“You are here for the wrong reasons, Magnus. You claimed me for the wrong reasons.” Her last words made his hazel eyes lock on her. “But I don’t hate you. I could never.”
Nadine sighed and leaned her head against the wall. The adrenaline was wearing off, and with that realization came the understanding that they were going to die soon. The instinct to fight was still there, but it was dampening. Nadine’s thoughts turned inward. Had this mission been worth it?
“I came here for the wrong reasons, too,” she muttered. “I came here to destroy the Soul Thieves. To use the Eye like my ancestor did. To gain glory from my name and a purpose that validated all the chakva that’s come before.” She blinked slowly. “Do you think that’s noble?”
Magnus frowned at her. “Of course.”
Nadine pursed her lips and found herself holding back a smile, one steeped in incredulity at how blind she’d been. “Even if we’d succeeded, barbarian, I would have failed.”
Even had she brought back the heads of the Soul Thieves in one hand and the Eye of Azureal in the other. Even if she’d entered under the Golden Gate of Lapour to a parade of cascading rose petals, every citizen lined up to pay her honor. If she’d marched up the stairs of the Golden Court itself to lay her prize at the feet of her Mushar, Nadine would have failed. Because glory wasn’t what she’d really been looking for. Not truly.
“What my soul coveted was always on this mountain. Not in it.”
Magnus looked at her, and wonder glittered in his eyes. Nadine stuck her arm through the bars and placed the palm of her hand on the grimy floor of his cell. Magnus’s eyes tracked her movement. He swallowed, and with a strained breath, scooted toward her. His hand covered hers on the floor, and they met each other’s gazes. Nadine’s heart pounded in her chest as time crawled to a standstill. Magnus’s lips parted to speak.
The harsh sound of metal scraping across stone made them tense. They turned their heads to glance down the cell block. Their jailers had come.
Magnus’s blood went cold as a trio of Nozverak made their way down the hall between the cells.
He and Nadine broke apart. The guards seemed to be staring straight at them. But no, they didn’t slow until they had passed Magnus’s cell and immediately worked the lock of Azolirum’s. Nadine and Magnus shot to their feet.
“What’s happening?” Magnus demanded.
Azolirum and his companions pressed against the far edge of the wall and growled like wolves as the gate was worked open. At the last moment, the horde king turned toward Magnus and hissed, “They’ve come to charm answers from a stone. Enjoy the music that’s to come, nozturel. I know how you love to sing.”
Azolirum spit the bitter words at Magnus that hit him like fire. This was his fault. All of it. Panic and uncertainty shot through his veins for his friend’s fate. Suspicion curdled his gut.
The three guards shoved into Azolirum’s cell and ripped the horde king from it. His men remained stuck to the wall. They twisted against their bonds and snarled and howled as their leader was torn from them. The guards didn’t react, only performed their task with the steel-cold emptiness that betrayed their enthrallment. Were they even truly Nozverak anymore? Azolirum put up no resistance as they dragged and shoved him down the hall.
“What are they going to do to him?” Nadine asked.
Crann hissed an answer. “The same they’ve tried before and failed. They want to know which way to dig.”
Magnus turned from Azolirum’s vanishing figure and locked eyes with the blue-skinned creature. “What?”
Hezek stood with his chains taut, still staring in the direction his leader had been taken. “They’ll torture him, traitor.”
Magnus’s muscles locked, and his skin went clammy.
Nadine broke the momentary silence. “What do you mean about ‘which way to dig’?”
The sound of the guards and Azolirum faded. He was gone, and his men huffed with anger before easing back against the wall. Crann turned angry eyes on Nadine. “They’re trapped down here, female. Our lands don’t extend to the rest of the underearth.”
Hezek sneered. “Now they have all of it. All of us. There’s nowhere else to go except out.”
“Or under,” Crann said. “Thanks to your people, out is no longer an easy path.”
“They won’t stop trying,” Hezek rumbled.
Nadine’s brows drew together. “What are you saying? The Soul Thieves are trying to dig a connection to the rest of the world underneath the ground?”
“Don’t think that means your world is safe, female.” Crann’s scarred face stretched into a hollow smile. “They’ll start underground just as they did with us. But once they find a connection, they’ll gain entry to the paths outside the world. Of which there are many.”
“We’ll see how long your kind survives when you’re like us,” Hezek said with a sneer. “When the Soul Thieves have reign of your world and can enter your lands from anywhere.”
Crann nodded. “This mountain is only one gateway. But it’s a narrow door, and the Soul Thieves’ army is like water spilling over a cliff.”
Magnus slunk closer to their bars. “Are you saying they’re going to ask Azolirum how to escape the underearth from somewhere else? From somewhere other than the mountain?”
Crann smirked. “Don’t look too frightened, nozturel. They’ve asked him before and left their pretty marks on him.”
Magnus thought of the day he’d first met Azolirum as a fellow prisoner in the pits. The horde king had been there for Helig knew how long. Had he and his generals been questioned all that time? Tortured?
“This time they’ll ask us their questions, too,” Crann added.
“Do you know which way to dig?” Nadine asked, her breath catching.
The creature gave a noncommittal flick of his horns. “Worry less about that, female. And worry they’ll ask you their questions before dumping you in the pits.”
The blood drained from Magnus’s face at the thought of Nadine being tormented by those mindless creatures. As if Regna meant to punish him for his failure, a pained roar sounded from the direction Azolirum had been taken. Magnus’s stomach twisted.
“They’ve started,” Crann said.
Nadine looked at Magnus, and they shared a moment of horror followed by renewed determination. This couldn’t be over yet. It couldn’t be. Those above ground didn’t even know what the Soul Thieves were doing. Magnus turned around and hissed low at the Nozverak. “You never even warned us! My brothers don’t know they’re digging. What they’re trying to do.”
Crann and Hezek looked at him like he was stupid. “You were already helping us. And you never asked.”
Magnus slammed his hands on the bars before turning around in the cramped space. He felt like a wild animal. Once again he wanted to fly. More than that he wanted to rage. To roar. To shed blood.
All he could do was pace.
He caught Nadine straining to look around him. “Will Azolirum break?” she asked.
Crann sneered. “As I said, this isn’t his first time being questioned by the devils.”