A vein bulged in Thorrin’s tanned neck and fury lit his eyes. “We’ve searched formonthsfor answers. We can’t continue like this. We have loved ones who are sick. People have been run out of their homes. And Arborius advised if we come here, you would give answers to—”
“The Keeper of the Holy Flame sent you here?” The Graver cocked its head at him in a swift jerk. “It seems he misled you.”
Thorrin’s roar mirrored animalistic rage. But Vesper quieted as the overwhelming grip of hopelessness clamped a hand around his heart. He shouldn’t have been fucking surprised. Arborius would do anything to get his daughter, and they weren’t exactly on good terms after what happened in the mountain passage. Once again, he’d done this to himself.
Vesper’s eyes burned with shame, and he blinked hard before he turned from the Graver and said, “Let’s go. This was a waste of time.”
Gaelen and Kyrith gripped Thorrin’s arms and yanked him to his feet, even though it seemed he debated tackling the Graver and beating the snot out of it to get answers. They all shuffledout, but before Vesper could exit with the rest of them, the Graver seized his wrist.
His body jerked. Eyes rolled back. A sputtering sound slipped from between his lips as his body convulsed. His knees nearly buckled.
That touch did something to him.
Pried open something in his mind.
Shot ice through his veins.
Rattled his bones.
He clenched his teeth and tried to rip his arm away, desperate not to feel whatever that fucking nonsense was, but the Graver held tight. Injected something into him like the frigid death of the Divide.
“You must stay,” it insisted.
“S-stop.Stop,” Vesper hissed through chattering teeth. “L-let go. Fucckk—let go.”
“We have much to discuss, Hollow King.”
“I—shiiiitt,” he ground out between his teeth as he snatched his arm back. His stomach condensed to a heavy slab of metal, and he stumbled back to get far, far away from the Graver and his death-kissed touch. “I asked for answers. And you denied me. Unless you have guidance for Izzy, a cure for this disease, or anything about this bloody prophecy, this is a waste of mine and my comrades' time.” Then he snarled, “And don’tevertouch me again.”
“I can ask the gods anything else. Perhaps about your father. His untimely death. Or about your mother, should you choose to open your eyes.”
Vesper’s attention snapped to him, quick as a catapult launching its ammo. “My—my mother?” His voice trembled. “What do you mean? And my father’s heart gave out. There was nothing more…” But he trailed off as his mind descended into all sorts of dark places.
The Graver shuffled back to the table and grasped another cup. It downed the liquid in one greedy gulp before it turned back to Vesper. Its red-tinged lips spread into a smile.
Like Vesper’s world crashed into the sun, and the ground gave out beneath him, all the fucking pieces slid into their rightful place.
The Graver’s grin revealed thin needle-sharp teeth in a grotesquely wide mouth, like a bloody gourd split down the middle. Nearly severed its face.
Andunhingedat the jaw.
Izzy’s words slammed into him.
There’s something else here. Things that live in the darkness. Something with jaws that unhinge—gaping mouths lined with jagged teeth.
While his legs begged him to run, Vesper steeled his expression and pretended to straighten a dagger on his belt. “We have all the answers we need.”
He didn’t make it through the tent flap before Nef grabbed his arm and yanked him through.
“Alright, that's thesecondtime someone has grabbed me in less than a minute. This had better be good,” Vesper said on a sigh. His limbs still trembled from what he’d just seen. From that icy shock that needled his body. He just wanted to leave. “We need to go.Now.”
Even through his tunic, Nef’s nails dug into his flesh as she dragged him away from the tent. Vesper glanced behind him, but the Graver thankfully hadn’t emerged. His attention snapped back to Nef. Who wasalone.
“Where’s Dimitri?” he asked. “I told him to find you.”
“What? I—I didn’t see him,” she murmured. Her wild eyes scanned the dark pockets of the cavern like something lurked in them.
Too busy frowning at her, Vesper stumbled over the uneven ground. When they rounded the mass of tents, she tugged him down to a crouch behind a bush. Her breaths wheezed and she stifled a cough into her sleeve.