Page 64 of The Kingdom Cursed By Iron

“I believe he was under the impression you might not come otherwise,” she says, looking wholly uninterested in why that might be.

“I bet he was.” I cross my arms. “Well, I’m afraid I’m not going to come running when he calls me. If he wants me there, he can ask me himself.”

“He’s already waiting to take you there,” she says.

“What do you mean? Take me where?”

“The queen will be reinstated using the founding stone. No one besides the monarch and their bloodline even know where it is.”

I drop my arms, confused. “Then why would Ruskin want me there?”

“I believe he needs your skills.”

“Oh.”

That changes things. I’d thought Ruskin’s invitation was just him trying to smooth things over by pretending that we hadn’t had a fight, but if there’s a practical reason I have to be at the ceremony, it makes sense he’d send Halima. It would be petty to refuse him now, when there are so many more important things at stake.

"Um…do I have time to clean up?” I ask. Metalworking is sweaty business, and I’m in need of a wash and a change of clothes.

“No.”

I grimace, then nod. “All right.” I untie my apron and smooth down my hair. It’ll have to do. “Lead the way.”

Halima drops me off at a corridor that runs along the edge of Ruskin’s quarters, which also border the High Monarch’s rooms.

“Go to the end,” she says. I wait expectantly, but she doesn’t say anything else, so I shrug and follow her directions.

The corridor is long, and I notice it slopes down very slightly, ending at a wide stone door with a solid brass wheel embedded in it. It looks old, like it was here long before all the plants that have grown up around it, and I guess that the wheel is part of a locking mechanism. I stop, checking over my shoulder, but there’s nowhere else I could go in this corridor, so this must be in the right place. I wrap my hands around the edge of the wheel and pull on it, hard.

It doesn’t budge. I tighten my grip and try again.

This time the wheel creaks into slow motion, turning beneath my fingers, too easily for it to have anything to do with me. I let go as the door grinds open and I see Ruskin on the other side.

“Good. I’ve been waiting for you,” he says.

“Why am I here, Ruskin?” I don’t understand why explanations always have to come so slowly with him. There must be some of that in my tone, because he answers very directly.

“The iron. It’s spread down here too. We need to move it before the ritual.”

“And you don’t want to invite a team of miners here to do it for you,” I say, understanding now.

“We can’t,” he says. “The founding stone’s location has to remain secret. It’s too risky otherwise.”

Of course, we’re only talking about the magical artifact that helps decide the ruler of the kingdom. I can see why that might pose some security concerns.

Ruskin steps aside, revealing a sharply descending passageway. “This way.”

Chapter 20

We’re heading deep underground. I can tell from the way the normally warm air begins to cool. As we walk in silence, I’m keenly conscious of my nearness to Ruskin. The silence gives me too much room to dwell on the time we were last together. It ended disastrously, but before that…the feel of his lips on mine and his hands on my skin were so intense, so perfect, that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about them. I’m angry at him for manipulating me under any circumstances, but if I’m honest, a part of me is especially mad that we couldn’t enjoy that moment—couldn’t give in to our desire. He had to go and spoil things.

“What makes you think I can move this iron?” I ask, looking to distract myself. “I couldn’t do it in the gallery before.”

“It’s not a lot. And you’re stronger now. You proved that much the other day.”

I did, in the valley, right before we…

No. Not going there. I turn my neck, squinting at the passageway around us, dimly lit by faerie lights. I look for something to distract me.

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