Page 55 of Wilds of Wonder
I stood and looked at the edges of the nook. My gaze went to the round stone. “I bet if we lifted this stone, it would be a perfect fit, and look at the serrated edges. It’s like a dagger or knife was used to cut it open.”
Maverick shook his head. “What kind of dagger could cut through iron and stone? What kind of weapon could be that powerful? More importantly, what escaped from here?” He looked at the other closed nooks, their stones still in place. “And what lay in the rest of these nooks?”
I had no idea. The more I studied this crypt, the less I understood anything about it.
“Uh, guys?”
We both whirled to see Driscoll standing there, his mouth gone slack, his face ashen. He swallowed. “I might know who was trapped here. And I think maybe it’s time I tell you.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
MAVERICK
Emory stepped out of the nook, and Driscoll gestured to the ground. “You two might want to sit or risk fainting when I tell you the truth.”
“What truth?” Emory asked as she sank to the ground, stretching out her legs and tucking a stray wisp of white-blond hair behind her ear.
Dust and soot covered her pale skin, her blue eyes as searing as ever as she set them upon Driscoll. After years spent wondering what she might look like, I wasn’t sure I could’ve conjured up a face like Emory’s if I’d tried. Those delicate features, her high cheekbones and straight nose, her full pink lips. I looked away as I sat against the opposite wall. Also a murderer. A liar.
I hid my identity from her because it could jeopardize my entire profession. She’d hid hers from me because... because she’d been married. I couldn’t get it out of my head. I couldn’t make the sharp thorns of that betrayal dull. Married. Another man touching her, kissing her, loving her. It wasn’t fair to her to be angry about her marriage. I knew it wasn’t. She’d just been following our rules. And she’d never crossed any lines with me. I’d been the one crossing lines.But murder? I could be angry about murder. It was just so unlike her. That was the part that hurt. It made me feel like I really hadn’t known her at all.
Driscoll sat next to Emory. “It’s a really long, sordid tale that I’m going to skip so I can get straight to the plot twist. A revelation. Something Leoni and I discovered on our journey together with Princess Poppy.”
I sat down, drawing up a knee and roping my arm around it. “What revelation?” I asked.
Driscoll took a deep, steadying breath. “The shadow king is actually Spirit Shadow.”
My heart stopped, and the floor tilted under me.
Driscoll waved his hand. “The gist of it is that we found Queen Priscilla, queen of the shadow court, and she confirmed Spirit Shadow is alive and well.”
But Queen Priscilla died along with her husband and baby during the Shadow War. At least that’s what we’d all believed.
“Queen Priscilla found Spirit Shadow’s dagger. She also found Spirit Shadow’s crypt, right here in Shiraeth. She’d wanted to release him and beg for his help in the Shadow War, which they were losing, hoping he’d help change the tide, help Sorrengard win. So she used the dagger to release him from the tomb where he’d been trapped. But things didn’t go as planned. After she released him, he tore through Shiraeth and destroyed everyone and everything before returning to the shadow court, where he’s bound until the other six spirits are freed as well.”
I blinked, staring at the ground, then looking back at that opened tomb, then back to the ground. This couldn’t be true. This wasn’t possible. The spirits hadn’t been trapped. All evidence pointed to the fact that thousands of years ago they’d made the decision to leave, to go to Galaysia, where they waited to greet souls to the spirit world, to welcome them in death. They’d been meddling too much in human lives, and the elementals of the Old World were becoming too violent, too greedy with the powers the spirits gifted them. So the spirits destroyed them and disappeared. Then our direct ancestors found Arathia a thousand years later and settled here. The spirits decided togive us humans a second chance, to gift us their powers. But this time, they stayed away. No meddling. No getting involved.
What Driscoll was saying . . .
I looked at him; he was still petting the wolf. “How did Spirit Shadow get trapped?”
“I don’t know how he got trapped or who trapped him.” Driscoll shrugged. “Queen Priscilla died after revealing all of this information to us. But she said the other spirits are trapped too. The spirits’ weapons are the keys to freeing them all.”
Emory stood, pacing now. “So what does he want?”
Driscoll swallowed. “Queen Priscilla claimed he wants to free the other spirits. But he needs the weapons to free the other spirits. He has some of them already.” He ticked off his fingers. “His dagger, Spirit Water’s trident, and Spirit Earth’s bow and arrow. He’s trying to gather the weapons so he can set all the spirits free and they can get revenge for being trapped so long ago.”
Emory stopped, hand floating to her mouth.
This couldn’t be happening. And everyone at the academy had missed all the signs somehow. Or they didn’t want to see the signs.
“We have to get that bolt back,” Emory said, likely thinking the same thing as I was.
“What about getting out of here?” Driscoll threw his hands up. “You guys just can’t help yourselves.”
“You two don’t need to do anything else.” I cut my hand across my body. “Leave and I will take care of finding the bolt.”
Emory stared at me, planting her hands on her hips. “So you can get all the glory? Find the bolt and be the hero? No, I don’t think so. That bolt could be the only thing that saves me at this point.” She raised her chin. “I can use it to bargain for my freedom.”
