The place was surprisingly clean, the air getting cooler with every step. The farther they went, the darker the cave became…and Annora could practically feel the walls pressing in on her.
“You don’t like us trolls very much,” Queen Nerilla mused.
Annora pursed her lips, deciding it was better not to piss off the queen. “The only thing I know about trolls is what I learned from Mason. You treated him like shit, and that’s something I can’t forgive.”
Nerilla looked thoughtful. “What you see as cruelty might actually be a kindness. While trolls may be fierce, we’re also hunted by others. Mason is only a half-breed. He’s vulnerable. When our trolls take over, we rage with little regard for protecting the weak. Our young must learn how to protect themselves, because no one else will.”
It made sense in a weird sort of fucked-up way, but Annora couldn’t help thinking there had to be a better way. But instead of challenging Nerilla, her focus was riveted on what she’d said. “Hunted?”
Nerilla cast her a speculative look, as if deciding whether to trust her. “A long time ago, warlocks used to hunt us for our skins. You’ve noticed the tattoos etched into Mason’s spine?”
Annora could only nod, not sure she wanted to know more.
“Unlike other species, our skins are able to retain magic, so they make the perfect covers to protect the witches’ precious grimoires. The practice has fallen out of use for most practitioners…except for the old families.” They took a sharp right, the lights all but vanishing.
“Not to mention our bones and teeth are harder than any diamond. Then there are our horns. When ground up and either eaten or inhaled, they’re a powerful aphrodisiac.” She gave her a knowing smirk. “But I’m guessing you already knew about the horns.”
Annora was glad for the darkness, but Nerilla wasn’t fooled, her belly laugh booming in the small space. They only went a dozen more feet when they came to a dead end. When Nerilla turned toward her, Annora couldn’t contain her curiosity. “Why tell me your secrets?”
“Because if you manage to survive, you’ll be part of the tribe and need to know.” Nerilla then gave a broad smile and shrugged. “And if you don’t win, you’ll be dead, so it don’t matter.”
Annora winced at the not so cheery thought.
She tapped her nails against the tips of her fingers, the sharp sting of pain keeping the panic at bay and her mind focused. “So how do I win?”
Nerilla lifted her gaze and looked over Annora’s head.
That’s when she heard it—Mason’s bellow.
“The hunt has begun.” Nerilla upended the bloody cup she carried. Instead of blood, a black opal spilled into her palm. It shimmered in the dark, alive with colors. Even at a distance, Annora could feel power radiating from it. “You have twenty minutes to complete your task. All you have to do is find this stone. Once it comes into contact with your skin, Mason will once again recognize you as his mate, and so will his troll. Don’t lose it.”
Then without another word, she dropped the gem.
Annora watched as it spun in the air, falling through a hole in the ground she hadn’t noticed, before winking out of existence. The darkness was so complete, not even a flicker of light could be seen.
Another bellow echoed in the confined space, sounding like a train barreling down on her.
“Good luck.” Nerilla slapped her on the back, sending her staggering forward, and Annora teetered on the edge of the abyss. The ground crumbled beneath her feet, and she found herself falling through space, Nerilla’s voice echoing down to her. “You’re going to need it.”
Annora landed hard, her legs buckling, and she rolled, coming to a stop when her back smacked hard against a large rock. She glanced up and found herself surrounded by nothing but pure darkness.
Dropped into a maze…Camden hadn’t been kidding!
She lifted her hand and couldn’t even see it when it was just an inch away from her face.
Fuck.
The silence was absolute, like she was shut away in a sensory deprivation chamber. She ran her hands over the cool stone beneath her, but felt nothing but gritty sand and rock. She reached out with her magic, but the opal was nowhere to be found.
It had disappeared completely.
She rose to her feet, the need to escape pounding through her veins. Even though she knew her uncle was dead, she’d swear she could feel him stalking her, hear the whisper of his deep voice describing what he planned to do next to punish her.
She spun in a circle, unable to get over the feeling she was being watched.
Her breathing became ragged, and she struggled not to allow her fears to take shape. When rocks began to rain down from the ceiling, she realized Mason had gotten too damned close. Knowing he was near eased the panic that threatened to drag her into the past.
She needed to stay focused if she wanted to lay claim to Mason.
She refused to allow her fears to destroy their chance for a future together.
And to do that, she needed to stop wasting time.
She’d spent enough time underground for her senses to quickly adjust.
She knew what she needed to do.
Blowing out a shaky breath, she resisted the temptation to call the darkness and blend into the background while she hunted for the stone, but she didn’t think it would work. Mason always seemed to see her, even when she didn’t want to be noticed. She suspected the brew he drank would only enhance that ability.
That didn’t mean she was defenseless.
She called on the dark particles, pulling it up from her bones, and nearly whimpered in relief when the darkness eased, leaving her surrounds a dark, murky blue.
And found herself in the center of a massive cavern.
Giants stood around the perimeter of the room, and she nearly fell on her ass again as she scrambled backwards. It was only then that she realized they were statues. The trolls stood to attention, nearly ten feet tall, each holding a spear or sword or even a bone-like club over their shoulder.
Furs barely covered their privates. Trolls hadn’t really changed in the past few hundred years…until you looked at their expressions. There was a ferocity to them, a craziness that warned a person not to get close. Their blank eyes blazed down at her, their horns massive…and each of them carried a black opal that shimmered in the dark, similar to the one she hunted.
They were so lifelike she wouldn’t be surprised if they came alive at any second. Knowing she didn’t have much time, Annora turned away to survey the rest of the cavern. She refrained from checking on the link between her and Mason, not sure she could bear it if he wasn’t on the other end.
As she hurried down the tunnels, two paths immediately became clear. She took a step, ready to charge down the nearest path, when she saw the tiny particles of the afterworld swirling down the opposite way, as if on an invisible current, beckoning her forward.
Going on instinct, she whirled and took off in the direction her magic indicated. She didn’t make it more than a few paces when the air around her shifted.
She didn’t have to turn around to know Mason had found her.
She charged down the path like the hounds of hell were on her heels. The last thing she wanted to do was fight with Mason. She knew she could beat him in a fight, but that meant hurting him, and she wasn’t sure she was capable of doing it.
Knowing he was gaining on her, Annora recalled Camden said the underground was a maze. She studied the different openings, then lunged toward the smallest one she could find, barely wide enough for her to fit in sideways if she sucked in her stomach.
And not a moment too soon.
Mason plowed after her, hitting the rock full force just seconds after she did. She’d swear that the walls shivered under the impact. He turned sideways, and thrust his hand in the passageway, his beautiful lavender eyes now muddied and bloodshot.
Annora couldn’t move, his fingers lightly brushing her arm as he wedged himself deeper into the ti
ny crack in the wall. She waited for their connection to snap into place, but all that stared back at her was pure rage. He shoved his face between the rocks, brutally scraping his skin in the process, but it was like he felt none of it.
When he couldn’t reach her, he bellowed in denial, his roar making her ears ring.
He retreated, but not for long. He picked up a boulder that was twice her size and flung it at the tiny opening where she stood, and managed to chisel away at least a foot of the rock as it crumbled under the impact.
Shards of stone peppered her, snapping her out of her shocked paralysis, and she hurried down the passageway, cursing when the path became narrower, the rocks scraping her with every step.
Just when she feared that she’d have to turn back, she was able to squeeze through a tiny opening and found herself on a new trail. She glanced both ways, and nearly sighed in relief when tiny particles wisped past her face to the right.
She took a single step forward when the sounds of Mason’s hammering disappeared.
Shit.
He must have finally noticed she was gone.
Conscious of the clock ticking away, she picked up her pace. The tunnels twisted and turned on themselves. If she didn’t know better, she’d swear the tunnels were moving, changing, and it wasn’t long before she was hopelessly lost.
And the stone remained frustratingly out of sight.
Almost like someone was moving it whenever she got too close.
Son of a bitch!
Annora turned the corner and ran smack into something so hard that she rebounded and landed on her ass. She didn’t have to look up to know it was Mason.
Crap on a stick!
She scarcely had time to roll out of the way when his foot stomped down where she was only a millisecond ago. The ground below her quivered under the impact. She barely managed to scramble to her feet before he was on her.
His fist caught her shoulder, sending her flying across the small cavern. She would’ve gone farther, but thankfully, the rock wall stopped her fall. She could do nothing but brace for impact. Ribs cracked as she hit, her breath exploding out of her.
Refusing to give into the pain, she pulled herself to her feet, rejecting the impulse to draw her sword. She was tempted to use her abilities, jump the distance between her and the opal, but her promise to Edgar rang in her head.
His very real fear made her hesitate.
So when Mason came at her again, she ghosted him.
Instead of pancaking her, he ended up charging right through her.
And she remembered why she hated passing through living objects. She staggered as she took form again, her bones taking a while to feel solid once more. The temperature in the room dropped drastically, as if she’d pulled the air from the afterworld back with her.
Humans didn’t affect her the same way. Something about supernaturals made her body react clumsily, like their magic interfered with her abilities. Impressions bombarded her. Fear, rage, pain, denial, but it was enough, and she clung to the tiny sliver of hope with all her might.
“Mason?” Annora whirled to face him.
He took a threatening step toward her, then faltered, his face twisting into a grimace of pain. Tiny sparks of lavender shimmered in his eyes as awareness returned. “You…must…run.”
She stepped toward him, wanting to touch him, needing to make sure he was okay, then made herself stop. Even as she watched, the lavender began to fade. Not wanting to hurt him, she did as he instructed and ran.
She had to get the heart stone.
Her body immediately protested the movement. While some of her bones had mended together with her short visit to the afterworld, his blow had done a lot of damage. Unfortunately, she didn’t have time to worry about it.
The seconds were ticking down.
She needed that stone to save him before she could worry about herself.
She rushed toward the opening and smack into the strands of a huge spider web. As she struggled to untangle herself, she tripped over something, nearly sending herself sprawling. She sputtered and plucked the tacky web off her face, then glanced down and saw what she tripped over—a bone nearly the length of her entire leg.
A line of black beetles erupted from the ground, climbing over each other, as if the vibrations from her fall had summoned them. They scurried along the ground so fast she had to stop herself from recoiling and drawing their attention. The critters were massive, easily twice the size of a fifty cent piece. Their claws clicked and snapped at the air as they hunted for their prey, winding over and under the bones.
And heading directly toward her.
That’s when she noticed the entire cavern was a massive graveyard.
Chapter Nine
Bones of every shape and size were scattered everywhere, some of them even full skeletons. It looked like they just lay down and never got up again.
Until she looked closer.
Bones were shattered, skulls cracked open like eggs.
They died in battle.
Fuck.
They were the ones who opted to locate the gem instead of fight…and died before they could claim their prize.
Meantime, the beetles continued to crawl over each other like a black tide spilling toward her. Annora grabbed a rib bone that lay close by, the damned thing nearly the size of her forearm, and tossed it to the opposite side of the room.
The beetles swerved and immediately followed it like a dog sent to retrieve. She carefully got to her feet and followed the trail of bugs, struggling not to gag when a few of the monster beetles crunched under her boot.
The taint of death clung to the air, becoming stronger with her every step. In the corner, she spotted a large troll resting half upright, his head turned away. His torso was bare, his skin a mottled combination of gray and black as mold twisted up his chest. A gleam of bones stuck out from what was left of his legs, the flesh putrefying into a spongy liquid.
The beetles must have sensed a meal and turned in his direction.
Before they even reached him, his gut expanded alarmingly, something moving up from his stomach to his chest. His throat stretched and bulged disturbingly. She couldn’t tear her eyes away as his mouth parted and hundreds of spiders crawled out of his mouth and nose. Only the spiders were pale, nearly white, and fucking fast. Their legs were extra-long, bending at weird angles, like they had additional joints in them as they crawled over each other.
Until they began to fucking jump forward damned near a foot.
She nearly tripped over the stupid bones at her feet before she realized she was backing away in horror. It took all her willpower to stand her ground.
She would not lose Mason over some fucking nasty bugs.
Some of the spiders attacked the beetles that approached. The hard shells protected some of them, but the spiders must have been poisonous, because a few of the beetles gave a shriek of pain and curled up. The spiders didn’t waste a second and hungrily fed from them before they even quit twitching.
Unfortunately, the majority of the creepy crawlies scaled the fucking walls like damned monkeys and hunkered down along the ceiling.
She shivered, disliking that they were up there and out of her sight.
She was so distracted, she barely noticed the beetles crawl up the troll’s corpse and burrow into his flesh.
That’s when she realized it wasn’t all mold.
Hundreds of coffin flies scattered, their agitation a drone in the air. Her skin crawled as she imagined them swarming over her body. Another look around the cavern showed there were at least three more bodies in varying degrees of decay.
It was a killing pit.
She backed away when a movement at the corner of her eye had her whirling. The blow that would’ve crushed her skull fractured her injured shoulder instead, and the bones splintered on impact.
Annora staggered, only years of taking a beating kept her on her feet.
She turned to face the threat, expecting to see Ma
son…only to find—
“Flora…I should’ve guessed. Did your queen order my death?” But something about what she said didn’t ring true. As she glanced around at the dead bodies piled up around them, understanding clicked. “No, you’ve been sneaking in here and killing the ones who opted not to fight, keeping the stones for yourself, haven’t you? Why?”
Knowing she needed all her wits to get out of this alive, Annora grabbed her shoulder and held it in place while drawing on the particles in the afterworld. A misty, dark fog crept across the cavern, inching its way toward her until the horror across the ground was completely covered. The clicking of the beetles stopped, and even the spiders stilled and hunkered down as if to watch the darkness.
Flora gave a snide laugh. “You’re just as dumb as her.”
Annora inched backwards, bones and bugs crunching under her feet, and realized the bitch must be crazy. “What do you mean?”
The troll’s amusement faded, her eyes sparking red with anger. “The heart stones control the trolls, and she used to just give them away to anyone who wanted them.” Her meaty lips curled in disgust, and she hocked a loogie of green slime, spitting it in Annora’s direction. “Even to fucking outsiders. It needs to stop.”
“And you’re the one to do it.” Annora stilled as the scope of the plan hit her. “You plan to cheat and use the gems to take over leadership of the trolls.”
Flora gave a nasty smile, her crooked teeth taking on a green shine that made them look like they were slightly furry. Then her eyes widened when she saw the encroaching darkness, before they narrowed in rage. “Boys!”
At her bellow, eight large trolls and three smaller female trolls strode into the cavern at different entry points until Annora was surrounded. Their eyes were dull, their faces slack, their hair drooping like they were sick, but the tears trailing down the face of the smallest female let her know at least a few of them were aware of what was happening.
“If you attack me, I’ll have them snap your scrawny little neck,” Flora snarled.
Annora stopped the darkness’s advance, and it plumed up in the air, restless and demanding to be set free. It snuck behind her, then curled up her legs, and her muscles tugged painfully as they began to stitch themselves together. The bones in her shoulder creaked alarmingly, healing the worst of her wounds so slowly, it was pure torture. “Why should I stop? You have no intention of releasing me either way. I give myself at least a fifty percent chance of surviving. Fifty percent chance that I can kill you before you can even hurt me.”
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