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ChapterFifteen
Vori hurried through the tunnels as fast as she could without dragging or carrying Perry.“Almost there.”Her heart knocked against her ribs, a caged bird beating its wings against bone bars.
The castle closed in around them.Dust billowed from debris crashing behind them.The corridor narrowed at the end, with barely enough room for her to slide through.Perry angled his broad shoulders and still brushed against stone.
The stones above flared a quick pulse of light, shining on the door she’d known lay ahead.A door that led to her mother’s room.The quickest way.But also, the hardest way.
Every step of this path reminded her of what she’d had, what she’d feared, what she’d lost.Whoshe’d lost.
She tightened her grip on Perry’s hand.Temporary husband or not, she wouldn’t lose him.She put her shoulder to the panel and pushed through, expecting to find the queen consort’s suite, hoping Artanya or Mykata wouldn’t be inside.Instead, she found a shrine to her mother steeped in scents of wild flowers and candle wax.
“Oh my god,” she whispered.
“What?”Perry asked, his tone sharp.
“My mother’s room.It hasn’t changed.”
“At all?”
“The paintings, the bedding, the flowers, the gold brush set—everything’s exactly the same.”She touched the rolltop desk that’d been left open as though her mother would return any minute.“King Lenneck must’ve done this.”
“Like he kept your suite?As if you both might come back.”
“They didn’t find my mother’s body.I wonder if anyone saw her die.”
“Or if they just believed your father?”
“Fae can’t lie, but we goblins can.”
“What if they assumed your mom’s death as they did yours?”His words held hope she didn’t dare latch onto.
A massive gold-framed mirror along the far wall toppled with a thunderous crash, shattering into tiny pieces.Splintering cracks spread along the wall where it’d hung.
Her heart leapt into her throat, choking her with its frantic beat.She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t look away.
“What’s happening?”Perry pressed close, offering comfort and strength whether he knew it or not.“Your home—it’s unraveling.”
He seemed to have forgotten she was a goblin, but he’d reached forherhand earlier.Why?For the crowd?Doubt throbbed through her in time with the pulsing magic around them.“I don’t know.The castle moves, but it doesn’t implode.”
“That scream.”
Right.The reason they’d run.She couldn’t lose herself to what-ifs and what-could-have-beens now.“It came from the hallway.To the left is our suite.To the right, the king’s rooms.Or they used to be.”
Her stomach twisted, and cold sweat slicked her skin.For a moment, she was a scared little girl again, trying to hide knocking knees from her father.Because any weakness would be ruthlessly used against her.
“Never again,” she whispered.
“What?”Perry frowned, his body tense as if ready to fight against anyone who came against them.
She didn’t explain.“This way.”She ran through the twists and turns to the king’s suite.The lights—both electrical and magical—flickered and then blinked out.
“That can’t be good,” Perry said in the silence.
“No.”
A loud pop and another crack spread beneath their feet.The walls groaned.She pulled him along, navigating the tunnels from memory, but relieved when the lights snapped back on.“The castle’s designed to withstand mine collapses, invasion, riots, sieges, natural disasters.I don’t know what could be destroying it.”
“Whatever is killing your realm?”
