AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I flew down the steps, breath hard in my ears.
We were not too late.
Let him live.
Mage lights erupted around me, zipping like wasps. Steps pounded behind.
Someone cried a warning.
I burst into the crypt at the bottom. They should have seen me coming. Heard the commotion. I had broken every rule a thief lived by. For once, it did not matter because only blood-stained stone and an open doorway into the earth greeted me.
Someone pushed me further into the room. I scanned the sarcophagi. Only the chiseled eyes of the long dead met mine. No bodies.
Something caught the light, splintering it into a rainbow of colors.
Two crowns lay on the ground, the smaller one covered in a spiderweb of cracks.
I touched it, cutting my finger on the sharp shards, and a warm spark lit inside me only to wink out together with any hope that this was the fake crown she’d broken. Ealhswip must have been in too much of a hurry to notice. I could only hope it would help.
“Are those…” Orso did not complete the question. There was no need for all knew stories of the Talian glass crowns.
Maksim reverently lifted each, studying the sigils as he sat them on the nearest stone coffin.
My head snapped around as steps approached from above.Had Ealhswip brought more supporters?
Lumi moved between me and the stairs. Her cold magic gathered. I focused inward, breaking my wall, and prepared to command others again. No matter what Morovara had said, I would make exceptions to bending those who tried to outright kill me. Kindness only stretched so far.
Three men and one woman burst into the crypt with drawn swords. Blue swirled around Lumi, green around the other woman’s red boots.
“Stop,” I shouted, throwing myself forward.
She had hung me and been there when I came back to life. Koshka looked likely to kill me a second time as her eyes narrowed.
“You. I should have known. What have you done to him?”
Lumi’s ethereal flames shrank until they danced around her hands. “You know theseguards?” She made it sound synonymous with dung.
“They’re bone soldiers. Or at least she is.”
I pointed to Koshka who strode forward, zeroing in on the blood and ignoring the rest of us. Only when her eyes shifted to Lumi did I detect fear.
“The King and Princess von Heskin were supposed to have returned by now.”
“And where were you?” I demanded, anger growing. “You’re his guards.”
“You left him to die,” Koshka exclaimed, marching on me despite Lumi’s angry presence. “I had to watch them kill my friend after your magic made us run straight into an ambush in the tunnels. Now I had to fight his undead body. His bones and Spirit deserved so much better. Do you even think of him?”
Shame stained my cheeks. I had seen Yahontov at the gate but only felt fear. She was right—I had forgotten them too fast. My only excuse was that none had even told me of his death. There had been too much else…
“Did you…”Kill him? Again?
Koshka looked like she wanted to stab me. The blond man next to her sheathed his sword and put a hand on her arm.
“We organized the nobles before following to the Tower,” he said and nodded to their other companions. “Then gave the dead guards outside the Tower peace. I’m Kaz. I saw you during the trial. You’re the one he planned to marry.”
“No one ever planned to marryme.” I pushed my confused frustration away. “They were gone when we entered. Probably went down there.”
I pointed at the doorway, and dark path beyond, feeling the cold draft like an inhale. Something waited below.
