Chapter 24

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

E mil's roar sounds in my ears, angry and unintelligible, a shout of pure fury.

The magic takes hold even faster than Halle warned me it would, a sensation like iron bars wrapping around my chest and dragging me farther inside the room.

Whatever power has now taken hold of us, it doesn't stop Emil from pushing away from me, both of us tumbling to the floor and landing several feet apart.

Just as Halle described, the opening is now obscured. A thick curtain of darkness has descended over it, very similar to the black rock around us, while lamps have appeared on each wall, sending soft lighting around the room.

I don't hesitate to speak in case the magic that controls the room requires me to stake my claim. "I am the truth seeker."

Emil shakes his head at me, snarling like a caged animal as he lurches to his feet and strides to the entrance.

He rams his palms against it, roaring at it when it doesn't give way. "You don't want the truth from me."

I could ask him why not, but I'm certain the answer will be complex.

I need to test the room first.

Rising myself up into a kneeling position and trying to calm my rapid heartbeats, I listen carefully.

I assess the silence in the room first—a silence that's only broken by Emil's seething breaths and a final slap of his palms against the barrier before he begins to pace from one side of the room to the other.

The room is so small that it only takes him ten paces before he has to turn around again.

Watching him carefully from my kneeling position on the floor, I take a breath and ask him a question to which I already know the answer. "What were the first words you spoke to me?"

I remember those moments so clearly.

I'd found myself—inexplicably—in his Realm, a place of complete darkness.

Later, he explained that the angels had committed a crime that had thinned the boundaries between his Realm and the veil prison, which was how I'd stepped directly from the prison into his Realm.

At the time, he'd glided toward me across a black, marble floor, his tall, wraith-like figure swathed in a black cloak that had made an unsettling swishing sound as he'd moved. The air had blackened even further when he'd approached, as if he had brought the darkness with him.

I hadn't been afraid of him in those moments.

In fact, a thrill had passed down my spine, and it had only grown stronger when I'd seen his crown, its spokes rising up over his forehead and past the top of his head.

The immense power in the crown had called to me like water to my parched lips. I'd experienced an undeniable compulsion to connect with the crown and, despite the danger of the keeper's presence, I'd reached for it.

Now, Emil glares around the room, taking a few moments longer to answer than I thought the magic would allow. "You greeted me by my title: the keeper of dark magic. I was surprised that you knew who I was. So I simply said: You know who I am ."

As he speaks, an echo builds within the room.

A male voice that sounds exactly like Emil's repeats every word he speaks, ending with: " You know who I am. "

The echo repeats several times before it fades, an eerie declaration. " You know who I am. You know who I am… "

Fuck me. Those might have been the words he spoke, but I'm so far from knowing who he is that my heart hurts.

Still, the echo repeated his words, which means he spoke the truth just now. Which, of course, I already knew.

I pause for another moment, waiting this time for the price that Halle mentioned. She said it could be physical pain or mental anguish. I suppose I feel some mental anguish, but it's no worse than what I was already experiencing…

I push on, choosing now to ask him a question concerning which I already know he lied to me. "Did you tether my mother's magic?"

When I first asked him that question, he told me he hadn't tethered her magic. It was his certainty that sent me into a spiral, questioning who my mother was and what had happened to her.

Now he has the chance to tell the truth and have it confirmed.

He tethered her magic. He just has to be honest about it.

He stops pacing and his eyes meet mine. His lips press together before his shoulders slump and his hair falls over his face.

Then, he says, "I did not tether her magic."

Fury rushes through me that even now, he lies to me.

Even knowing that the room will call out his lie and proclaim the truth, still, he fucking lies .

I fight the urge to launch myself to my feet, forcing myself to remain kneeling as I wait for the room to confirm his untruth.

The echo says, " I did not tether her magic. "

Wait… what?

The echo repeats, fading into a stony silence. " I did not tether her magic. I did not tether her magic… "

My eyes are wide. Is the room broken?

Or worse…

My heart sinks as I say, "You can beat the magic in this room, can't you?"

His shoulders remain slumped, but he shakes his head emphatically. "I can't."

"I can't ," says the echo, and then, despite confirming his statement, it says more. " I can't defy the truth. "

He drops to one knee with a groan, pressing his fingers to his temples.

Unable to remain kneeling any longer, I lurch upright.

I dart toward him, stopping at the last moment before I would touch him. Our positions are now reversed. I am standing while he is kneeling.

"You ripped out my mother's heart."

"I did," he says.

The echo whispers, " I ripped out her heart, and it hurt. It hurt…"

I take a step back, the corners of my mouth turning down, my teeth sharpening. "How dare it hurt you? She was my mother. She was all I had. And you killed her!"

"I did," he says, his shoulder slumping further.

But then the echo says, " I did not ."