I chanced a glance at Kaden as we rounded a landing. His leathers were streaked with blue-black blood that looked almost iridescent in the bobbing faelight.
An eerie presence enveloped us as we ascended the stairs. It was in the stones, the mortar, the very bones of the fortress. Unlike Kaden’s magic, which held an exotic allure, this magic seemed to repel us.
I reached out with my senses, but all I could hear was the sound of Kaden’s ragged breathing. I glanced up just as he rounded another corner and was startled to see how pale he looked.
It was then that I remembered he’d been bitten.
Taking the stairs two at a time to catch up, I reached out and captured his arm. “You’re hurt,” I accused.
“It’s just a bite. I’ve had worse.” Kaden attempted that swaggering grin, but it did little to offset the heaviness in his eyes.
My gaze dropped to the bloody section of exposed skin where the beast’s teeth had ripped through leather and flesh. Already the wound looked angry and infected.
I swore and tugged him around to face me. My fingerswere clumsy as I worked the top button of his leathers free, and Kaden went utterly still.
Somehow, under all the muck and brine, Kaden still smelled like . . . him. I tried to ignore the effect of his cool leather-and-night scent as I leaned closer, the faelight bobbing just a few inches overhead.
I peeled the jacket aside so I could examine the wound and sucked in a harsh breath. The skin was already curling back from the puncture marks left by the creature’s teeth, and a greenish liquid oozed from the wounds.
“Why aren’t you healing?” I demanded, staring at the angry-looking bite marks.
Dark fae had healing powers that rivaled a full-blooded hunter’s. The wounds should have begun to close by now.
Kaden sighed. “Those things back there . . . they’re called Vikkarni. Their venom is poisonous to my kind. I have an antivenom back at the House of Guile, but until we get there . . .” He made a face. “It’s only going to get worse.”
My grip tightened on his leather jacket, terror and disbelief lancing through me. If the Vikkarni’s venom was already depleting his strength and affecting his breathing, how long did he have?
“If you have the antivenom,” I growled, “why thefuckdidn’t you bring it with you?”
In that moment, I didn’t care that my panic sounded a lot like anger. I was glad for it, actually. Anger was an emotion I was used to dealing with. The other things I was feeling weren’t.
“He didn’t have the Vikkarni the last time I was here,” said Kaden, his eyes dancing with amusement. “Things sometimes change in three hundred years.”
In that moment, I wanted to deck him.
“We should keep moving,” he said, glancing above our heads. “Get that book and get out.”
Something inside me roared that we should leave now, but Kaden’s joke reminded me that he was more than five centuries old. He hadn’t survived this long by being an idiot — even if he seemed like one at times. And if we left without Mankara’s text, I doubted we’d make it past Mirabella and her friends a second time.
Nodding, I let go of Kaden’s leathers, but he caught my wrist before I could pull back. Beads of cold sweat glistened on his brow, but those gray eyes swirled with mischief. “It’s sweet that you’re worried about me.”
“I’m not,” I said, jerking my arm out of his grip and continuing up the stairs. “I’m just worried about how I’m going to make it out of here if I have to dragyoursorry ass.”
“Aw. You’d drag my sorry ass back rather than leaving me to be devoured by the Watchman’s other pets?”
I ground my back molars together but didn’t answer. I was too busy worrying about what other “pets” he might have.
Just when I thought the endless stairs must be another of the Watchman’s traps, we reached an arched doorway that opened into a wide chamber. A harsh sea breeze blew through windows that were open to the elements, carrying the stench of death and brine.
I shivered in my wet leathers as magic danced across my skin. It wasn’t the foreboding presence I’d sensed in the stairwell, nor did it belong to the Vikkarni.
No. This magic felt eerily familiar.
Without thinking, I started out across the chamber justas Kaden reached the top of the stairs. “Where are you going?”
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t explainwhythat magic called to me. I knew it didn’t make any sense. But I also knew that if I followed that power to its source . . .
“Lyra.” Kaden’s soft voice pulled me out of my trance, and I turned to face him.
