Ursula stood in the center of the lion mosaic, a lunem crystal in each hand. Tendrils of shadow trickled from her fingers, gathering on the floor in a black mist. Dark magic thrummed through her bones, chilling her skin. Her breath misted around her head.
Bael was most certainly hiding something from her. Something about the way he wouldn’t look at her when they’d said goodbye made her muscles clench.
She waved a hand through the air, watching the shadows flicker around it. I just need to make sure I’m strong enough to fight him when I need to.
Magic pooled in her body, flooding her muscles with power and demanding to be used. She lowered the crystals to the floor, and focused on a spot across the room.
Shadows rushed over her skin, through her gut, and her stomach flipped as she felt herself brushing the void. She reappeared ten feet away. I’ve got this. I’m a natural.
She straightened her back, then concentrated on a place near the lion’s mane. Almost instantly, she flitted across the room in a cloud of black smoke. Wisps of magic curled around her fingers, tingling along her skin.
Most of the raw power had seeped from her body, but some of the magic still buzzed up her spine. Let’s see what I can do when the power is fading.
She glanced at a spot near the onyx door, letting the shadows carry her through the air. But this time, she appeared a few feet short. Her toes throbbed as warmth returned to them. The magic was almost gone. A good reminder to conserve magic in the duels.
Bael’s onyx door stood only a few feet away, cold and black as the void. She crossed to it, running her fingers over the smooth, cold surface. Wisps of shadows trailed from her fingers into the stone. The onyx seemed to absorb her magic, thirsty for shadow power.
Bael had warned her away from his quarters, and that only made her more desperate to find out what he was hiding.
Her mind churning, she turned to walk back into her own quarters. As she took a step, a scraping sound echoed off the atrium walls, and she whirled.
The stone had rolled to the side.
* * *
Ursula stared at the open door. Apparently, the magic from her fingers had acted as a sort of key, unlocking Bael’s chambers.
And of course, under no circumstances should she go inside. It would be an intrusion, and a dangerous one at that. She didn’t need to provoke Bael’s wrath before the duel.
Then again...
If he was hiding something from her, it was better to know what it was.
She swallowed hard, taking a tentative step into the tunnel, but the interior was too dimly lit for her to see anything.
Nothing moved in the tunnel, but distant voices echoed off the cavern walls. Male voices. Who did he have in his quarters? The man seemed to live in total isolation, and suddenly he was holding a party.
She crept further down the hallway, and the darkness gave way to the purple glow of mushroom light. She hugged the walls, trying to stay in the shadows. As she walked, the voices grew louder, but she couldn’t hear what they were saying.
She pressed on, her pulse speeding up. At the end of the tunnel, she hesitated. As soon as she stepped out onto the stone bridge, Bael would see her. She crouched, straining her ears. The voices grew softer, until they faded away entirely. Slowly, she rose. Silence had fallen over the cave.
She waited another minute, then crept from the tunnel. She tiptoed over the stone bridge, cringing with each scuff of her shoe.
As she entered his cavern, she surveyed the space: his marble table, the violet crystals, and his forbidding throne overlooking it all. Nothing out of place.
Ursula shivered, looking at the yawning blackness of the abyss around her. Who, or what, had been talking in here—and where the hell had they gone?
Depleted of magic after her shadow running, her muscles ached.
Bael’s throne seemed to call to her, luring her forward with its promise of thrilling power. If she sat in it, shadow magic would flood her body, filling her limbs with strength. A part of her wanted to give in to its lure entirely. Relinquishing her humanity, letting the void take her soul, becoming one with the god of night.
She brushed a fingers along the throne’s arm, only to pull her hand away with a jerk when the image of an endless chasm filled her mind.
What am I thinking? An eternity of nothingness would drive her insane.
She surveyed the platform again. I know I heard voices in here. She took a tentative step around the throne, expecting the stony floor to continue on, but she gasped as she found herself on a cliff’s edge. A deep chasm yawned behind the throne—too dark to investigate.
She ran back into the cavern and yanked out a small, glowing mushroom that grew near the wall. She held it like a candle, and it cast a cold light over the floor.
She crossed back to the cliff’s edge behind the throne, and held the mushroom over the side. A pair of metal pitons jutted from the stone, with thick rope wrapped around either end. The top of a rope ladder—that’s where the men had disappeared to.
Chapter 39