Page 71 of Death of a Mortal

Which left only one more door.

I was losing hope that we would find the dungeons. Or maybe this had been a wild goose chase from the start. Maybe they weren’t down here at all.

We went through the last door and were immediately met with a blast of colder air. Ott had said the new area was colder and darker… The hope in my heart was welling up once more.

It was indeed darker here. It was nearly pitch-black, so my one eye struggled to focus. The only light came from a single torch lit a ways down the hallway. Even though the stone was still gray, thedrop in temperature and the lack of light told me we might be on the right track.

Once we made it to the lone torch, I could see only a little further down the corridor.

Black stone.

We’d found it. But what was beyond the radius of light we stood in, waiting in the darkness, I had no clue.

Chapter 18

He Knew

I threaded myfingers through Nella’s and, after a deep breath, hand in hand, we headed toward the darkness.

The temperature was dropping more with each step forward, as was the visibility.

I put my other hand out beside me to feel the wall as we trudged on.

My heart nearly dropped out of my chest when my foot met air instead of stone. I stumbled to catch myself on what turned out to be a stairway leading down deeper underground. Nella’s grip on my hand had tightened, helping steady me.

“Stairs,” I whispered.

My racing heart took a long time to calm down after the misstep. When we reached the bottom of the stairs, my hand still on the wall, I saw the glow of another torch ahead, lighting the hallway before us just enough to see by. The entire thing was made of rough black stone, cold to the touch.

Picking up our pace slightly, we headed toward the lit sectionto find another door. This one was made of thick black wood with a black metal frame and bars running up and down, left and right.

The thing was menacing.

And it was locked.

My stomach dropped. We had come this far. We were so close, but we couldn’t get there.

We figured this would likely happen, but it didn’t stop the disappointment from flooding in.

A keyhole was visible, and judging by its size, the key that would fit it would be pretty large.

“We can’t get in now. There’s no point standing here in the cold. Let’s head back and come up with a plan to find this key.”

So we turned around and headed back the way we came.

Just as the adrenaline was fading out, I stopped dead in my tracks, Nella following suit.

Voices.

Coming from the way back out.

I grabbed Nella by the hand and pulled her into a storage room just off to our right. I closed the door as quietly as possible, hoping the voices would drown out any sound, including the incessant hammering of my heart against my rib cage.

There were two of them, and they were getting closer, just audible from behind the door that hid us.

“…King Caedryn was most pleased, as I expected. I’ve arranged for the Vydran king’s arrival next week. Soon, Vydran and Ashenholt will be allied and purged, following Fellendral’s example.”

I knew that voice. It was distinct and memorable. The same fae male whose carriage we rode into Dolvenar under. He was a nobleman, a lord. What was a lord doing in the secret tunnels under the castle?