Page 143 of Queen of Legends and Lies
Just layers of dust settling from the fissures above.
My nerves twitch with the pressure of time ticking away.
If I fail...
I shove that thought aside. Failure’s not an option. I have to figure this out.
A glint catches my eye from across the room. I hurry over to investigate, nearly tripping on a jagged chunk of pillar in my haste. There, set into the far wall, is an arched obsidian door. The dark surface seems to repel rather than reflect the light. One of its two doors hangs crooked but open, as if jarred loose from some great impact.
Myimpact.
With cautious steps, I approach, hackles rising. The air down here is warmer. More humid.
I reach out to touch the door’s edge, the ancient symbols etched into the stone rough under my fingertips. Not only can I not read them, but I don’t even recognize them.
Where does it lead?
I crank my neck to peer into the inky darkness beyond.
The entryway opens into a tunnel. A huge, cavernous burrow at least twenty feet high that stretches out past where the light falls.
That tunnel is even warmer than the one I’m standing in.
Something tells me what I’m seeking lies down there in the depths. Call it gut instinct. But it’s the same one I had when I got closer to the room where I had the vision of Queen Aero in the Lost City.
Narc’s bones have to be hidden away in this mysterious passageway.
I straighten my shoulders and set my jaw. I know what I have to do, terrifying as it is. For the sake of my kingdom, my love, and my friends, I’ll confront whatever horrors lurk in that tunnel. No matter the cost.
Buried alive…
Steeling myself, I light another ball of fire in my palm and step toward the yawning darkness with my heart in my throat.
I duck through the doorway and into the tunnel. Warm, heavy air envelops me. The earthen walls seem to press in on both sides as I move forward, my flickering flames casting eerie shadows. With each careful step, an unnatural chill seeps into my bones and my blood gets hotter.
Ahead, something skitters in the darkness.
I freeze, pulse pounding.
Pull your shit together. You’ve faced worse than this creepy cave.
Despite my pep talk, unease churns in my gut.
This place is…wrong.
Like the tunnel itself is alive and listening to every word, every thought, every beat of my heart. It’s tainted by an ancient, rotting evil that raises all the tiny hairs on the back of my neck. The dank smell of decomposition hits my nostrils, and I gag.
I can’t give in to the terror clawing at my mind. Not when I’m so close to ending this. Forcing my feet to carry me onward, I stretch out my palm farther to illuminate the oppressive twilight. The tunnel curves, and I round the bend.
Only to stop short.
Before me, the passage opens into a vast cavern. In the center, I find a stone altar stained dark with centuries-old blood.
A tangle of bones lies atop it, glowing with an ethereal luminescence. The femur is longer than average. The corpse of a giant.
Or a god. I gasp.
Narc’s remains.
