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"Herallan," Taj replied, still looking at my hands. "Although, technically this is Thena Castle. It used to belong to the Thenawist demons, but that race of demons was lost hundreds of years ago."
"In English?" I asked flatly.
"It's an abandoned castle built on top of an ancient underground city. We'll go through the castle, find the city entrance—it's cleverly hidden, known only to my father—and get the sceptre."
I groaned. "You make it sound so simple, but I'm sensing it'll be anything but."
"Let's get inside," Arkan murmured. "We don't know how much time we have before Eidolon figures out the sceptre isn't in the black armoury."
Taj pressed a big, clawed hand against the massive lacquered door, and it opened with a shriek that grated my nerves.
"Why does this seem far too easy?" I asked, but followed him inside because I was crazy.
10
"Lovely place, this," I drawled, squinting into the darkness of the corridor we carefully crossed.
Cobwebs were strung from the ceiling, others built into the corners of each room we passed, and it was practically pitch black. The place smelled stale and dank, like rainwater had forced its way in years ago, but at least it wasn't dusty. It had that going for it.
"It has a certain charm," Taj replied, stalking down the hallway in his huge demon form beside me.1
I squinted into the darkness. "You have no taste, Taj."
Arkan snorted softly.
"Fuck this," I muttered after another few steps, and sank deep into the pool of magic in my core, lighting my hand in bright orange fire. "Let there belight!"
Taj slanted a look in my direction. "Do you always have to be so dramatic?"
"Yes," I replied firmly, and dove into my pocket with my non-fiery hand to pull a lollipop from my pocket. Unwrapping it one-handed was a true art.
"What?" I asked Arkan when I caught him staring at me. I popped the sweet in my mouth and asked, "Want one?"
His serious mouth kicked up into a smile. "I'd love one, thank you, princess."
I passed him a lolly and got a strange kind of joy from watching him unwrap it, like I'd done something right after a series of wrongs.
"What about you, dickwad?" I asked Taj.
He scoffed. "Do Ilooklike I want a sweet?"
My brows came down as I contemplated my tall, monstrous mate. "Yes. Yes, you do."
With a long-suffering sigh, Taj held out his hand and I smirked as I watched him struggle to unwrap the sweet with his massive, clawed hands.
"You okay there, psycho?"
He growled, and reared his arm back to throw the lolly in a fit of frustration. I extinguished my fire and caught it before he could launch it down the dark, foreboding hallway, and unwrapped it with deft fingers without taking my eyes off Taj's scowling face.
"Here you go," I chirped and gave him the lollipop.
Muttering under his breath, he put the lolly in his mouth and fell silent. Woah. Had I just unlocked the answer to having mates? Give them lollipops and they went quiet?2
We walked in a strange, companionable silence for long minutes, Thena Castle eerily still around us. I didn't trust the stillness; my hairs stood up all down my arms and I kept waiting for Eidolon to launch out of the shadows at us. But we made it down several long hallways to a wide central courtyard carved out of solid black stone. Fancy. I liked it.
Taj and Arkan headed to the circular podium at the heart of the court, dark steps carved into it like a dais.
I took out my lollipop to ask, "So, where's the entrance to the city?"
