“The book,” I rasped. “I think . . .”
His eyes widened in understanding, and his lips parted in something like amazed satisfaction. “You can sense it.”
I gave a jerky half nod, slightly embarrassed to admit what I was feeling.
A thousand thoughts seemed to flit through Kaden’s mind, and I realized this was perhaps not the first time he’d considered the possibility. “Then let’s go.”
Chapter
Twenty-One
With every step, the pull of that familiar magic grew stronger and stronger until I could feel it vibrating in my very bones. It led me off the main chamber to another set of stone stairs.
After our fight with the Vikkarni, my whole body ached, and I wondered if the Watchman was leading us on some wild goose chase with the sole aim of exhausting us.
As we climbed, my focus drifted from the tug of that strange magic to the sound of Kaden’s ragged breathing. He seemed to be moving more slowly than usual, and I knew the venom must be working its way through his system.
We needed to find that book — and fast.
The stairs came to an abrupt halt in front of an ornate iron gate. There was no lock — no mechanism for Kaden to unravel with his magic — but somehow I knew thatIwas the key. Or at least my magic was.
As I drew closer, the gate swung open with a loud screech, and I stepped into a small alcove that led out ontoa ledge. Below was an enormous natural cavern. The stench of moss and decay nearly bowled me over as I approached the edge and stared out over the murky black water.
I sucked in a breath. The magic was even stronger here. It buzzed against my lips and hummed in my chest, and I sensed a little flare of excitement that hadn’t come from me.
My gaze drifted across the cavern to another ledge. It was the twin to the one on which I now stood, and I could just make out what looked like a box resting on a dainty pedestal inside the alcove.
“Is that it?” Kaden asked, his normally golden face ashen as he stared out across the gaping pit.
I nodded.
Every few yards, a stone column rose from the foul-smelling water — a tiny island just large enough to stand on.
Gauging the distance, I was fairly certain that I could jump from one column to the next to reach the opposite ledge. But after our experience with the Vikkarni, I knew the risk of falling to my death couldn’t be the only danger. The Watchman was too malicious for that.
As I stared into the fetid water, my gaze snagged on a dark shape moving beneath the water’s surface.
I shuddered. Something told me that whatever dwelled in that water was even worse than the Vikkarni.
As if the thing had read my thoughts, something broke the water’s surface. Not a fin or a snout or jaws, but what looked like a human head.
Horror clanged through me as water sluiced over the creature’s hair and down its naked body. A woman. Onlythere was something . . .wrongabout the way she bobbed there, as though it took no effort to tread water.
Straw-colored hair clung to her face and back in sodden ropes, and her flesh was as gray as a waterlogged corpse. The woman’s arms and torso were horribly emaciated, and I could see ribs protruding from beneath her breasts.
Neither Kaden nor I said a word as she scented the air, her hair falling back off her face as she turned to look at us.
Everything inside me recoiled at her unholy gaze, and I staggered back from the edge. Where her eyes should have been were two sunken pits. The flesh of her nose had rotted away entirely, leaving only a gaping hole in her skull.
Despite the female’s apparent blindness, she leered up at us with rotten teeth. The sight was unsettling, almost as if she were anticipating her next meal.
Just then, more heads broke the water’s surface — males and females who looked just as dead.
No, notdead, I realized. They were undead — merpeople starved for living flesh.
“Shall we?” Kaden asked. His tone bordered on his usual cockiness, though he couldn’t mask the trepidation in his voice.
I drew in a shaky breath and nodded. After our last encounter, every fiber of my being itched to sink my blade into those merpeople.
