“Why would someone do this to him?” Isla asked as she trekked around the chamber, picking up bits of bone with the tips of her fingers and examining them.
“Her, I think,” I answered, running my finger along the delicate, sloping jawline of the skull, a wave of familiarity washing over me. I’d been here over a year and a half ago. The discovery of Enya’s burial chamber seemed a lifetime ago.
Kellan placed his hand on the front of the skull and reverently pulled the dagger out with a crack, holding it toward me. I gently gripped the edges of the old parchment, slipping it down the ancient dagger and pulling it free.
The crispy scroll cracked as I unfolded it as gently as possible. Isla and Aeriden’s shadows darkened the paper as they neared and peered over my shoulder.
“Traitor,” Isla translated the single, elven word marked on the parchment. It was etched in shaky lines, as if the hand holding the quill were bent and curved.
“Do you think this could be Lelyth’s resting place? The Starling queen?” I asked, letting the parchment fall to the bottom of the dusty tomb. A muscle feathered in Kellan’s jaw as he scanned the wreckage, a quiet anger seeping into the lines bordering his lips as he jerked his chin down once in agreement.
This was his ancestor’s grave.
“Who did this?” Aeriden asked, gesturing to the cracked remains that peppered the floor.
“Olienna,” Kellan answered as he stood. “When she came for the Celestyn Bone.”
Olienna was likely the only being capable of entering the Arx after the War of Ruin and the demise of the other Bellators. She was powerful, even as the Stone Witch.
“This must have happened after Daimos transformed her into the Stone Witch but before Saros trapped her in the Lumerians,” Isla agreed as she scanned the destroyed tomb.
“Yes,” I murmured. “Olienna had wanted them to use the Aeterna Bone to extend their lives for thousands of years, amassing more power, to always be there if the Embodied returned. But Enya and Lelyth had disagreed, hiding their powers in the bones after the gate closed, not trusting what time would do to them. She must have come here after she learned of Lelyth and Enya’s plans. After the War of Ruin. She probably went to the Lumerians next in search of the Obscura Bone.”
Kellan stood and sheathed the dagger, his brows narrowing in disgusted defeat.
“The bone isn’t why we are here. We need the lock and the key,” he said, offering me a hand as he stepped out of the tomb.
My fingers slipped over the hardened calluses of his palm as I straddled the edge of the tomb and hopped out. His grip held as I straightened, and I let my hand sit in his for a moment. His face turned down toward mine, his dark gaze searching as the air around us stilled.
Aeriden’s boot scuffed as he followed Isla to the far side of the chamber, and I let my hand drop. Isla’s palms hovered over the sharp edges of a particularly large crystal.
“Come look at this,” she called. “I think this is a door. The light is dimmed in comparison to the others, and I think I see the darkened outline of a hall beyond.”
“Here’s another,” Kellan murmured as he strode to the opposite end of the room. He let out a soft curse and whipped his hand back. “Don’t touch it.”
My stomach tightened as a line of blood trickled from his fingertips. He shook them out, eyes cutting to mine and offering a wink.
“Try using your wind,” Isla commanded as she steepled her hands, summoning her own fresh jasmine air. Her hands shook as bits of light danced around her fingers. Her palms kissed before she angled the tips of her fingers toward the crystal.
Kellan followed suit, his leather and cedar wind spinning around him and shoving against the crystal. The two crystals slid inward with the soft hush of falling sand, revealing concealed paths beyond.
“Two paths,” Aeriden murmured. “Think it’s a path for each object? One for the lock and the other for the key?”
“Yes,” Isla agreed. “We should split up. We’ve already lingered here too long.”
I heaved a breath, uneasy with the thought of being separated from any of them.
I cast to Tiberius, his eyes opening behind mine to give him an update on our status. I breathed in his salty response, the lingering peel of a glimpsing sunset painting the Crimson Sea in shades of red and orange as a soft breeze rolled off its waves. TheHydrarocked softly beneath his hooves.
“We have,” I agreed. “It’s been at least ten hours since we landed. I’ll go with Aeriden.”
“No.”
I snapped my face in Kellan’s direction, and a surge of irritation spiked at the unyielding command riding the word.
“I’m not leaving you, and Isla shouldn’t go alone,” the pirate lord continued.
I straightened my spine and popped my fists to my hips. My molars scraped against each other as the corner of his lip kicked into a smirk. I suddenly remembered why this man had driven me mad last year.
