Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

W e settled into an uneasy routine. The others were thankful enough for what supplies I brought that they didn't question why two satchels were filled entirely with books, ink, and notes. Shava frowned at it, sitting in the cave's corner now and then, but I was mostly sure she was illiterate, since everyone from the mud quarter was. My secrets were safe.

The Noble's name was Nisar. Not that I cared. He just made it his mission to make sure everyone knew not only his name, but how unfair his lot in life was and how much it hated it here.

If Zariah snapped and bit his head off before I could make use of the pasty Noble, then it wasn't the end of the world. There would be more, after all.

I wanted to spend time with Shava and gauge how she would react to bloodmagick. Could she use it like I could? Or did you need Noble blood? As much as I didn't want to admit it, I was getting used to having her around. Helping her get into bloodmagick and improve herself like I was would better ensure her survival in the world.

And yet, every opportunity I tried to seize to get her alone she would spend with Cerys, D, and even Zariah.

"I have brought some rare tomes from the library that hold many secrets of the mud people. Would you like to see?" I held up the crumbling manuscript, my voice bright.

Shava glanced up from where she had been sewing a tear in D's tunic. The boy was currently running around somewhere stark naked.

Mud boys.

"Oh, um, well … I can't read, Z."

I rolled my eyes. "Obviously. I would read it to you."

One of her dark eyebrows rose, and I hastily corrected my statement. "Er, that is, I'm sure I could teach you?" I grit out. The idea of having to break down something as basic as reading was the last thing I wanted to do. I'd rather have Zariah pluck out my eyes with his claws.

My face must have shown my reticence, because Shava chuckled. "Do not worry, I won't force you to tutor me. Zariah is taking me for a ride later."

Of course, spending more time with anyone other than me. I hadn't kissed her in over a week, and it'd been longer still since I'd been between her thighs. Was she no longer interested in me? I was intelligent, learning bloodmagick from the ground up, and passably good looking.

What was there to dislike?

"I'd like to see the manuscript, if you don't mind. I read fine." Both Shava and I ignored Nisar, who had emerged from the cave mouth.

"What do you do when you fly?" I asked, perhaps a bit too tersely.

Shava was unperturbed by my tone, as she was with most things.

"We fly and explore more tunnels. More people will come, and they won't all fit up here in this cave. We need something bigger, more permanent, and perhaps connected to the palace tunnels for easy smuggling."

I felt a tiny smidge of regret for thinking the worst. Here I was only thinking with my—er, little dragon , and she was busy planning.

"And we also talk. You know, about him," she finished. "You aren't interested at all about his life or what he's been through?"

I shook my head. "What's to know? The queen makes him play dragon while his twin is the pampered prince. If it weren't for the enchantments forcing obedience, I'd have barbequed her a long time ago."

Her lips twisted. "She's still his mother."

I laughed with no humor. "She's a harpy. At least if I further my blood—er, studies, I might come up with a way to break the enchantment. Wouldn't that be something?"

Be impressed, I silently willed her.

She shrugged.

So much for that.

"You plan to live in abandoned mines?" I asked next, seeing several challenges and advantages with the idea.

"Not ideal, obviously, but I think it's our best shot. We need to be close to the tunnels for new people to arrive, and to take Nobles out as they change," she continued, her brows furrowing with determination.

"Why set up a residence in the mines at all if all the Nobles must be killed eventually?" I questioned.

Her glare was sharp. "Because the banished Nobles will only be a tiny fraction of who I smuggle through the tunnels. The ones who aren't affected by the Noble curse will be free to set up something more permanent in the abandoned mines if we can make it work."

Sometimes I hated how intelligent I was. Her entire plan came to me in the blink of an eye.

"You're going to smuggle all the reaped girls out," I said tiredly.

Her grin was dazzling. Suddenly, I was glad Zariah was her focus for this little mission. I even felt bad for him. A determined Shava was a relentless, tiring one.

"Fine. Enjoy your little flight." I turned to Nisar. "You want to see what I'm studying? Now is your chance."

Nisar nodded, clapping his hands together once as though we were about to go on a grand adventure of sorts.

"Let's get Zariah to give us a quick ride down, then I'll show you," I offered pleasantly, smiling.

"Can you take me back to the city?" Nisar begged. "I can sneak in and go home. I won't tell anyone about you, I swear!"

I barely suppressed my groan at hearing the same argument for the umpteenth time.

"No, Nisar," Shava grit out.

"But I don't want to be here! The queen was wrong to cast me out; I need to go back and argue my case! I've done nothing wrong!" His constant whining and moaning was really getting on my nerves

"I'm going to tell him," I grumbled to no one, or so I'd thought.

A punch to my kidney had me bent over, cursing.

"You will not," Shava whispered back fiercely, eyes darting between the Noble man and back. She'd crept up on me before I'd noticed.

Rage coursed through me at the playful jab.

How dare she hit me! I—

I paused, taking a moment to breathe in and out. I'd been struggling more with anger ever since the death of the Fireguard and my first taste of bloodmagick based on someone else's pain and fear. I was moodier often. Or maybe it was living in this godforsaken desert. Or simply, Nisar. Likely the latter.

"I'm going to kill him."

Shava rolled her eyes and walked toward the mouth of our cave, disappearing into its depths.

Leaving just me and the fat, sweating Noble.

I'm going to kill him .

Now that the thought was in my head, it was hard to get it out. The man was annoying. He took up valuable food, space, and whined constantly.

Or maybe I was taking my recent frustrations out of him. Shava wanted me to slow down on the rituals, claiming it was ‘doing something' to me.

No shit. That was the point. To get better, faster, and stronger.

After all, if everyone was busy today, it may be the perfect time to sneak away and try a little … something.

* * *

After a quick ride on a dragon, I waved to Zariah as his form faded into the horizon. Eager, I whirled around on Nisar, who flinched.

"I'm not going to hit you. I'm not a little bitch," I scoffed.

Unlike you was the unspoken part of that. After my hurled insult, he went silent for all of two minutes, until we descended into the abandoned mineshaft. The cool air washed over my skin, lifting the edges of my hair. I much preferred it to the blazing heat of the desert, and the sun's unrelenting rays.

"Why can't I have a torch? You're hogging all the light to yourself," Nisar whined.

I clenched my teeth together. I needed him to get just a little further into the tunnel with me. My plan was to take the first branch on the left and follow it into the main mining cavern about a mile underground from the palace walls. There had to be somewhere out of the way where no one would ever find him.

And then …

"Everyone always counts me out. You know, you're not as smart as you think you are. I—"

I grabbed his arm before I realized what I was doing, slamming him up against the stone wall, the torch in his face. Hot flames illuminated his face, sweat breaking out on his forehead as his eyes got bigger than dinner plates. His fear was a tangible tang in the air, stirring my blood magick to life under my skin. He stared at my skin in fascination as the golden sigils swirled to life.

"I'm a bit … testy right now," I managed, hanging onto my temper by a shred. "So how about you just shut up until we get there?" My voice was sugary sweet as I backed away.

Nisar rubbed his face with his hands, nodding emphatically without speaking. Perhaps he wasn't as dumb as he looked.

"Wonderful. Come."

"Come where , exactly?"

Maybe he wasn't as dumb as I'd thought. He eyed me warily, no doubt taking note that I wore no satchel and had nothing on me besides my torch pouch. And my knife.

"To show you what's in those scrolls," I said coolly. It wasn't a lie. What I was about to show him had been hinted at in the scrolls. Somewhat.

We walked and walked. I took four left forks until I paused. I could sense a wide, open space in front of us. It was likely just the large, open cavern I'd explored another time with Shava. All these tunnels likely connected back to it.

I put the torch in a small bracket by the threshold and checked I had all of my tools.

Nisar paused at the entrance to the mine, sensing it was an open space but unable to see through the pitch black. In the torchlight, I watched him scratch his whole arm vigorously.

"Itchy?" I asked, wondering if I'd be lucky enough to see a change. Self-defense would be justified in that case. I wouldn't even have to make anything up about his disappearance! Nisar didn't seem far gone enough, though. Shame.

He glanced down at his arm and frowned, catching sight of gray, flaking ashes falling to the ground.

"How that'd get on there? Filthy caves …"

I watched with interest. Did he really think the gray ash covering his entire forearm was dirt from the cave? The light from the torch was rather dim, but surely he wasn't that stupid.

Surely.

My patience with him was gone. And down here, I didn't have to hide anymore, did I? There was no need for further lies.

"You aren't itchy. You're turning into a demon," I informed him calmly, sliding my knife out from my waist and pointing it towards him. Inwardly, I was giddy to see his reaction. Would he cry? Rage and scream? Try to attack me? Oh, the possibilities were endless.

He blinked at me. "Ah. I see. I see. "

And the oddest thing was, I think he did see. How disappointing and anticlimactic.

"That's what happens to all of us, isn't it?" he continued wistfully, voice shifting from the whining, nasally annoyance to more thoughtful with a touch of melancholy. It didn't sound like him at all. I hesitated, my hand with the knife relaxing.

"It explains a lot; why they make us marry mud girls, and why so many people I know have simply … disappeared."

Not so dumb after all.

Maybe I didn't truly know this Noble at all.

Who was I to be jury and executioner? Me, who valued intelligence above all else, when Nisar was at least literate, and none of the others in my party were?

The others aren't turning into demons. Well, at least not yet.

Nisar didn't flinch or step back as I approached with the knife, dark eyes trained on it and me. He was oddly calm.

"Can it be quick, at least? I'm afraid." He gave a weak little laugh and stepped toward me, showing more bravery in that admission than I'd seen in the queen's entire court my whole life.

Goddamnit, why was he making a solid case for me not to kill him? The little bastard was growing on me.

The need to know what would happen—what could happen—if I caused him pain and suffering gnawed at me. I wasn't going to do it because I hated him; it was simply academic. I couldn't gain further knowledge unless sacrifices were made.

And yet … I could give him a sporting chance, couldn't I?

"Start running. Maybe I catch you, maybe I don't."

That certainly evened the odds, didn't it?

Nisar didn't wait another second. He took off down the dark corridor, only pausing to swipe the torch from its bracket before he was gone. The flames bounced up and down in the darkness, marking his progress as he went further and further.

Until suddenly, it went out completely.

No screams, no clattering of the torch against the stone wall or floor. It and Nisar had been there one moment, and then simply gone the next.

Curious, yet wary, I crept forward.

"Nisar? Did something happen?"

Silence.

That little maggot had taken my torch, so I was blind. I took a tentative step forward, my arms stretched outwards as if I were blind. Good thing it was dark; I likely looked ridiculous.

This was stupid. There was nothing there.

I picked up my pace.

BOOOOOM.

The roar of a dragon sounded from somewhere far above me. The ground shook and I stumbled, unable to keep my balance. I fell hard and rolled. Reaching an arm out, I recoiled with panic when there was no ground in front of me; only empty air. I scooted backwards in panic, breathing heavily.

Holy shit. Holy SHIT.

I kicked my foot out, listening as I sent tiny pebbles and dirt flying into a deep abyss.

Nisar had fallen down there. Was he dead?

If he was lucky.

I didn't have another torch handle, but I had enough supplies to make one little flare and toss it down the hole to get an idea of how deep it was. But that meant navigating the way back in complete darkness.

Frustration welled in my veins and turned my gut bitter. I'd lost my chance to experiment, and my bloodmagick churned inside of me, unhappy. With each ritual I completed, it grew hungrier and more impatient.

More violent.

There was a small kernel inside of me that knew I should be concerned, but I brushed it aside. I was fine. The magick was impatient, but it was also fine. I could control it.

I was in charge.

A more pressing concern was how the others were unlikely to believe that Nisar had accidentally plummeted to his death when my dislike of him was well known.

Not your best move, Zephyr.

Oh well. This was actually the truth, for once. When you had the truth on your side you weren't supposed to hide anything. That's what the ‘good guys' always said in my stories, after all.

A low moan cut through the cave, directly below me.

Oh shit.

Nisar was still alive.

Sucks for him .

I felt around the edges of the hole, an idea in my mind. These old mine shafts were once functional; and that meant there couldn't just be random holes in tunnels. The sides of this hole were smooth, meaning it was intentional. That meant there should be—

"Yes!"

A rough rope ladder lay attached to the hole about halfway around the circle. The rope was thick and abrasive against my palm. It should be enough to hold my weight.

Hell of a gamble.

Less of one than tripping into an abyss, however.

Cautiously, I gripped the rope ladder and put one leg on the rung. It was massive and sturdy. Hopefully, it went the whole way down.

Into darkness .

That was putting it mildly. I lost all concept of time and space in the inky dark, focused only on continuing my descent. My blood pounded in my ears, anxiety and excitement turning my stomach.

Excitement? Excitement for what?

If he's already dying, what's a little experiment for the sake of knowledge? You wouldn't even have to lie about how he died …

Not lying? That would be something novel.

I shouldn't be excited Nisar was bleeding out on the ground below me. That's not how people normally reacted, was it? Sure, I'd been excited about seeing my enemies get their comeuppance in the past—M, the queen, stupid Nobles who'd sneered at me. What exactly had Nisar done that was so terrible? He was an idiot, sure, but had that always been a death sentence?

Yes.

I shook away the niggling thought. It wasn't normal. It wasn't right.

And yet, I wasn't bothered by it.

"H-help …"

My foot hit hard rock instead of another rung on the ladder. I let go, and weighed my options. The knife felt heavy at my waist, my bloodmagick flaring and giving away my position.

And Nisar's.

It wasn't pretty. He lay prone on his back, his left arm and leg bent awkwardly underneath him. His head lay angled to the side, eyes staring straight ahead and away from me.

He wouldn't even see it coming.

I thought about what I'd planned to do with the Fireguard; what my bloodmagick had wanted me to do. It was one thing when it was a nameless guard I didn't know—could I do it to Nisar? Sure he was irritating, but to finish him in cold blood for my own purposes?

We're all dead anyhow.

I unsheathed my knife and moved forward. He wouldn't even see me coming.