AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I imagine Taraghlan was relatively certain no one would make it through his little labyrinth of terror,” Nathaniel said dryly.
“Why am I not surprised overconfidence is yet another one of his flaws?” I smirked. “Either way, it’s ours now, and I, for one, am glad we don’t need to kill anything else for this thing.”
“For now,” Kyla said darkly. Our eyes met, and her mouth trembled until she was grinning, holding out her hand for a high five. We slapped palms, and Nathaniel handed her a dusty scabbard for the sword. While she slid the sword into the scabbard, I lowered my mental shields, allowing that little voice to speak to me once more.
The blade of the dagger seemed to catch the light—just in case I’d missed its presence in my head. I picked the strange artifact up and studied it.
“And I’ve got Misty,” I said.
It was almost comical, watching Kyla’s mouth fall open.
“What the fuck is the Mistilteinn Dagger doing here? Danica gave it to the Merqueen.”
“Yeah, well, they must have made some deal with the seelie. Although I’m surprised it ended uphere.” I smiled. “It can make itself appear like a normal dagger. I bet Taraghlan has no idea what it does.”
Nathaniel took it from me. “What exactly doesit do?”
“It’s the dagger of truth. It glows red when people are lying.”
He nodded and handed it back. I sighed, unsurprised by his nonchalant reaction. Nathaniel had always been an expert at determining whether people were lying. He’d once told me his wolf could pay attention to microexpressions that his human side would miss. Not to mention, his senses allowed him to pick up on things like an increased pulse rate or shallow breathing.
Nathaniel might not think this was a big deal, but I was practically doing a happy dance. Oh, the people I could interrogate with this thing.
I studied the dagger. It had once spoken in my head, turning blue when I touched it. Now, it seemed almost like a regular dagger. I couldn’t feel anything from it.
“We take the sword only,” Kyla mimicked me, putting on a Valley Girl accent.
“You make it hard to like you sometimes.”
She just raised an eyebrow. I scowled.
“Misty doesn’t count.”
“Uh-huh. We need to get out of here.”
I tucked Misty into my ankle sheath. I’d lost the knife I’d carried into this castle when we’d fought the hydra.
Nathaniel was studying the map. “Should we go back the way we came?”
The fact that he asked gave me the warm fuzzies. It was a little thing, but Nathaniel was used to making most of the decisions for his pack. His every order was followed. But with me, he was attempting to be a team player.
I shook my head. “That way has the bolts.” I glanced at Kyla. “Did you pass a room that shot steel bolts at you?”
She gaped. “No.”
Decision made. Obviously, the seelie king had put more effort into defending the route to his dungeon. After meeting one of his prisoners and hearing what she had to say, I found it easy to understand why.
“We’ll go that way.”
No one argued.
Kyla had killed her way through the castle, but she’d faced one fewer chamber than we had. I raised my eyebrow at her as we trudged through blood and gore.
“Kobolds,” she muttered. “Vicious little shits. Almost cost me my right paw.”
By the time we’d made our way back to the spot where we’d separated, my energy was flagging. My head throbbed, and all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and take a nap. I’d even lie on the stone floor if it meant I could rest.
Thoughts of vengeance had to keep me going. “When all this is over, when we’ve found the lab and destroyed it, I’m going to release proof that the seelie king was handing over his subjects to be tested on,” I said.
