“Unlock it.” I met his gaze.
He crouched down next to me. “You can do that?”
“Sometimes. I’m not sure if I can now though.” I released a bitter laugh. “All this, and we can’t even open the door.”
Kiyan made a small sound, and I looked up at him. “You said you use magic like an extension of you?”
“Yes.”
He hesitated a fraction of a second, before taking my hand and pressing a finger into the keyhole. “Use your magic now.”
He was using my hand as the key. My eyes fluttered closed as I exhaled, calling my power forth once more.
Something moved around my finger, transmuting it to fit the lock, or the lock to fit my hand. It folded around my hand until it had swallowed it whole, the stone changing to a shimmering gold metal.
I felt rather than heard the lock click and give way. The earth rumbled, rocking with the force of my magic, with the energy of whatever was placed here to keep visitors out. I jerked my hand away, checking it over closely, but it looked the same as it always did.
The center of the plateau began to lower, a platform forming into stairs, leading slowly down like a pattern of cards fanned out across a table.
We moved to stand at the edge, taking in the cavern that had opened up in front of us.
I glanced over at Kiyan. “Do you want to do the honors?”
“I’ll follow you,” he said as he gestured toward the ominous entrance.
“Coward,” I muttered.
“I’ve been called many things, but never that,” he said, an echo of my own statement earlier.
And so, the coward and the fool stepped into the earth to find what neither of them knew was there.
Chapter 35
The Empress is coming for us, of that I’m certain. She won’t abide rebellion, and we have committed the worst rebellion of all.
—Letter from Zimran Nazir to Mahira Nazir
Yaseema
The entrance was cold, and the only light we had filtered down from the sky above, revealing the stairs that descended into the mountain.
“It’s only going to get darker,” I said. “I can use my magic, but it might not stay if there’s nothing hidden nearby.”
“Hold on, there are torches here.” Kiyan moved over to the wall, and whispered a few words, placing his palms flat against the stone. Torches in sconces along the edge of the stairwell lit up, creating a path of fire into the center of the mountain.
“I didn’t know you could summon fire as well.”
He looked at me. “It’s life. Anything that has a spark of life in it can be conjured.”
I released an unsteady breath, unexpected fear gripping my chest as we began the descent. Usually, I felt the opposite when I entered a vault or tomb, or anything where ancient artifacts were housed. Normally it was a chance to get there before the Citadel, to keep something in our lands and keep the life magic in the earth. But this was the first time I was descending into a peri vault in their own land.
I didn’t know what traps awaited us here.
“Expecting monsters?” Kiyan’s voice came from behind me, tainted with amusement, and something else, something that felt as wary as I did.
“Hopefully not. But I don’t know what type of traps the ancient fae have. There might be monsters after all.”
“Don’t worry, you already have one beside you to ward them away.”
