Page 66 of City of Snakes
“Thank you,” she said as she pretended to wipe dust off her linen dress.
“Mhm,” I answered, unable to think of a single coherent thing to say that would ease her fear. “Why is Elsedora bringing you that dagger?”
Tears welled in her eyes; my teeth ground when one slipped down her cheek.
“Because I think I know where it came from.”
There was a knock on the sitting room door before Elsedora entered with the blade. She crossed the room and handed it over, still without question, as though not wanting to break thin ice.
Sybilla turned the blade. I followed her gaze to where a symbol was engraved on the pommel—three skulls run through with a triangle. It looked oddly familiar…
The air was knocked from her lungs in a quiet gasp. She bent at the waist, unable to stand against the weight of whatever she’d just realized.
“I’m going to bed,” she said breathlessly, as she quickly handed the dagger back to a very confused Elsedora. “Destroy this. Immediately. It is how Caym found me.”
My fists clenched at my sides.What did that symbol mean to her and why did I feel like I’d seen it before?
“I’ll walk you to bed.” It wasn’t a question, and she flashed a watery glare at me but didn’t argue. It wasn’t the time to pry into why she’d needed to see that dagger…but I had my guess as to what she’d pieced together.
That dagger had come from Helos.
I motioned for her to walk first down the hall and then up the steps. We came to the bedchamber door, and I reached around her to open it. Unsure of whether she truly wanted to be alone, I didn’t follow her through the frame; instead, I leaned there.
“If you need anything, I’ll be right out here.” I pointed to a bench across the hallway. I’d stare at that door all night.
Answering too quickly, she said, “No. Stay. On the cot.” Her voice wavered. “I...don’t actually want to be alone.”
She kicked off her leather mules and walked toward the bed. Looking defeated, she slipped under the covers without changing.
Seeing her spit fire was a royal pain in my ass. Seeing her vulnerable was cracking parts of me I’d thought had more stable foundations.
Sybilla had encountered Caym tonight and lived. It doubled my resolve to help her prepare to face him.
I kicked off my boots and laid on top of the cot’s covers. The silence stretched between us until her breathing turned into a low whistle. Only then did I close my eyes.
Chapter 21
Emmerick
Since that awful day when I’d faced Sybilla in the council meeting, I kept replaying her hurt expression when I’d told her to call me King Mattock.
That was what she’d wanted. She wanted me here, to rule, to learn this role.
It was the middle of the night. I sat by the crackling fire in my bedchamber in a big leather chair. Despite it being late spring, in Helos the nights still grew cold, the city less temperate than Luz.
A creaking sound from the hallway caught my attention. A cross between the feeling of being watched and a sense of dread scraped down the back of my neck like fingernails.
I grabbed my dagger, lovingly named Angeline after my mother, and slipped quietly out of my bedchamber. My gaze scanned the hallway—a window had blown open at the end of it, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Reaching the end of the hall, I found a gaping part in the stones...a hidden passageway.The stones, where there had beena wall, were pushed in, creating a space perfectly sized for a man, even one of my size, to slip through. A dark stairway descended.
The only thing I knew lay below the castle were catacombs.
I gripped the dagger. “Angeline—something feels a little off here, eh?” I whispered to my weapon. There were plenty of logical reasons the passage could be open. Maybe maids lit candles in the tombs below. Simpler yet, maybe the passage was used for quicker access to other parts of the castle and someone simply had forgotten to close it behind them.
I didn’t yet have my bearings on the traditions of this Corridor or the layout of this colossal estate.
I stepped down the stairs and held my free hand out, creating a small orb of golden light in my palm. It took so much concentration. The first time Asterie and Amara had taught me how, I’d nearly passed out. Wielding my Sun Source was coming to me quickly, but it was taxing. They’d said it was normal to feel that way.
