Page 26 of Hallowed Games

A creaking, groaning sound rolled through the quiet night, metal cranking against metal as the iron bolts shifted upward like the fingers of a great monster. The deep rumble of heavy wood against stone sent a shiver through my belly. Slowly, the giant doors opened. Despair settled in my stomach as we crossed over the threshold.

The horses’ hooves clacked over cobblestones. Behind us, the great boom of doors closing had my shoulders sagging. As the horses carried us between towering stone walls, the iron bars slid into place at our backs.

I scanned my surroundings, searching for spots I might use to hide. Walls rose up on either side of us, their battlements lined with archers. We followed the curve of a path between them. In alcoves along the way, torches flickered, casting writhing light over rain-soaked cobbles. I breathed in the scent of moss and stone. After the hours I’d spent in the saddle, the pain in my arms was a sharp jolt that ran from my shoulders down to my wrists.

At last, a break in the inner wall opened into a stone courtyard. On a sloping hill ahead, the dark castle rose to the stormy skies like a god of stone.

Sion turned to me. “Welcome to your new home. Ruefield Castle. You will be imprisoned in the Maubergeonne Tower.”

I inhaled a shaky breath. There was no going back, now, and there would be no escaping this place.

Fear wrapped its bony fingers around my heart. In all likelihood, this would be the place I’d die.

CHAPTER 13

My legs burned from what seemed like an endless march up a winding stairwell, following just behind Maelor. When he finally pushed through a door into a small corridor, I exhaled with relief. My thighs ached.

He turned back to me. “I’ll take the manacles off you once you’re inside.” In the flickering torchlight, Maelor’s pale blue eyes and beautiful features looked haunted. “I think you are capable of a great many things, some of them terrifying. But I think you’re too smart to try to escape again. I won’t put them back on you.”

Given the way the Raven Lord had spared my life, and now the way he spoke to me—with something almost like respect—I could only imagine he’d already devised some sort of use for me. Perhaps, like the Baron, he planned to use my curse as his own weapon. What a great gift for those who wanted to kill...

He pulled out a large set of iron keys to open the door to my tower room, then pushed the door open.

As I followed Maelor inside, the musky, damp air made it hard to breathe. There wasn’t much in here—just a rough wooden table, a bed of hay, and etchings on the walls. Candles in iron sconces cast dim light over the room, but the darkness seemed to swallow it. A narrow window the size of an arrow slit let in a crack of white light when lightning flashed.

Maelor stepped behind me, and I heard the clink of the keys against my manacles. When he loosened them, I groaned and turned to face him. I rubbed the raw skin at my wrists. My shoulders burned.

“What happens tomorrow?” I asked.

“You’ll have attendants to clean you and dress you. Then you’ll meet the other Penitents. You’ll be well fed. Between the dangers of the trials, you’ll be looked after here. But during the trials…”

Treated with gentle care right up until we light you on fire. And why, exactly, would that be? Kindness in a place like this didn’t make any sense, but I was sure I’d learn the real reason for those comforts soon enough.

Candlelight gilded the angles of his gorgeous face. “Goodnight, Elowen.”

He stepped back into the hall, closing the door behind him. I heard the sound of an iron bar sliding over the door, leaving me alone with only the flickering light and shadows. I crossed to the window and cupped my hands against the diamond-paned glass to try to peer outside.

From what I could see in the dark, this place was a meandering labyrinth of stone, a city of towers and buildings surrounding a vast courtyard. Lightning kept flashing outside, and I caught a glimpse of the rambling hedge maze that stretched out over the courtyard. Rain lashed the narrow window as I peered outside.

When I turned back to my little tower room, my gaze roamed over the carvings. I traced my fingertips over some of them, and ice slid over my skin. Names had been carved into every inch of the walls in here—of the imprisoned, of the dead.

The old, blocky Tyrenian alphabet from centuries ago marked some of the stones. Others had engraved prayers to the old gods or to the Archon. A beautiful family sigil of a sinuous dragon was chiseled in the stone, along with stars and planets.

I traced the names with my fingertips, and my skin prickled with the feeling that thousands of ghosts lingered here. Centuries of the condemned had picked up blades, demanding to be remembered. A monument to the fallen. If I had a dagger, I’d do the same. It felt like my tomb, too.

I sat on the bed. Without knowing where Leo was, I’d never sleep. I stared out the window, trying to picture him safe in the shelter of a cave, filling his stomach with boiled acorns. I’d never forgive the people who separated me from him.

As I pictured him, a burst of white light illuminated the room, and a deafening boom shook the walls. Shifting on the bed, I peered out the window. The lightning had struck a tree a few hundred yards away. In the courtyard, it blazed like a torch in the dark. That didn’t seem like a great omen, did it?

A second strike ignited the air just outside the window, the following boom of thunder loud as a drum. I clamped my hands over my ears at the sound. It must have struck the tower itself because the vibrations rumbled through the rocks around me. When I breathed in, the air smelled scorched, the stones hot beneath me.

Cracks spiderwebbed across the wall, shooting up toward the vaulted ceiling. The lightning, I thought, had to have struck this very tower. Definitely a bad sign. Dust rained down on me, and I covered my head with my hands.

I heard the sound of iron shifting, and the door swung open. Maelor stood in the doorway, frowning at me. “Are you all right?”

I glanced at the cracked stones. “Lighting struck the tower, but I think it’s fine.”

“Right. Well, you’re coming with me, anyway.” He turned and stalked into the hallway, expecting me to follow him.

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