Page 16 of Queen of Serpents and Shadows

“We were fine,” Laera snapped. “She’s alive, isn’t she?”

Ryvin’s jaw was tight, but he didn’t respond.

“Oddly, I didn’t get any bad feelings so that theory is invalid. We’re going to have to guess,” Laera said.

“Or we split up,” I suggested.

“No,” Bahar said. “That’s a terrible idea.”

“The point is to sneak up on the king and try to end him,” I replied. “Isn’t it?”

“We need strong magic to make it happen,” Vanth explained. “I watched so many fail to kill him.”

“He can’t withstand dragon fire,” Bahar said.

“And Ryvin’s got the power of two gods,” Laera said. “Plus, I might be able to get into his head and delay his reactions.”

“So we stay together,” I conceded.

“This way,” Bahar said. He had the abandoned map in his hands.

“I thought he said that was the wrong way?” I asked.

“We have to try something,” he countered.

“Let’s go. But if anyone gets any urges to flee, we all run, got it?” Laera said.

“You can stay close to me, princess,” Kabir said in a seductive tone. “I’ll watch out for you.”

“You couldn’t handle her,” Vanth warned.

“I like a good challenge,” he quipped.

Ryvin laughed. “Go for it, we’re probably all dead after this, anyway.”

“I’d rather take my chances with the badgers,” Laera said before marching into the tunnel.

7

Ara

The tunnel wound and twisted,making more turns than the others we’d traveled down. Bahar was trying to use the map to make note of where we’d been and where we were, but after a long while of traveling, the map was down at his side, abandoned.

“We’re going to die in here and be food for the badgers, aren’t we?” Laera asked from behind me.

“Worst case, we backtrack and find our way out.” I sounded more optimistic than I felt.

I could hear the rattle of disturbed pebbles and the increased cadence of our breathing. The fae lights flickered and glowed, moving with us as we traveled through the endless darkness.

I was getting very tired of tunnels and mazes.

The line halted, and I realized I’d been so in my head I hadn’t noticed we’d come to another fork in our path. This time, the tunnel we were in continued and another one branched off to the right.

Without waiting, I moved forward, getting closer to each entrance. As soon as I stepped deeper into the tunnel we were occupying, a rush of nausea overcame me and I stumbled back.

“What is it?” Bahar asked.

“You’re sensing something,” Ryvin commented.

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