“He doesn’t die, then,” Santorina said. “Unfortunately.”
“The beautiful Bounty Queen has a bite,” Brystin joked.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Rina snapped without looking at him.
Lancaster grumbled, “Despite his aggravating presence, it is my advice that he is not harmed further than he already has been.”
Ophelia evaluated him. “Fine. But we’re moving tonight. Now.”
“Where?” Jezebel blurted, shooting up.
I was already gathering weapons and belongings as Ophelia strode for the bathing chamber, hopefully to wash that blood from her hands.
Ophelia’s voice drifted over the splashing water. “Ritalia has plans. We don’t know what they are, but I’ll be damned if she catches us unaware again.” Emerging back into the room with a drenched towel scrubbing at her skin and water sprinkling her nightgown, Ophelia added, “We’re going to find the Soulguider emblem.”
“And you know where that is?” Malakai asked.
“And we have to leavenow?” Barrett added, gesturing to the pitch-black sky.
“I’ve been working it out since the pleasure house, and yes, we do. The Storyteller saidwhere all dead and riddled secrets lie.”
“Not catacombs again,” I nearly whined, but continued preparing, because Ophelia was on a mission, and I’d follow her anywhere.
“Those precise words had to be important,” Ophelia said.
“What about sphinxes?” Mila asked. “They have to be connected somehow, but the Storyteller didn’t say anything of them.”
“No,” Malakai gasped. “But she did say something about a place where legends rest. She said she couldn’t tell us anything of it.”
“What did you ask her?” Erista asked.
“About gates,” Malakai said. “Lucidius’s journals mentioned some gate he visited, and the Storyteller referred to it as where legends rest.”
“Sounds a lot likewhere all dead and riddled secrets lie,” I added.
Malakai looked to Erista. “Is it to the city?”
“No.” Erista grinned. “It’s not a city border. I think we need to visit the Gates of Angeldust.”
And that title…I’d heard it before. “Is that?—”
“Galleries dedicated to the souls my people lead along the way, reliquaries for blessed items, and the hearts of replenishment of the streams across our land? It is indeed. There are a handful across the territory, one not far from Lendelli.” Erista’s eyes glowed as she put together pieces. “And framing the gates of the archaic building are carvings. Very rough recreations, barely accurate, but some call them theriddledsphinxes.”
Ophelia grinned, a mix of exhilaration and worry in her expression. “We leave immediately. I don’t care that it’s late.”
Shame we wouldn’t have time to finish cleaning the bloodstained rug.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Ophelia
The Gates of Angeldustglimmered as if coated with the magic of the divine beings they were named for. It was reminiscent of the gold brushed through Sapphire’s white-feathered wings, tucking in as Tolek and I dismounted.
In the time it took us, Jezebel, and Erista to get back to the cavern for Sapphire and the khrysaor, the others had gotten a head start to the gates on horseback. It barely wasted any precious time, and I wanted the creatures nearby in case something went wrong with this trial tonight.
It almost didn’t seem possible that anything bad could happen within those gleaming gates, though.
Regardless, the heavy presence of wandering spirits clung to this place.
