me as something like a box, where they could tuck away all their secrets, desires, fears.
“Okay, fine,” the voice said. “You’re clearly not going to tell me who you are or why you’re down here. Are you another prisoner who’s escaped?”
I stayed quiet, and she made a frustrated grunt.
“You know, I’ve been trapped here a very long time. It’s enough to make a person go mad. Maybe that was the whole point. To make me go crazy and forget what he did to me. That he betrayed me.” She scoffed. “But I could never forget. Not himor the others who crossed me. If only I could see you, see your face. See something other than the dark.”
That could be possible if I brought a lantern down here, but I wasn’t sure I wanted her to see me. I almost liked the secrecy of this. If I kept visiting her, kept making my presence known, maybe she’d start to trust me, reveal who she was and why she was down here, and then, I could make a decision about freeing her. After all, if she was an enemy of Kairoth’s, that could make her an ally of mine.
“Will you come back?” she asked suddenly, and I jumped. “It’s so nice to have someone to talk to, even if you won’t talk back. Just knowing you’re on the other side of these bars gives me some comfort.”
Chains rattled as she shifted, and I realized she wasn’t just trapped behind bars. She was likely chained to the wall. As punishment or because she was so dangerous that she had to be further restrained?
I retreated toward the stairs I’d fallen down, already knowing that I would be back, and when I was, I would get some answers.
Chapter Twenty-Three
KAIROTH
I’d always been a creature of the night. It made sense as the god of shadows. When I stood in the sun, my shadows shrank, hid behind me, under me, wherever they could hide to get away from the light. The sun didn’t have those effects on me, but without my shadows, I’d always felt bare in a way I didn’t like.
So I slept during the day, turned off my mind, and night was when I got to work. Sending my shadows out searching for the weapons I needed. It had taken me so long to find just three of the gods’ weapons. I had no idea how much longer it would take to find the rest. Four more weapons. That was all I needed and then I could finally right the wrongs of the past.
I stood on my balcony, the moon bright and big in the sky, glinting off the calm water that lapped at the island shores. My shadows swirled around me, and I lifted from the balcony and flew upward toward the terrace. It was where I liked to go on nights like this, when the breeze was gentle and easy, the air not too hot or humid.
But when I landed on the terrace, I didn’t expect to see someone else in my space. Bellamy sat there, holding a basket of those damn briars she wanted so badly. Wesley had told me she’d been poking around the garden, collecting the weeds.
