A couple of men dragged someone into the room. I felt my face blanch of color as I realized it was the same shifter we’d seen earlier, the one who’d been beaten and starved. He was taken to the stone table, even as he cried out and tried to fight back. In his weakened state, he was unable to get the cultists off of him. Acolyte Vesper came down from the bench, and laid the staff across the stone table.
Everyone in the room watched, but did nothing to intercede. On the other side of the room, Beatrice had her eyes covered, as if she could not bear to witness.
As the shifter was forced onto the table, I realized Vesper’s plan. He was trying to get the stone to work for him by offering up bodies, but it wouldn’t work. A Crystal of Harmony only gave itself and its power to one who had earned it— one who it had deemed worthy. Vesper had probably stolen it somehow, and therefore, the stone’s power would not obey his command.
Emma and I both started, planning to do something, but by the time we moved it was far too late. The shifter’s throat was cut. He gargled as his blood spilled onto the table, covering the staff and the citrine stone. The shifter was let go, and his body fell limply onto the table as he died, soaking the staff in red.
Kiara had her hand over her mouth. She was only steadied by Alexei’s arm around her hip. He wore a grim expression— not surprised, as if he’d seen this one too many times before.
Vesper lifted the staff, a greedy expression on his face. He stomped the staff into the ground, attempting to cast a spell, but the stone remained blank. It didn’t light up, nor did the staff cast any type of spell.
Vesper’s face fell, and he turned away from the congregation in disgust.
“His blood was not strong enough. He was not a true Unseelie,” Vesper replied. “We will keep trying, until the power of the staff is known to us all. You are dismissed.”
Everyone got up very quietly. There were whispers in the hall of who would be next to be sacrificed to the staff, but no one dared to speak loudly. Vesper left with the staff, and I felt my heart fall as I watched the griffin stone slip out of sight.
The four of us waited until everyone else in the room was asleep to whisper what our next move was.
“So Vesper has the stone,” Alexei hushed. “Where do you think he’s keeping it?”
“In his room, has to be,” Kiara said. “He wouldn’t let the other acolytes have a chance of getting their hands on it.”
“Which means us stealing it won’t be easy, either,” Alexei said glumly.
“We’ll figure it out,” I insisted. “Somehow, we’ll get inside that room.”
We knew who had the stone, but obtaining it was no small feat. No matter how daunting the task, it had to be done. The griffin stone had to become ours.
Until then, we were trapped down here.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Emma
The cult kept us so busy with work that we didn’t have time to plan how we were going to steal the griffin stone from Vesper. The acolytes basically used us for slave labor, forcing us to do stupid chores and separating us into different tasks, so we hardly had a spare moment to discuss plots amongst ourselves. If we weren’t working, we were attending meeting after meeting.
Seriously, the meetings were ridiculous. There were at least three a day. I didn’t think I could take another hours-long sermon on Droga’s return and how the rest of the fae were damned to the Underworld.
No one else was sacrificed to the staff in that time, but I knew someone would be chosen by Vesper soon. He was only looking for who he thought was the right person, someone whom he thought the griffin stone would accept as an offering.
Three days had passed since our arrival, but it felt like three years. We’d confirmed Acolyte Vesper had stored the staff in his quarters, because we’d heard rumors. Some people had witnessed the staff disappearing into Vesper’s room after the sacrifice the other night.
Yet his chamber was guarded night and day. There was no way in or out of his room without causing a brawl. Even if we cast some sort of illusion to distract the guards, once the staff was missing, the Black Claw would erupt into chaos. We had to leave the moment the stone was in our grasp, otherwise, we’d be discovered and killed.
That wasn’t an easy decision to make when we knew there were innocents here who still needed our help.
“We should just go in and take it,” Ethan suggested during dinner one night. “We’ll eliminate the guards by force, and make a run for it.”
“And leave those children behind?” Kiara asked. “I can’t do it.”
I couldn’t either. Not even for the griffin stone. Despite our searching, we still hadn’t located where the cult was hiding the kids, and I wouldn’t damn them to their fate.
“What if we have to make a choice?” Alexei said hollowly. “What if we have to pick between getting the stone and saving those kids?”
“We won’t,” I insisted. “It’s not one or the other. We aren’t leaving here until we have the stone and those kids are free. It’s both or nothing at all.”
“Why can’t Emma just make us a portal into Vesper’s room? Then we can get in and out,” Alexei suggested.
