Page 17 of The Shadow Fae Rhapsody
The cruel silence persists. Then something like a dark laughter leaves his throat.
“Fine,” Shade mutters, shaking his head. “Not for the stickers. But for saving my life back in the human world.”
He enters the tunnel’s mouth and I trail behind him. Light from the streetlamp and the moon tapers off deeper into the passage. I rub Kahedin’s lamp crystal between my palms. It glows brightly, illuminating the path.
I walk faster to catch up with the Grimsbane’s long stride. The air in the chamber is still and stale, but my robe shifts subtly as if accosted by a breeze.
That’s odd.
I think Shade felt it too because he is staring at one side of the age-worn wall.
“What’s wrong?” I ask him, swallowing on dry throat.
His eyes glimmer. “Try angling that crystal from above.”
I do as he says and a hollow passage appears on the wall before us. Mortared stones reappear the moment I move around my crystal. I raise my hand to touch the strange wall, but my fingers meet air.
“An optical illusion,” Shade muses quietly.
The city guards and Aelfric could have easily overlooked this part. This hidden passage makes it even more even more plausible that this could be the killer’s secret hideout. My heart thunders against my ribcage at the prospect.
“Last chance to go home.” Shade levels a hard stare. But I don’t back down from that glare.
“You need me, Shade,” I say as I rub Kahedin’s lamp crystal in between my hand. It sparkles like a light borrowed from the stars itself. “I have this.”
“Fancy,” the Grimsbane mutters. He puts on a strange equipment from Tiamat over his eyes.
I suspect that the tactical gear will help him see better in the dark. Maybe he doesn’t need me and my crystal after all… But I’m glad he no longer makes an effort to discourage me from my resolve.
I enter the dark pit despite every instinct screaming against it. It opens to a bigger passage with rough rock walls, divided by a wide water route in the middle. Raised stone walkways line both sides of the rise. We stay on one side as I flash the crystal to see where the tunnel leads to.
“Just another sewer.” I hear Shade grumble.
“But it doesn’t smell bad here,” I note to him.
The assassin tilts his head and sniffs through his mask, nodding in agreement. “The water reeks of sea brine instead of sewage.”
“Which way should we go?” I mutter, more to myself. This tunnel could lead to nowhere.
What if I can’t find a single proof down here? I feel a catch in my heart at the thought of Svenn being imprisoned again. Wesley’s guards or the Valorians could not force him into chains. No mortal could.
The Aeonians will make me do it.
I remember the last time they forced me to shackle his wrists for travel. I vow to myself to never do it again.
I am deep in thought when Shade decides to track against the flowing direction of the murky water below. We move silently into the gloom without words. The atmosphere gets more frigid the deeper we course into the tunnel. I’m thankful my lamp crystal offers a kernel of heat against the freezing air.
Rhianelle, go back,the Un cautions.
Every alarm bell starts ringing in my head. My heart shudders with unease at their sudden warning.
I look suspiciously at the broad-shouldered Grimsbane in front of me. He hasn’t spoken a single word in a while.
Who in their right mind would follow an assassin into a sewer anyway? If it is like any of Blaire’s murder mystery books, it could have been Shade all along.
“Are we lost?” I ask him, nervousness leaking into my voice.
He gives me no answer. A flicker of fear curls around my heart. His long stretch of silence is making me nervous.
