I huff, and they quiet.
Haal. I hold my breath, pressing my back to the wooden planks.
Footsteps clap against the wood, and my heart races. Killing them will be easy, but if I cause a commotion out here, Delaney might kill Viola before I can get to her.
“I don’t feel so well,” one of the poachers says.
“Here, sit on the steps,” the other replies, and the wood creaks, then stops. A moment later, I hear a soft thump, a gasp, and another muted thump. Then Raiku slithers around the corner, his head held high. I nod at him, breathing out a sigh of relief.
Beau and Gryff are on the way, Ysenia says.
Once I’m certain the poachers are dead and there are no other guards around, I peer into the broken side window, looking for Scar and Railesza. But it’s not my aspiers I see.
In the middle of the room, Viola is bound to a chair, her eyes heavy with defiance as she raises her head at… Lorne.
For one century, Death asked every soul that crossed into the Underworld about the first Mortemagi. But no one knew her, as if she were erased from history.
LUCIA KAN,TALES FROM THE UNDERWORLD, PASSAGE 8
forty-seven | viola
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1939
If I am to die young, let it be somewhere beautiful. Not in this filthy place that stinks like rotten wood and blood. I force my eyes open, and they shut immediately, blinded by the sun. Or perhaps it’s a light. My throat is scratchy, my mouth feels like it’s filled with sand, and my head is splitting in two.
“Darling Viola, finally awake…”
That voice. I would recognize that wicked, silvery voice anywhere.
Lorne.
Gods, I should have known. He was praising Grimm. What was I thinking?
“I don’t need her alive. I don’t know why you insist on letting her live,” says another voice. Overseer Delaney. It has the same rasp, the same stress at the end of her words.
My eyes are fighting a battle to stay closed, but I push through. I want to look at Lorne when I tell him to eat a dead rat.
“You should’ve killed her like her sister,” Delaney scoffs.
Lorne killed Olivia? Impossible. Delaney told me… she never told meshekilled Olivia. I jerk my hands apart, but they lock against something rough behind my back. My stomach churns, threatening to spill over myself.If they kill me and take my cuff before we find Grimm and Ysenia takes over my body…
I bite my lips, forcing my mind to stop spiraling. And I do the only thing within my control. I breathe.
One. Two. There must be a misunderstanding. Lorne is overbearing, but he loved Olivia. Hehasto have loved Olivia. He was devastated at her funeral; no one pretends like that.
Three. Four. She wrote about him. She was in love with him. She was an excellent judge of character, and I have to trust her judgment. He wouldn’t do that to her.
Five. Six. My eyes peel open, and the single, bright bulb in the middle of the room assaults me. I blink hard. Where am I?
There are desks, large stained glass windows that look hundreds of years old, torn curtains, broken chairs, a door in the back to the left behind Delaney and Lorne, stairs in the right corner, and another door to my right. It reeks of stale wood and decaying leaves, of old blood and tears.
How long have I been here? I try to gather my wits. If they bothered to shackle me instead of killing me, they must want something from me. Did Grimm tell them to hold me?
“Why not just kill me and end this?” My hoarse voice catches me off guard.
Lorne scoffs, shaking his head, and Delaney placesThe Founder’s Book of Relicson the desk behind her. “Sweet child, ignorance is bliss. Rhea’s relic is wasted on you. All that magic, all thatpower, in a foolish girl who wasted her lifeblood over what?”
“If you wanted the relic, why did you kill Olivia?” I already know the answer, but I need to stall until Ysenia comes back and Grimm appears.