Page 215 of Lady of Starfire

“Tell me what you need me to do,” Cyrus said.

“We need to be closer. I need to be completely focused, so I need you to tell me if you see anything suspicious.”

“Got it.”

“I’m serious, Cyrus. Anything. Even if you think it’s nothing.”

“Yeah, yeah. Go do your fancy Witch tricks.”

“You’re such an ass,” he grumbled, as they pulled their hoods back up and quickly made their way across the street.

Cassius was right. It didn’t take him long to create enough of a gap in the wards for them to slip through. Rubble crunched under their boots as they made their way across the ruins until they came to a spot where stairs descended underground. The debris had been cleared away, others having clearly been down there. Alaric had surely been one of them in his attempts to recover this thing the Sorceress desired.

Cyrus kicked at some of the rubble, rocks and dust scattering, and then he was throwing out a hand to stop Cassius from taking the first step down the stairs.

“What?” Cassius asked.

“There are Blood Marks here,” Cyrus answered. He glanced around them, seeing no obvious observers before he conjured a small flame to illuminate the ground as he crouched down. “Don’t suppose you know what these mean?”

“No,” Cass said. “Well, yes and no. They are a stronger ward marking. I can’t say for sure how to counter them.”

“So we’re back to needing to gain entrance from the underground passageways?” Cyrus asked.

“Assuming they aren’t warded the same way.”

Cyrus extinguished the flame, holding out a hand to Cass, and a moment later they were in the back storeroom of a shop. Cass had told him it was an apothecary shop that the emergency tunnel led to, with a disguised door in the floor here. Within minutes, Cass had stones removed and a hatch open in the floor. Cyrus did a thorough sweep of the floor, making sure there were no signs of Blood Magic, before they lowered themselves into the tunnel.

Cyrus had another flame kindling in his palm, but Cassius didn’t appear to need it as he led the way down the tunnel. And thank fuck he did because there were so many passages branching off, Cyrus would have been lost for hours.

He didn’t know how long it had been before Cass said, “Up ahead are the dungeon studies. It would have been where you found us that day.”

Cyrus had hardly known Cassius then. He’d come to the Fire Court once for half a day, but all of that time had been spent with Scarlett. At that time, he’d been more worried that he was a threat to Sorin before he’d figured out Scarlett and Cassius were soulmates and nothing more.

“Did Alaric have a main study? Or is there some place else he would have kept something valuable?”

“It’s hard to say,” Cass replied, his steps slowing as they neared the end of the passage. “If it was something he didn’t want anyone else seeing, he’d have kept it in his private rooms. No one was ever allowed in there, but if it was something valuable enough that he kept near him at all times, then a study. Did the Sorceress give you anything to go on? Is the item large? Small?”

Cyrus shook his head. “She only said I would be able to find it. I would know it when I saw it, and Scarlett’s starfire could not have destroyed it.”

“I guess since most viable options were destroyed, we start with the dungeon studies,” Cass said, pulling his hood back and coming to a stop at a dead-end wall. He ran his palm along it, searching for what Cyrus was assuming was a switch of some sort to release a hidden door. A moment later, there was a faint clicking sound, and they were stepping into—

“Holy fuck,” Cyrus breathed. “She doesn’t do things by halves, does she?”

The underground halls were barely passable, the stench of smoke and decay thick in the air. Rubble and remains from the building above filled the passages and cells. It wasn’t just stone and furniture either. Bones. Bodies. Scarlett had been a real wraith at that point. Sorin had been back, but her wrath had needed some place to go, and she had taken it out here. She hadn’t told anyone of her plans to take down the Fellowship. The stone walls were scorched and entire chunks were missing, which didn’t make him feel very good about the stability of the place.

“I guess just findanyroom to start in at this point,” Cyrus said, pulling his own hood back and setting flame glowing above them to light their way.

It took longer than he’d ever imagined to pick their way through the debris, and when they finally came to one of the dungeon studies, they’d spent another hour clearing away stones and rubble to get inside it.

Sacrifice of time indeed.

They ended up crawling through a hole to get inside the room. If anyone else had been in here, they’d covered their tracks well.

Cyrus stood, pointlessly brushing dirt off his cloak and pants while he surveyed the area of yet another wreckage of his queen. This had definitely been a study at one point. The walls had bookshelves set into them. Half of a desk stood in the center, splintered remains of chairs around it. The floor was scorched black, but he could tell he was standing on what had once been an ornate rug.

Cassius and Cyrus looked at each other, both at a loss for where to start with this insanity. They were never going to simply stumble across something.

Cassius scratched his jaw. “I guess you take the bookshelves, and I’ll take the…desk?”

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