Page 68 of Vanquished Gods

When I reached the opposite side, I pressed myself against the bars where the shadows still pooled thickly. My breath caught as the sunlight stretched toward me, relentlessly marching on.

I slumped back down on my side, too weak to move, once again staring at the ancient stairs, curling up into a smaller ball to stay away from the sun. The darkness that lived inside me writhed, desperate to escape.

But there was nowhere to go. There was just the light advancing and the shadows shrinking beneath their onslaught.

CHAPTER 31

Ihad somehow survived the day, managing to move with the shadows as the sun made its daily journey, finally leading to night. As the evening light grew tinged with rose, I heard something at last. Footfalls. Faint at first but growing louder.

Someone was coming.

My thoughts raced. I didn’t know who it was or whether they were coming to kill me or simply to drag me out for something worse. But just the sound of those footsteps—the knowledge that someone hadn’t forgotten me there, in that pit of bones—sparked something inside me. Hope? Or was it fear? Maybe both.

Above, in the dusky light, a pale figure hovered at the edge of the pit, her platinum hair cascading down like pale flames in the dark. I swallowed hard, the damp air thick with the scent of decay. I felt as if the cage were getting smaller.

“I want to see Sion,” I rasped.

Her cold smile sharpened. “Not possible, my darling. He’s very busy. Heisthe king, after all. He gave me your navka pendant, you know, to keep me safe.”

“I’m supposed to help defeat the Order,” I said, the words like gravel in my throat. “How am I going to do that from a cage underground?”

Her wild laughter echoed off the stone walls. “Oh, I don’t know what they plan to do with you anymore. I’m just a servant, after all, right?”

The wordservantdripped with bitterness, and a dark edge undercut her tone.

“I don’t know, Rowena. You clearly seem very important.” I wanted to humor her, but I was afraid the sarcasm shone through.

“Well, I can tell you this, because why not? When Sion and I were making love recently, he told me the truth. He was just using you for your power. The plan all along was to kill you once he no longer needed you. You must have sensed that, right?”

I tried to keep my face composed as my mind whirled, but then she lifted her hand, and my stomach dropped. The dim light caught the gleam of Sion’s ring on her finger—the one I’d seen him give to Lydia to convey his orders.

“He gave me this,” she said, a hint of glee in her voice. “Said I was the one he loved. It’s his royal seal. I’m a regent now.”

Nausea rippled through me. “And why would he need a regent? Why can’t Sion rule himself?”

“Even the king needs a rest sometimes. He deserves to take off his heavy crown, to rest his head where the sleepy-robins grow and the quickbeams arch over him like a roof. A sleep among the traveler trees…I take care of him like you do not. Take care, my Death Queen. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I licked my dry lips, a suspicion creeping in. “Rowena, are you, by any chance, the one who attached the razor-clam shell to my chair?”

She stared down at me, her eyes glowing with pale silver. “You don’t belong here. You were never meant to be one of us. Afilthy mortal, changed by accident. You could never replace her. Did you really think you could replaceher?”

“Replacewho?”

“Epona,” she shouted, and the name echoed around the cavern. “She was everything you are not. Fun, beautiful, joyous to be around. Mirthful. She laughed, she lit up the world. They both loved her, deeply, Maelor and Sion, and you—” Her eyes shone with tears. “You’re a nobody. You’re dirt. You willneverbe enough. Goodbye, Elowen. When dawn arrives tomorrow, Sion and I will cast you into the light, where the fire will set you aflame, sending you into the abyss where you belong.”

Another night passed.

Another morning sun, rising to invade my cage like the Luminari storming our shores. Another day shrinking into the shadows, my body folding into itself, limbs curling away from the lethal touch of the sun as its burning fingers stretched closer, searing the iron beneath me.

My skin grew dryer, paler, cracking. An ache settled deep into my bones. I scuttled to the farthest edges of my cage, pressing myself into a patch of shadows.

Until at last, the sun began to set, darkening the sky. As it did, Rowena appeared again, grinning down at me from over the edge of the pit. “Thank you for the butterfly pendant. I found it under your bed. I didn’t have one, not like you did. And now I have two!”

“I thought I was supposed to be executed this morning.”

“Sion and I thought you needed more time to think before you die. Tomorrow morning is better, I think.”

“What are you doing here, Rowena? Did you just come down to gloat?”

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