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No reason for me to be bait, he meant. I shook my head. "He'll know about you but not the wraiths, not the warriors. Let him think we've set a trap he can handle; he'll never expect to be outnumbered."
"And outmanned," Arkan murmured, glancing at the Malefic Circle. I was still a little bitter that they were more powerful than us, but I'd get over it. In a couple years. "Let's go."
My heart drummed a warning beat in my throat as Taj and I reached for the imposing entrance to the Feared Tower, each pushing a tall, carved black door. I didn't look too closely at what the carvings depicted; I didn't want to know.
I held my breath, the long, eerie creak taking a knife to my nerves until they were shredded. Power bounced around inside me, growing, panicking. I expected to see the wraiths laying dead on the tower floor, and Eidolon standing over them with a sick grin on his green, lizard face.
Instead, the circular chamber was empty, only icy, biting wind whistling through the grungy space.
"Where did they go?" I breathed, trying to crush all the fear from my voice.
X swore under his breath, and I turned to find him approaching a single, ominous door that had been left half-open. I didn't want to know what was behind it, didn't want to see the new horrors my life had lovingly prepared for me. But I had to.
It led to a staircase, equally dark and foreboding, and my heart jumped faster. I guess I was naïve for expecting the stairs to leadupthrough the tower's intimidating height. X said what I was thinking.
"They went down."
And like lambs to the slaughter, we followed them.
28
Most of the Company of Murkyr stayed above to clear the rest of the tower—and be our secret weapons—but the rest of their big army was a comforting presence of armour, steel, and menace at our backs as we descended … and descended … and descended.
"Jesus, how far down does this staircase go?" I muttered, clinging to the wall at our left andcarefullymaking my way down the black stone steps. They weren't worn in the middle like I'd expected; this was a place rarely visited.
"Quiet," Arkan hissed.
"My dad never mentioned this place," Taj murmured, earning himself ashh!
Warning coiled my belly into a knot, but did it even matter if the sceptre was here? Eidolonthoughtit was here, and would come to find it. Instead he'd find an army, a horde of wraiths, and one very pissed off, murderous circle.
He'd learn that you don't fuck with two serial killers, a deadly wraith, a reaper who literally ate souls for breakfast, and the prince of fucking Hell.
"It's too quiet," one of the Murkyr warriors murmured behind us, and I nodded even if he couldn't see me in this dim lighting. He was right; it was too damn silent down here.
Voices hissed up from the dark below, and I tensed, black fire licking along my fingers until Arkan murmured, "That's my family."
Sure enough, a minute later we reached the bottom and spilled out into a tall, square room made of shiny black obsidian. I shivered, and not just because it was as cold as a fridge freezer down here.1The sound of fifty wraiths all whispering at once filled the space with a terrifying hiss, and goosebumps covered every inch of my skin.
"What did you find?" Arkan demanded, stalking over to the man who'd spoken earlier—long white braid guy.
"Check this out," Finnick replied, slanting a brief glance at my circle as we fanned out around Arkan like backup dancers.2"How Indiana Jones is this shit?"
He parted a group of shadowy wraiths, leading us across the room to a solid stone wall with a giant eye cut into the obsidian and a huge, round emerald for the pupil. It was clear how long this wall had been here because of how basic the gemstone cutting was; another shudder went down my spine. Whatever was in this place was old, probably powerful, and definitely deadly. A good place to set a trap, though.
"The sceptre's really behind there, isn't it?" I murmured. "What if we can do more than trap Eidolon?" I asked, looking at my mates. "What if we can actually find it?"
Hope sparked in Taj's eyes, and rippled through his soul, catching mine. If we found the sceptre, we had one of the three infernal relics. The orb was lost—but not necessarily destroyed. And Eidolon had the crown. But if we found one, surely we could find the other?
"It's really behind there," I murmured. I felt the power pulsing behind the stone, like ocean waves of magic rushing into the wall and back again, itching to escape.
"What is?" Finnick asked, clever eyes shifting between us.
"Mind your own business," Arkan replied coldly. "You lost any right to know my secrets when you forsook me."
"Come on, Ark," Finnick breathed, pleading. The pain in his eyes made me believe he was genuine. Unfortunately for him, he'd hurt my Ark and I didn't give two shits. "They had my daughter; what could I do?"
"Why don't you go back to your family," I cut in, with as much venomous sweetness as I could summon from the depths of my black soul, "andwe'llhandle this? You know, Arkan'srealfamily? The people who love him? Toodle-oo." I fluttered my wings in a wave, shooing him off.
