Page 28 of For the Ghastly and Beautiful

“When you say it like that…” He trails off, scratching at his head. “Yeah. We should move it. We station two guards in the tunnels at all times, but the rest of them come through before and after their shifts.”

“When is the next shift change?” I question him. “Do multiple guards get off at once? Or does it happen one at a time?”

Talodus bites his lips together as his hand spasms against my back. He quietly directs me into a stone archway. The footpath slopes downward as we travel beneath the palace. Stagnant air engulfs us, chilling my heated skin without the need of a natural breeze.

Skylights illuminate the corridors, but it’s only now that I see them for what they are.

They don’t show the sky at all. The water calls to me, and I can feel the tiny organisms flourishing inside the bright spaces. Their glow lights our way. They thrive in the darkest depths of this foreign ocean I’m surrounded by, and somehow, they also thrive in the mongrel’s version of an aquarium.

It’s resourceful, to say the least…

“New guards come in every eight hours. They’re assigned routes and told who they’re relieving. Then they go to their designated spots and wait for the current guard on duty to make their rounds. Once they meet, the first guard returns to report any sightings or occurrences.”

“They work alone?”

“Yes and no,” he answers as he ushers me into a common room past two men snacking on who knows what.

“Yes or no? I don’t understand how it can be both.”

We enter a side room, and I pause in the doorway, causing Talodus to bump into my back. His mass knocks me off balance, but he’s quick to steady me with a hand around my waist.

“You’ve got to stop doing that,” he mutters, moving me with him as he closes the door behind us. “This is the chamber we use to hold meetings and organize rotations.”

“So, an office?”

“Whatever you want to call it.”

He shrugs as he sets me on my feet. I don’t see the movement, but I rise and fall with it. The warmth of his chest seeps into my back, slowing time between us. Each breath he takes mirrors my own, though my steady inhales falter as he lets me go.

A gigantic stone table sits in the center of the room, six massive wooden chairs spaced out around it. The etchings in the gray rock look ancient, and I suspect they are. This room probably holds a history longer than Isolde’s reign as Mongrel Queen.

Talodus spreads two maps across the top, weighing the corners down with flattened pebbles. He drops a stack of parchment beside them and walks to a cabinet in the corner to fetch some sort of markers.

“This is what we’ve got.”

“Talk me through it.”

“The map on your left shows known beast attacks in the last year, and on the right, we’ve marked Shade attacks.”

“Are there dates or any order to the Xs?”

He nods to the papers. “It’s all there.”

“Okay.” I drag the word out, hoping some useful organization will appear out of nowhere.

It doesn’t.

I spend hours pouring over maps and documents before the knowledge makes any sense. The patterns are there, but I can’t be sure until I have everything in one place.

“Tal? I need a clean map.”

“Did you find something?”

“I think so. It’s hard to tell when I’m flipping back and forth between these two maps, though. I need a new one to write on.”

He brushes against me as he places a clean map on the table. It’s unintentional, I know this. I still welcome the touch and silently beg for more, wanting nothing more than to lean into him as he wraps his arms around me.

“You’ve been working this angle too hard,” I tell him as I copy the Xs.