My throat tightened at the smell. I tried not to imagine what sort of “parties” Mirabella threw down here, but aswe descended into the crypt, my grip on the stake became almost painful.
With every step, the stone walls seemed to press in closer, and the air grew thinner. Danker. My chest tightened, but I didn’t dare breathe harder in case the sound stirred the predators slumbering below.
The stairs emerged into a windowless cellar large enough for a swimming pool. Thick pillars were spaced every few yards, with huge stone sarcophagi positioned between them. Each stone lid was carved with a different face — their features twisted into fiendish expressions. Torches set in heavy iron sconces flickered along the walls, casting eerie shadows over the crypt and making the carved faces leer and wink.
The air was heavy and damp, the scent of blood even stronger than it had been in the stairwell. Dusty glass cases lined the walls, which made the crypt feel more like a museum than a tomb. Peering inside the nearest one, I nearly retched when I saw what lay inside — a partially mummified head with a stake rammed through an eye socket.
I was certain that head had belonged to a hunter — perhaps one with a personal connection to Mirabella.
A gruesome theme quickly emerged as I surveyed the vampire’s trove: a collection of jawbones with telltale fangs; the shriveled carcass of what might have been a mortal fetus, were it not for the horns protruding from its head; a pair of severed hands with long dainty fingers, one of which was adorned with a finely etched gold band; and — mounted in an enormous case along the wall — a set of iridescent black wings, complete with curling shreds ofwithered flesh where they’d been ripped from a faerie’s body.
My insides clenched, and I glanced at Kaden, who seemed to be making a pointed effortnotto look at the wings.
As we neared the opposite end of the chamber, I heard what sounded like dripping water. There, along the far wall, a set of damp stone steps led to a rounded platform.
My footsteps seemed unnaturally loud as I took those three steps, which led not onto a platform as I’d originally thought, but to the edge of a round pool filled with cloudy black water.
I stiffened. The water reeked of rotting flesh and was so filthy I couldn’t see the bottom. Shifting my weight back, I winced as a loose piece of stone slid from under my foot and clattered onto the flagstone below.
The sound seemed to take forever to travel through the expansive chamber, and my mouth went dry as I glanced back down into the pool’s murky depths.
The water had begun to churn and hiss, bubbling until it formed sharp, angry waves. Grayish foam frothed from the crest of each wave and clung to the sides of the pool.
The longer I stared, the louder that hissing seemed to grow, the faint notes separating until I realized I was hearingvoices.
My heart gave a jolt. The sounds were too muffled to tell what the voices were saying, and yet I sensed that they were calling tome.
I looked over at Kaden, who was perched on the stone ledge beside me, arms hanging loosely at his sides. He didn’t seem perturbed by the churning black water or the disembodied voices.
If this was the doorway that led to the in-between, it seemed obvious what we had to do. And yet the mere thought of setting foot in that filthy water made everything inside me recoil.
But before I could voice my hesitation, I heard the heavy grind of stone against stone. I wheeled around, raising my stake, and Kaden muttered a low oath. I followed his gaze to the nearest sarcophagus — the source of the grinding noise I’d heard.
The lid was sliding off, which meant the vampire within was waking up. Terror lanced through me as a gnarled white hand reached up to clutch the lip of the casket.
The whispering I’d heard wasn’t coming from the water, I realized. It was coming from the crypt.
“Shit,” Kaden growled as the lid glided back and another began to open.
He leapt from the ledge to face the first sarcophagus as a pale, sunken face emerged from its depths.
“Huntress!”
Ravenous hunger — that was the only way to describe the look in those unnatural crimson eyes before Kaden raised his stake and drove it through the vampire’s skull.
I winced at the telltale crack of bone as dark blood oozed from the vampire’s eye socket.
As if they’d all heard their friend’s declaration, a second vampire emerged. More hissing joined the cacophony of voices in the chamber, and panic thrummed in my veins.
Along both walls, stone lids were sliding off the sarcophagi and crashing onto the floor. Pale hands raked the sides of the coffins as vampires climbed out.
“Jump!” Kaden yelled, and I realized I hadn’t moved from the ledge.
The dark water was now churning frantically, splashing up along the lichen-covered sides of the pool and filling my nostrils with the scent of decay.
I hesitated.
What about Kaden? Was he truly planning to follow me, or was this a trap? He had to have known there was a risk of Mirabella’s clan awakening.
