When she was but a few feet away, Mondesta grabbed her arm and pulled her closely to his side. He held the pistol up to her temple. “I shall take that off you, my dear,” he said to Bree as he used his free hand to pluck the medallion from her.
His endearment sent a shudder of revulsion through her.
He lobbed the medallion over to Daniel, who deftly caught it.
“Now,” Mondesta said. “Use that on the lion’s chest, and if you try anything stupid, you will force me to put a bullet in the Principessa’s head.”
Daniel’s attention flicked between Mondesta and his man Bussoni. Bree thought for a moment he was going to try something, but then he curtly nodded and walked over to stand in front of the statue. “Very well.”
A shiver of dread ran through Bree as Mondesta’s hand stayed tightly gripped on her upper arm. His long, spindly fingers felt like the cold hand of death.
“Use it,” Mondesta ordered Daniel.
Bree held her breath as Daniel lifted the medallion up and fitted it onto the symbols etched into the lion’s chest.
Nothing happened.
“Il Diablo!” Mondesta swore, his fingers digging painfully into the flesh of her arm. “Why is nothing happening?”
Daniel took a step back and shrugged. “Perhaps, it really is all just a legend.”
“Nonsense!” Mondesta declared. He waved his pistol over to Bussoni. “See if you can make it work.”
Bussoni’s heavy frame trudged over to the statue, and Daniel stepped farther away from him.
The man raised his hand up to the medallion and tried to push it in more. Again, the statue stayed stubbornly silent. He turned toward his master with a blank look on his face.
“Try twisting it!” Mondesta’s voice was getting desperate.
Bussoni turned back to the medallion and did as instructed, turning it to the right. Suddenly, the very floor began to rumble, and the walls vibrated, with small rocks beginning to rain down from above.
In an instant, the stone square where Bussoni had been standing vanished, and he plunged down into the dark earth beneath with a strangled scream.
As quickly as the rumbling began, it stopped.
Bree twisted as much as she could in Mondesta’s grip, frantically searching out Daniel. A sense of relief shuddered through her when she saw he was safe.
Mondesta nudged her forward toward the yawning hole in the floor. “Pick up the lantern,” he ordered her.
“Damn it, don’t put her at risk!” Daniel yelled as he started toward them.
Bree’s fingers latched onto the lantern, and Mondesta grabbed her and yanked her back. He pressed the muzzle of his pistol to her temple. “Stay where you are, Thornton. I will not warn you again.”
Daniel halted in his tracks, his jaw gritting tightly as Mondesta walked Bree toward the edge of the hole.
Bree tried to calm her racing heart, as uncertainty flittered through her over what the man’s intentions were.
Mondesta stopped them just shy of the edge and peered down. She gingerly raised the lantern over the edge of the gap. Not much could be seen, even with the light. Glancing into the dark abyss, Bree wondered what on earth had just happened.
When the poem spoke of the lion deciding someone’s fate, she hadn’t thought it meant it could literally kill them. She felt sick to her stomach thinking it could have been Daniel instead.
Calogero tossed one of the pebbles that had fallen from above into the hole, and it took several seconds for the sound of it hitting what was presumably the floor beneath, to reach them. Whatever was below, it was a long way down.
Bree gasped when she noticed another hole in the marble stones on the other side of the lion.
Hearing her, Mondesta’s head swiveled up, too. He must have seen the other gap as he stepped them back from the hole and marched her over to the other side of the statue.
She saw from the corner of her eye that Daniel followed from the opposite side.
As they got close to the opening, straight away Bree could see some stairs leading down from this hole into the darkness beyond.
“At last,” Mondesta’s voice was tinged with wonder as he stood staring down at the stairs. “You,” he said looking up to Daniel. “Get the other lantern and lead us below.” He smiled down at Brianna. “He can make sure there are no other nasty surprises lying in wait for us.”
Daniel picked up the lantern and walked over to them. The look he gave her was so intense, it stole her breath, and she gave him a brief nod. “I’ll be fine,” she assured him, in response to the concern she could see lurking in his eyes.
For once, she wasn’t upset that he knew of her weakness. Instead, his protectiveness warmed a place in her heart. She felt maddeningly helpless as Daniel descended into the darkness, his lantern bobbing in front of him.
Mondesta picked up the lantern Bussoni had used and then motioned her to the stairs. “After you, Principessa.”
Bree gripped the handle of her own lantern tightly and took in a fortifying breath as she placed her foot on the top stone step and slowly began her downwards climb.
The crude staircase had no balustrade, and she had to focus on not looking over the edge and into the abyss, where presumably Bussoni’s body was now lying.
For a moment, the darkness felt like it was trapping her. She took in a shaky breath. Concentrate, Bree. Just one step at a time, she began chanting to herself as she continued down the steps. Gradually, the tightness in her chest began subsiding.
She glanced ahead, noticing that the thread of silver ran through the earth of this wall, too, leading downwards to where Daniel now stood at the bottom.
Mondesta followed closely behind, an air of excitement dancing around him. A feeling of fury rose in her chest. The man had killed her parents, not to mention he surely intended to kill herself and Daniel once he was done, and all for what? His quest for treasure?
For one mad moment, she actually considered stopping and trying to push him off the ledge, a compulsion to end his evil life and seek vengeance for herself and her parents gripping her. She wanted to stop him from hurting anyone else ever again. To stop him from hurting Daniel.
“You’re nearly at the end,” Daniel called up to her, almost as if he could sense what she was contemplating.
She shook away the foreign thoughts and focused on getting down the stairs. Finally, her boots touched the dirt ground beneath as she came to the bottom of the stairs. Mondesta grabbed her from behind before she could run over to where Daniel stood.
“No, no, no,” Mondesta whispered into her ear. “You must stay right beside me. Thornton, if you try and approach us, I will snap her neck.” He pulled her with him toward the right wall. “Now, there has to be some way to see what we are doing a little better than just using these lanterns.”
Mondesta glanced around, holding his lantern aloft. Daniel, on the other hand, stood braced, watching them like a hawk from several feet away.
“Ah, this looks promising,” Mondesta declared, pulling Bree over toward a large square urn sitting inside a dug-out space in the wall next to the stairs. “Looks to be an oil trough, just as my research of the ancient texts suggested.”
He threw his lantern into the urn, and, in a rush, a roar of flames lit across the surface and spread like wildfire down a trough along the wall. Almost instantly, the massive cavern was filled with light from the now flaming liquid that danced along what was obviously an oil trough built around the room.
“Magnificent,” Mondesta exclaimed, his eyes darting wildly across the chamber. “Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined such a miraculous sight. It is heavenly.”
Bree looked around, and her eyes widened in wonder. She blinked. Never had she seen such an array of spectacular items all in one place.
Mounds of gold and silver coins, as tall as she was, filled the chamber. Interspersed throughout the piles were glittering gems of every color of the rainbow, and jewelry embedded with rubies, sapphires,
and emeralds all glinted like they were alive as light from the flames danced across them.
An array of marble statues, gold and silver plates, and precious relics that must have been hundreds of years old lined the edges of the room. It was incredible. Truly a treasure the size the world hadn’t seen before. A treasure worth a king’s ransom. No wonder people had been searching for it for centuries.
And there, directly in the middle, was a raised marble dais with a gold sarcophagus lying on top. King Aleric’s grave. It had to be.
She peeked over at Daniel. Instead of staring at the treasure, he was focused solely on Mondesta, his stance at the ready with his lantern on the ground by his side.
Mondesta, however, was mesmerized by the ancient coffin, a gleam of reverence filling his eyes. “Finally, I have found King Aleric and his resting place.” He tore his attention away from the riches to focus on Daniel, while he dug his pistol into Bree’s side. “Lord Thornton, it is time for you to, once again, check that there are no nasty surprises awaiting us.” Motioning with his chin, Mondesta pointed toward the dais. “After you. And I caution you again against trying anything. The Principessa’s life is at stake.”
“I’m not going to try anything, Mondesta,” Daniel drawled as he slowly walked across the dirt to the center of the room. She dug her nails into her palms, praying silently that he wouldn’t trigger anything deadly.
Something pressed into her side—Mondesta using the gun to nudge her to follow. They walked past several piles of treasure and came to stand at the base of the dais. Bree put her lantern on the floor. She caught sight of Bussoni’s contorted and twisted body lying silent to her right. Quickly, she averted her eyes away from the sight.
“’Tis a shame,” Mondesta said, looking down at the fallen man. “Bussoni was very loyal.” He then turned back to Daniel. “Walk up to the sarcophagus, and tell me what you see.”
Bree felt the muzzle of the pistol jab into her ribs once again.
Daniel zeroed in on the weapon for a moment, but then he walked up the few steps onto the platform and glanced around. “There’s nothing up here, aside from the coffin.”
“Open it then!” Mondesta demanded.
Bree held her breath. No no no no no… Daniel took a step closer to the sarcophagus and braced his hands on the lid. With a grunt, he pushed the lid to the side, so that a wedge of the coffin was opened, but the lid was still balanced on the top of the structure.
She released the breath she’d been holding. Thankfully, there were no hidden surprises.
Bree could hear Mondesta’s breath start to quicken as he edged them closer to the base.
“What do you see?” Mondesta asked, a note of eagerness creeping into his voice.
Daniel gave a half shrug. How he could be so cool when his life was at stake, she couldn’t imagine. The man must’ve been fashioned out of ice and steel. “There’s definitely a skeleton in here, along with a silver flask.”
“The elixir,” Mondesta whispered solemnly. “I knew it was real and not simply a myth.”
Bree wondered if the last line in her mother’s poem was referring to the flask: danger lies close to that men seek most. Perhaps she had been trying to caution them about it.
Without notice, Mondesta raised his pistol and pointed it at Daniel. “Thank you, Lord Thornton. Your services are no longer required.”
And without any further warning, Mondesta pulled the trigger.
Chapter Thirty-Six
“No!” Bree’s anguished cry tore through the chamber as she lunged for Calogero and the pistol in his hand. But she was too late. Everything came to a standstill, as the weapon recoiled with a sharp jerk. The projectile tore through Daniel’s jacket directly above his heart, shattering her own heart in the process. He was propelled backwards down the other side of the dais, landing with a horrid thud on the ground.
A pain unlike anything she’d ever known constricted her ribs tightly as her legs gave way beneath her. “No!” Her voice broke, and she scrabbled across the ground, trying to make her way to him. “Daniel! Oh, God, no. Please, no.”
From her vantage point, only his feet were visible, and they were despairingly absent of any movement.
“He is gone, my dear.” Mondesta grabbed her roughly and pulled her to her feet.
“No, he’s not!” Bree shouted. “Let me go. I have to help him.” She yanked her arm away, but his grip was relentless, and he jerked her back.
“I’ve never missed a shot in thirty years,” he calmly continued, holding her back, as she struggled against him. “I can assure you, I haven’t missed now.”
An unholy rage began to burn deep in her heart. This man, who was wearing such a benign expression on his face, had murdered her parents, and now…now he had killed Daniel, too. Suddenly, she wanted to rip away his calm veneer. She wanted him to suffer as she was. She wanted him to burn in Hell.
“You bastard!” She launched herself on him, lashing out at his face in a frenzy, first punching and then clawing her nails deeply into his cheeks. He simply stood there unmoving, a look of curiosity on his face.
“Your mother did the same thing to me, too, after I killed your father. I made the mistake of reacting to her anger. I don’t intend to do so again.”
Her whole body tightened on hearing his words. She bent down and grabbed the still burning lantern from the floor. Then, with all of her might, she swung it at his head.
It shattered against his skull. Bright red blood and fragments of glass sprayed everywhere before the burning flame engulfed his hair. Her fists batted against his chest, and he stumbled back a step.
He could burn to cinders for all she cared. She spun around and bolted toward Daniel, but Mondesta tackled her from behind, and they went crashing to the ground. Bree felt the jarring impact as his body collided on top of hers and her breath was pushed from her lungs. For a moment, her chest constricted, and she couldn’t breathe. Frantically, she twisted around and shoved against him. He reared back and struck her hard to the face.
Searing pain lanced through her cheekbone. Dazedly, she stared up at Mondesta and truly thought he had to be a demon. His hair was still on fire, most of it burnt away to the scalp, and blood oozed from the gash on the side of his head.
Bree’s anger gave way to horror. He wasn’t even screaming or crying out in pain. Instead, as he straddled her, he calmly removed his jacket, draped it over his head, and then used it to smother out the flames. Grotesque burns now blistered the majority of his scalp, making him look inhuman. But he didn’t seem fazed at all, whereas anyone else would be withering on the floor in agony.
“That was disappointing,” he said to her, throwing his jacket to the side. “I expected more of you.”
“What is wrong with you?” Bree whispered. “How are you not in excruciating pain?”
He shrugged. “I do not feel things physically, my dear.”
“That is not possible,” Bree replied.
“It is for me,” he answered. “’Twas something I was born with, though I am hoping the elixir will fix that. It would be nice to feel things for once, though in this instance, it is rather beneficial that I cannot.”
“You are a hideous monster!” Bree tried pushing him off her.
He grabbed her wrists and pinned her to the ground. “Don’t make me angry,” he warned. “As it is, I am already going to have to punish you for such disobedience.”
Bree felt a hysterical laugh bubble up inside her. “What? And kill me? I. Don’t. Care! You’ve already taken away my parents and my childhood with them, and now…” Tears began welling in her eyes as her words caught in her throat. “You’ve taken away Daniel from me…”
Mondesta shrugged. “You will recover.”
“You bastard!” She pushed against him once more, but his grip was relentless. “If it is the last thing I do, I’m going to make you hurt so much, you won’t be able to help but feel it, all the way down to your sick and twisted heart.”
His ca
lm veneer slipped, and fury ravaged his features. “I am trying to be patient with you, but you are not making it easy.”
“I am never going to make anything easy for you!” She could see the pistol butt sticking out from the waist of his trousers. “You will have to kill me first.”
Suddenly, Mondesta was wrenched backwards.
“Now, that, I won’t allow,” Daniel’s deep voice rang out as he flung Mondesta to the side. The man crashed headfirst into a pile of treasure, with gold and jewels raining down on top of him.
Bree could only gape at the miracle before her. “You’re alive!”
Daniel pulled her to her feet, and her arms latched over his shoulders.
“Oh thank the Lord,” she whispered, running her hands along his shoulders, his chest, in his hair, as she tried to process that she hadn’t seen him die after all. But then her wits returned, and she swiveled in his arms to seek out Mondesta, who was stumbling to his feet.
“I’m not that easy to get rid of,” Daniel told her as he quickly pulled her behind him. “Now, get out of here.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” She had never felt more relieved and thankful than right at that moment. Daniel was alive, and if he thought she’d leave him to face this man alone, he had another thing coming.
“Stubborn woman.”
“You cannot be alive!” Mondesta shouted, his voice echoing around the room like a feral animal as he came to his feet. “I never miss! Never!”
Daniel pulled out her mother’s journal from his jacket pocket and held it up. Lodged in its very center, where the medallion sat, was the now flattened bullet. “Isabella saved me, Mondesta.”
Mondesta’s eyes bore into the cover of the journal. “That is her last journal?” His voice wobbled.
“Yes,” Daniel confirmed. “The one you have been so desperately searching for. I’m not one to believe in the spirit world, but perhaps Isabella’s spirit had a hand in protecting me.”
Almost as if in response, the ground began to shake. It only lasted for a few seconds before it ended as quickly as it had begun, but some rocks from above plummeted down, landing with a heavy crash onto some of the treasure, causing coins and jewels to scatter wildly across the floor.
The Elusive Earl (Saints & Scoundrels) Page 31