We grinned at each other like idiots for a long beat.
He sobered. “You know why I want to come with you, but Aspen will need to believe it was your idea, and he’ll want to know how you coerced me into agreeing to it.”
Shit. “What do I say?”
“Sit down. This might take a minute to explain.”
* * *
I was back in Aspen’s quarters. The hearth was empty of a fire today, though, and no spy was waiting to divulge valuable intelligence.
Aspen raked me over as I entered. “You’re smarter than I anticipated,” he said. “Choosing Slade as your weapon. Smart. How did you get him to agree?”
Slade and I had discussed this part in detail. “I told him it was his duty to protect the Winter Court’s rule and that refusing would mean a snub to the king himself. And to sweeten the deal, I offered him my body for the night if we survive.”
The corner of Aspen’s mouth turned up. “You’ve done your research on Slade’s particular brand of Danaan. They need to fuck.”
The word fuck coming out of his mouth sounded out of place.
“Slade’s breed of Danaan is driven by the desire to mate,” Aspen continued. “But the Tuatha gene tempers the emotional attachments, so they simply fuck. A lot. They need the sex to satiate that drive.”
Except Slade wasn’t like that. He had emotions, and he wasn’t sex-crazed. He just made it so the other guards believed he was. Which explained why the guard in the biotech sector had so easily accepted him being there with a woman pinned to the wall and his tongue down her throat, and why Aspen was so easily accepting my explanation now.
I locked gazes with him. “Will the other courts have a problem with my choice?”
“They might, but they have no legal grounds to object. I’ll deal with it. You get some rest. Tomorrow will be challenging.” His jaw ticked. “My spy never returned from Autumn. I believe he may have been caught and slain.”
So, I had no clue what to expect tomorrow. Great. “I’ll be fine.”
“Get some sleep. You leave at dawn.”
Rose met me outside the room and led me back to my chambers. Thank goodness I wasn’t going into the unknown alone.
Thank goodness for Slade.
16
I woke to a chill and a gray predawn sky.
Where was the ceiling?
“Danika.” Slade’s face appeared above me. “How do you feel?”
The buzz of drones shook the final vestiges of sleep from my head. I sat up quickly. There was rock beneath me, smattered with moss.
“What the fuck?”
Slade offered me his hand, and I took it, allowing him to haul me to my feet as drones dropped to eye level around us.
“We were transported in our sleep,” Slade said.
“I would have woken up.”
“I believe they may have drugged us.”
Drugged? How would they have…Wait. Rose made me a warm drink before bed to help me sleep well. That bitch.
And now we were here… Wherever here was. A mountain rose up behind Slade, gray and huge and ominous.
“What is this place?”
A drone with a screen appeared to my left, and a male Tuatha in Autumn colors fixed his eyes on me.
“Welcome to the Autumn trial, Winter’s Blade. Follow the scholars to the entrance to Baile Sidhe. An ancient mountain city filled with perilous creatures. You will enter on the north side and exit via the south. Climb the steps where you will be met by our scholars who will admit you into the city. They will give you a key to exit southside. But there is no map. You must find the exit yourself.” He smiled, cold and chilling. “While surviving the inhabitants of the city.”
The screen drifted away toward the mountain.
“Baile Sidhe?” I looked to Slade.
He shook his head, imperceptibly. “Shall we begin, Blade?”
Of course, he was on camera too. He’d have to keep up his cold one façade. Fuck. He set off after the drone with the screen, and I followed, flanked by drones filming my every move. The rocky path wound upward into the mountains. Stone steps were hewn into the rock, and standing on a ledge above us were two scholars in Autumn colors.
They stepped back to make room as we approached, but there was barely enough space on the ledge for the four of us, especially with Slade being as large as he was.
The drone carrying the screen with Autumn’s representative’s face came to hover above the rock facing the ledge.
Symbols were cut into the stone. Strange archaic patterns that made no sense to me.
“Are you ready?” the Autumn representative asked. “This is so exciting.”
He didn’t sound excited, but I imagined his face on holoscreens all over the cities with mine split-screened next to him. Tuatha and Danaan would be watching with interest, and humans would be gathered in squares, eager for the show.
I locked gazes with the cold one. “Just get on with it.”
He smirked. “As you wish.”
The scholars began to sing, a lilting melody that made the hairs on the back of my neck quiver and my scalp itch. The symbols on the stone began to glow blue and green.
A low rumble filled the air, and the ledge beneath our feet shook. Slade grabbed hold of me to steady me as the rock face parted to reveal an arch.
One of the scholars held out a key to me. I took the clunky thing, noting the rusted quality of the metal before pocketing it.
“In you go,” the Autumn representative said.
Slade ducked in first and I followed, my hand grasping for his. His fingers curled around my palm firmly, reassuring as we stepped into the dark. The drones flooded in with us, tiny lights winking on to illuminate the scene, not that they were of much use, as they were shining in our faces, blinding us. The rock wall behind us thundered closed and darkness pressed in, lit only by pinpricks of light from the drones that seemed to dim with each passing second.
“Wait for it,” Slade whispered.
“For what?”
The darkness grew gray. A weak amber light stung my eyes, and the mountain city was revealed. A huge hollow space lit by strange mossy growths that clung to the rock.
We were on a wide bridge that stretched out ahead of us before splitting into three new bridges. One sloped up and the other down. More bridges spawned off those to connect to arches that led into domed buildings jutting out of the rock. In the center of it all was a massive chandelier made of thick glass and supported by sturdy silver chains. There were bulbs in the chandelier, which meant there was electricity in here. Or at least there had been at some time.
I wanted to ask Slade about this place, but his imperceptible headshake earlier had been a warning. He probably wasn’t meant to know what this city was, and with the damn drones watching us, we needed to be careful how we interacted.
I touched the pocket that held the key out of this place. Head south, they’d said. “A compass would have been fucking nice.”
Slade pulled a penknife from his pocket and held it out to me. There was a small compass attached to the top.
“Nice.”
“Which way?” he asked.
His tone was cool and indifferent, and my chest hurt. I reminded myself that it was an act for the drones and studied the needle of the compass.
I pointed left. “That way.”
We took the bridge up until the intersection, then stepped onto the slope that led us left and onto the other bridge. I glanced at the compass to make sure we were headed in the right direction, trying to ignore the drones that buzzed softly as they kept pace.
I couldn’t help but veer close to the edge of the bridge, to the slender railing that was meant to keep me from falling, and look down. Metal and rock domes jutted out of the rock, each attached to a bridge. This huge chamber housed the network that led to every part of this city, but what did each dome hold? More bridges? Massive living spaces?
We were about to find out because an arch loomed ahead of u
I faltered at the entrance to the dome and looked up at Slade. “You know, it would help if we knew what kind of creatures we’ll be dealing with down here.”
He met my gaze levelly, his expression grim. “You have me. I won’t let any harm come to you.” Even though his tone was neutral, his eyes weren’t. They were warm and filled with determination, and that was enough for me.
“Let’s do this.”
I stepped into the gloom.
* * *
The archway took us into a tunnel with smooth walls and nooks that held lanterns that flared to life as we passed.
“Whoa!” I stopped and stared at the nearest lantern. A tiny ball of light hovered inside it. “What the fuck is that?”
“I don’t know,” Slade said. “Let’s keep going.”
Beneath my boots, the ground altered, and the plain rock became colorful tile. We stepped into a huge space that resembled a town square with lampposts and stores. A monument stood in the center of the square—a willowy woman, tall and regal, with a crown atop her head and something in her hand that was too dusty and grimy to make out.
The compass pointed straight ahead. We walked through the square, over cobbles that must have been green and yellow once but were now covered in thick sticky dust that our boots left smears in.
We passed neat stores with beer bottle windows and awnings, probably beautiful in their day, but now the fabric was motheaten and torn, and the windows were so dirty they were opaque.
There was a walkway up ahead, above us. It linked two towers made of inky black stone that bracketed the square. We were about to pass under it when something dark dashed across. I froze and grabbed hold of Slade’s arm, my gaze flicking up to the walkway in warning.
The drones buzzed excitedly, hovering closer before moving up to film the walkway. A skittering sound drifted down to us.
Slade nodded slowly.
Yep, there was definitely something up there because my pulse going wild told me so.
Movement to my right had my head whipping round to catch sight of something dark and twisted.
Slade grabbed my hand and tugged me against him, backing up until we were under the shadow of an awning of a store.
His mouth brushed my ear. “Stay still,” he whispered.
But I had a better idea. I reached out to the shadows that coalesced under the walkway and drew them to me.
Slade bit back a gasp as they slid over us like a veil.
“How did you do that?” he whispered, breath hot against the delicate shell of my ear.
“Later.”
We were hidden, and the world was silent. Come on, come out.
A dark shape dropped from the walkway and hit the ground in a heap. The drones hovered to and fro, searching for me no doubt before focusing on the mass and congregating around it eagerly.
The thing shuddered, then with jerky, inhuman movements unwound itself. Limbs shot out, stretched, and popped, and fingers appeared, too long and thin, clenching and unclenching as if testing the consistency of the air. It unfurled its body, straightening until it was seven feet tall—a slender, wiry mass of muscle and sinew, with arms that were too long and legs that bent backward at the knees. And its face… Oh god, that eyeless face with the flared nostrils was something out of a nightmare. It stood still, head cocked to the side, then the nostrils flared. I could hear it sniffing. It made a wet rattling sound in its chest, then slits opened up in the side of its head, and strange trumpet-like fleshy appendages slid out.
Were those ears?
Oh fuck. Was it listening for us?
Slade’s arms tightened around my waist in warning, but the rush of blood in my head seemed too loud. Surely it could hear me?
The drones buzzed closer, and the thing’s hand whipped out to grab one. Its head split in two to reveal a wet, dripping maw of silver teeth, then the drone was gone. Devoured.
The other drones whizzed away from the creature, but they didn’t make it far before more creatures dropped from the walkway and grabbed them.
The creatures were coming from the towers, which were now mottled black and red. What the fuck? Oh shit. The towers hadn’t been black stone at all. The creatures had been covering them. So many fucking creatures. They leaped and attacked the drones, devouring them with hearty crunches.
Perspiration broke out on my brow. I couldn’t hold the shadows to me much longer. In fact, this was the longest I’d ever held them to me before.
My stomach trembled, and my thighs shook. I was going to lose my grip.
Any second.
The veil dropped, and the world was clear.
The creatures stilled before every head turned our way. Silence reigned, and for a moment, I thought the fuckers were frozen, but then they all opened their awful maws and let out a unified screech.
Slade grabbed my hand and tugged. We smashed through the store door and sprinted past aisles of dust and rot. The world exploded behind us as the creatures gave chase. But we had a head start, and despite Slade’s size, he was fast. We made it to the second exit and crashed through into a back street. There was no time to stop and check if we were going in the right direction.
Heck, any direction away from those things was the right direction.
My legs pumped, muscles working overtime as I flew across cobbles and wove between buildings. The creatures had taken to the roofs, running alongside us. Intermittent shrieks echoed around us.
They were communicating with each other.
They were guiding one another.
I wasn’t sure how I knew this. I just did. Slade tugged me to the left, and I spotted the tunnel ahead.
We hit it a moment later and barreled onto a bridge. I glanced back to see the creatures in pursuit. “Slade, they’re not slowing down. Maybe we should stand and fight.”
“There’s too many of them, even for us.”
He was right. An intersection loomed up ahead.
“What now?”
Slade veered toward the edge of the bridge, taking me with him. “Now, we take a leap.”
“Wha—”
He swung me off my feet and crashed through the barrier. The bridge below rushed up to meet us. He landed with a sturdy thunk, knees bending to absorb the aftershock. Then he set me on my feet, and we ran toward the arch linked to this bridge.
My back prickled as the creatures leaped onto the bridge after us, and as we approached the tunnel, I glanced back, expecting to see them bearing down on us, but they’d stopped partway down the bridge.
“Slade. Look.” I came to a halt. “They’re not chasing us anymore.”
Slade stopped mere feet from the tunnel and looked back at the creatures.
They were hunched now, backing up, tunnel ears sliding back into their heads.
They were retreating.
My shoulders relaxed slightly, and my pulse slowed. “They’re not gonna follow us.”
The creatures leaped back up to the bridge above and hung over the barrier, watching us.
I looked up at Slade, relief coursing through my veins. “We’re good.”
“Yeah?” he said gruffly. “Are we?”
What was he talking about?
“Why aren’t they following us, Danika?” he asked.
He looked behind him into the dark tunnel, which was the only way forward for us now because if we went back, those things would get us. They were waiting for us to come back, but they wouldn’t come after us because…
Oh crap… “There’s something worse through there, isn’t there? Something those things are scared of?”
I hooked an arm over my shoulder, searching for the hilt of my blade but found nothing but air. Fuck. I hadn’t been permitted to bring a weapon because Slade was my weapon. Fucking technicalities.
Slade sighed and drew two blades from his weapons belt, handing me one. “Yes, Danika. And we have no choice but to go in.”
I took the blade and tucked it into my belt. “Then what are we waiting for?”
17
The area beyond the tunnel was a warren of more tunnels that varied in width and opened out into chambers that looked like they’d been used as communal living spaces. We navigated in silence, senses open, listening for the slightest sound that would indicate a threat. Everywhere we went, lanterns flickered to life, or moss bloomed with weak light. I saw evidence of technology in the strip lights that hugged the creases between the wall and ceiling of the tunnels, and I even spotted a couple of wall sockets.
What the fuck was this place, and who’d lived here?
We were off course, but I was confident we could adjust our trajectory and get back onto the south track. We passed through a chamber lined with leather-bound tomes, covered in dust, and decorated with cobwebs, then through another chamber filled with pots and pans, a toppled over table and chairs, and several cooking pots hanging in empty hearths. I jerked my head toward a door to the left of the room, past a cabinet lined with clay pots and stone jars.
Slade took the lead and pulled open the door to reveal a set of steps.
The compass showed a steady southerly direction now.
I nodded, and we began to climb. The steps spat us out onto a new floor of warrens where the air was chilly enough to make my breath fog. A prickle skated over my skin.
A warning.
Slade slowed as we approached the next tunnel we needed to take. There was a shape in it. Unmoving and hunched.
My pulse skipped a beat, but then my eyes adjusted to the gloom. It was a statue. A stone statue. But why was it parked in the middle of the tunnel?
I looked to Slade, who shook his head as if to say hell if I know.
But this was the way we needed to go. We needed to head past the statue.
Slade went first, shielding me with his body. The lanterns on the tunnel nooks bloomed to life, and the statue was revealed in all its glory—a stout, short figure with a mulish face and a hunched back.
-->