Page 51 of Grave Revelations

When she’d found no one, she sat in the cave's mouth, the day blurring as her thoughts raced toward that night and returning to Rebecca.

Now, she wished for nothing more than to return to Sheol rather than endure this sort of torture again. She peered around the room. Sooty cave walls carved from the earth in a honeycomb pattern with ancient Greek carvings in the walls could only mean one place: Demre.

It had made sense to her once she put it all together. Myra Necropolis in Demre was an ancient Lycian city dating back to the fourth century. It was famous for its rock tombs—a city for the dead.

What better place for a necromancer to form her stronghold than in the city built to commemorate her craft? Behind the facade of tombs situated high alongrock outcroppings—the ideal place for bodies in fourth century BC when people believed winged creatures carried away the dead—was a network of tunnels leading deep into the mountains.

Although the caves were a tourist attraction, bringing people from around the world, the tombs themselves were a protected bit of history.

Sophia let her head fall back, staring up at those damned spelled chains, the ones she couldn’t break a thumb to get out of. She was trapped. Again. If she was here, though, it meant they must have Rebecca, too. A pit formed in her stomach even as some invisible binding in her chest loosened.

It was as if she’d completed a task she couldn’t name.

Shuffling over stone drew her attention, and after some time, a shadow fell across the floor, elongating and stretching across the stone surface. She listened for any discernible tells but sounds bounced off the walls in this cavernous space, making everything echo.

A creature stepped into the room, and her heart stuttered. “Nita!”

Nita moved with a graceful speed that would have marked her as one of their kind had her eyes not given her away. Her sister stopped at the entrance to the room, trailing her cold gaze over Sophia.

Sophia whimpered. “Sister, please. Help me.”

Nitai’s dead eyes stared through her, and their vacancy chilled Sophia to her core. “You failed her.”

Sophia strained against her cuffs, another small sob escaping her.

Without another word, her sister turned, leaving the room.

“Nita!” she cried.

Nita didn’t answer. Didn’t turn back.

Tears ran down her cheeks as her heart shattered. Sophia had held out hope that even if they’d been changed, they’d be like her—their minds free to make their own choices.

But one look in her sister’s dead eyes and she knew. Nita was gone. What remained was the sort of creature they’d been taught about as children. The kind you feared.

Sophia’s bones ached. Her joints screamed. Her mortal body needed food and water; her immortal one needed the essence of a human or a demon. Not that she’d seen any demons since she’d been turned.

It wasn’t yet dawn, but the pain shooting down her arms felt weeks old. She longed to return to Sheol, to have even a moment’s reprieve from the throbbing in her limbs and her blinding hunger.

How difficult would it be to end herself? To find a sharp object and stop the suffering? Whatever awaited her, she preferred the free-floating abyss of a soul untethered. Bodies were such a hindrance, and hers—racked with pain—was something she never wanted to return to.

Could she get lost in Sheol? Find her coven’s souls and join them for eternity? Was this to be her hell?

A familiar sound had her jerking her head up toward the entrance to her cave. Phoebe and Cassia moved into the room, and Sophia cried out at the sight of them, the same dead, lifeless eyes tracking over her. Were they all to visit her? An endless parade of her coven, reduced to these husks?

She thrashed in her chains.

If she could dislocate her arms and pull them free from their sockets, she would tear herself free. She didn’t need arms to plunge herself into the sea. To let the ocean claim her. She pulled harder.

Something stirred in Cassia’s gaze, and she darted forward, lifting Sophia from the floor so she couldn’t harm herself. Sophia kicked and fought, but her sister’s arms wrapped around her in a vicelike grip.

The girl had been feeding; her essence was strong. Perhaps Sophia imagined it, but something wicked glinted in Cassia’s eyes for only a moment. Then it was gone, replaced by the yellow orbs staring at nothing.

Phoebe raised her hands, saying something too quiet for even Sophia to hear, and the bonds fell away.

She dropped into Cassia’s arms and began flailing wildly, trying to get free, but Phoebe moved in to clamp an iron hand around her neck, and she stilled. Something under Phoebe’s touch immobilized her. The earth magic had been tainted; rather than giving life, it sucked it away, leeching her energy.

They moved down a long hall, lit by illusory glowing objects, stopping in a vast room. Several arched entrances encircled them, and in front of each, a yellow-eyed creature blocked the exit. They stared ahead, unblinking gazes focused on the object at the center.

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