Page 84 of A Legacy of Poison and Lies

“I count four,” Holt said under his breath. “How much farther?”

Laydan waited behind Daizin as the Fae peered out into the grey. “We’re almost there, but we’re a little pressed for time. Keep up.”

“If we’re pressed for time, why did we stop?” Zylah asked.

The witch scoffed, eyebrows flicking up as his eyes darted between her and Holt. “You can thank me later.”

Asshole.

Zylah chewed the inside of her mouth to keep herself from saying anything as they followed him outside. Daizin’s shadows flickered out from him for a moment before folding back in, his frame concealed entirely in darkness for barely the span of a breath. When the shadows dispersed, Daizin was gone, the swipe of a black tail disappearing around a bend in the rock.

“This way,” Laydan hissed as a thrall shrieked in the direction Daizin had disappeared. The witch led them left and right through the maze of rock, climbing up to bring them out of the shelter of the stone.

Kopi flew on ahead, a wild cry escaping him as a thrall hauled itself up and over the crest of the rock they’d been ascending. Holt launched himself at the creature, a sword appearing in his hand as he willed the rock to crumble and shake beneath the thrall’s feet.

Laydan’s eyes widened just in time for Zylah to spin around and swipe at the chest of another, its eyes bulging from their sockets like some nightmarish beast as its lips peeled back on a scream.

Zylah swung at it with her sword, her feet finding purchase on the crumbling rock as her blade sliced through the mottled flesh on the creature’s arm. The thrall wailed, head tilting to one side as it assessed her, and for a heartbeat, Zylah wondered if, despite what they’d witnessed back in the Aquaris Court, part of the Fae these creatures had once been remained beneath the monsters they’d become.

But whatever she thought she’d seen, it disappeared the moment the thrall lunged for her, bony fingers clawing at her clothes as it pushed her back into rock. It snapped and thrashed at her face as she fought to butt it away with the hilt of her sword, the sinews of its jaw muscle peeking through its decayed flesh. Zylah fisted a hand into what remained of its blond curls, swinging her short sword in her hand to slam the blade into the thrall’s ribs, where a chain with a familiar sigil rested.

It staggered back with a pained cry, and Laydan took a step towards it, hands raised as he murmured words Zylah couldn’t make out. The thrall threw its head back in a breathless scream as tar-like liquid oozed from its nose and mouth. Zylah slashed her sword across its ribs, and with one firm kick to its chest sent it flying off the ledge back into the maze below.

Laydan swayed on his feet as she turned back to him.

“What was that?” she asked.

“A handy little spell. But I need to keep my reserves topped up for opening the tomb.”

Zylah frowned, thinking of the sigil the thrall had been wearing; it was the one all priestesses usually wore. A quiet sense of foreboding took root in the pit of her stomach, but she willed herself to ignore it as the witch grabbed hold of her wrist. She looked up to find Holt wiping his blade clean over a thrall corpse. Two, Zylah realised as a howl sounded nearby.

“All clear,” Laydan said with a grin. “Let’s go.”

Holt’s eyes slid over her before she followed Laydan’s route up the rocks, her thoughts scrambling to keep up with her body. The thralls operated under the command of a vampire, and Zylah wondered if she might at least fulfil her wish of driving her sword through Jesper’s black heart before the vanquicite took her. She kept her thoughts to herself, feeling Holt’s presence close behind her as they climbed.

A black wolf leapt onto the rise at the same moment Zylah hauled herself up over the ridge, smoke curling around it as it transformed before her eyes into Daizin.The Wolf.Only the Fae was just like Nye, not his shadow beast, but in the way he wielded the shadows and the way he could shift into a shadow form. Whatever they were, Daizin and Niossa, they were the same.

Laydan waved them over to the centre of the peak, a large slab of rock jutting up behind him. Only it wasn’t a slab, Zylah realised as she stepped closer. It was a door, deep swirls and marks gouged out of its surface, flowers and burnt-down candles and little offerings crowding the entrance.

“A witch, a Fae, a deceit breaker and a dazzling bae walk into an abandoned tomb… it sounds like either the start of a joke or a cautionary tale,” Laydan mused, cracking his knuckles in front of him as he eyed the door. “Don’t worry, Daze, you’re the dazzling bae, obviously.”

Daizin raised an eyebrow but said nothing, his gaze sweeping over the rocks and trees falling away from them on either side of the ridge. Another thrall screamed in the distance, and Laydan took that as his cue to get to work.

“You want to trap us in there with them?” Zylah asked.

The witch merely grinned at her, his fingertips pressing against the stone. “Don’t worry, they won’t be able to follow us in.”

And what would be waiting for them when they came back out? Zylah didn’t voice her question, for fear that uttering the words out loud might bleed some morsel of truth into them.

The witch muttered a spell under his breath, the stone slab splitting with a loud crack between some of the patterns etched into it as it opened, stale air greeting them mingled with the unmistakable stench of death. Kopi darted in first, undisturbed by the darkness of the tomb, and Holt followed him.

Zylah suppressed a shiver as she stepped inside after them, whispers sounding in the darkness as if from some long-dead spirits. Not just old. Ancient. Holt took a torch off the wall sconce, and it flared to life in his hand, shadows flickering on a stone staircase that spiralled down into the dark.

All they had to do was find the key and get themselves out of there. But as Laydan sealed the door to the tomb shut behind them, something told Zylah this wasn’t going to be that easy.

Chapter Thirty

Wardsbentandflexedagainst Zylah’s skin as they made their way down the staircase, so many she had to grit her teeth against the sensation curling over her.

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