Page 36 of The Eternal Mirror
“Sounds familiar,” Killian says.
“You ready?” I ask.
They nod.
I step through, and the glass swallows me whole.
Chapter 12
Rebel Princess Walks Into a Dungeon...
I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to be here.
Which is exactly why I am.
The guard who brought us supper had a limp and a loose tongue. I smiled at him nicely—hey, I can do nice if I try very hard—and asked questions I already knew the answers to, to get him chatting. And he let slip that Khronus is away from the palace for the evening, and so here I am—alone, sneaking through the dungeon passageways beneath the palace like a cliché rebel princess.
Yup.That’s me.
Earlier today, when we’d parted, I’d asked Khronus if I was a prisoner. He looked me dead in the eye and said, “I believe in choice. It reveals far more than chains ever could.”
Yeah, right. Tell that to all the people in the dungeons. But I didn’t say that. I smiled sweetly. Personal growth. “So I’m not a prisoner, then?”
“You are free to go where you please—but stay within the palace walls. For your own safety, of course.”
Of course.
Still, I’m sort of surprised no one’s stopped me.
Either Khronus is too arrogant to care what I’m up to…or he wants me to find something, and he’s letting me wander his palace like a rat in a maze.
My money’s on too arrogant.
Or maybe that’s wishful thinking—I hate being manipulated.
I left Zayne and Josh in the room. Zayne wanted to come with me, but I told him I’d be more inconspicuous alone. And besides, someone had to stay with Josh, and it wasn’t going to be me.
I’ve been here before, when I rescued Khaos from his father’s clutches. The place hasn’t improved since. The air is hot, but not in a tropical beach sort of way; it's more like Hell’s fires heat. Damp stone walls, iron sconces with flickering blue flames, and the stench of decay lingering in the air, as if this place is rotting from the inside out.Ugh.
But I’m here to fulfill a deathbed promise. Well, not so much a deathbedas a death stone floor promise. That’s where I foundWinter, bleeding out from a knife wound to the belly and way beyond the help of any healer, including me.
Her last words were to beg me to find her brother Niall, if I could. To save him, if at all possible. So step one is finding him. The dungeons seem like an obvious place.
It’s strangely quiet down here; most of the cell doors are open and the cells are empty. I suppose Khronus got rid of a few prisoners to Zayne’s basilisk. I remember him saying they were Wolfpack—Khaosti’s old legion and men still loyal to Khaosti. Unfortunately, they had died for that.
I take a left turn at a fork and head deeper.
There are no guards in evidence, which is also strange. Last time I was here, there were plenty, but then Khaos—or rather Fury—had killed them all, and maybe they haven’t been replaced yet.
The corridor twists again, and I start to recognize things: the patterns in the stone, the thick rusted chains bolted into the walls, even the weight in the air. I’ve been this way before.
I pass the spot that caught my attention last time—where the corridor branches off to the left—and that same low-grade hum prickles along my skin.
I stop.
The air is...off. Still and sharp. Like something holding its breath.
I peer into the shadows. The stone looks the same, but it doesn’tfeelthe same. It radiates heat—not warmth, but a warped kind of energy, like it’s been saturated with something that shouldn’t exist.
