CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
EMMERY
They descended a flight of stairs into a dark entrance way. Reminiscent of the mausoleum, pictures of wings, beasts, demons, and wicked things that made Emmery’s skin crawl, decorated the walls. Ahead loomed two colossal wooden doors etched in the same designs. Their steps quickened toward it.
Emmery had just turned to Dez when she ran smack into something. Dull pain radiated through her face.
She rubbed her aching cheek. “I found the barrier,” she grumbled.
Dez had the audacity to chuckle. “I suppose that’s one way to do it.”
Emmery reopened her wound from Dez’s thorns and coated her palms with blood before she placed her hands against the translucent wall. Her eyes fell closed as she leaned into it, reached for that barrier, lost in the dark space in her mind. But as she groped for the magical, buzzing energy, she found nothing.
She searched again. And again. Her eyes flew open and she grit her teeth, her pulse a dull thump in her throat.
Dez stepped up beside her. “What’s wrong?”
“Usually I—” She slapped the wall with her hand. “I can see it in my mind. It appears and I can touch it. But I can’t find it. It’s like it’s notthere.” She frowned and tried once more, but only darkness answered her call.
He pursed his lips and tilted his head. As he reached out, and she prepared to roll her eyes, his hand passed straight through like air.
Emmery’s jaw fell slack.
“What were you saying?” he asked. He smiled wide and bright, and like an arrogant ass, wiggled his fingers on the opposite side.
“H-how?” For fear she might have lost her mind, she thumped her fist against it.
Slow as molasses, her stomach sank, harsh questions heavy in her gut. What if he could pass, but she couldn’t? Would he leave her? Would he get her memories? Could she use compulsion? Could she figure out how?
With that same shit-eating grin on his face and blood sliding down his temple, he turned and sauntered backward through.
A cold sweat pricked the back of her neck. She braced her hands on the barrier and shoved, but it didn’t budge. “Dez—”
Like he couldn’t hear her, he frowned and cupped his ear.
“Destonne! This isn’t funny!” Desperation bled into her voice as she felt her memories slip further away. After all she’d endured, she wouldnotbe left here. She summoned her flame, but it merely blackened the barrier.
In an impossibly long stride, Dez crossed, seized her around the waist, and dragged her through. Her heart lodged in her throat as she glanced over her shoulder at the barrier, then up at him.
“How did you know that would work?” she breathed.
“I didn’t, but I’m glad it did.” He held her tighter. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”
Speechless, she stared up at him. His smile only made her chest ache. And suddenly, she couldn't breathe, caught in this strange moment with him.
But the longer he gazed at her, the more the joy drained from his smile; and, as if he couldn’t look at her a moment longer, he turned to the entrance. With a vexed creak the door opened, and they slid through.
Once inside, Emmery’s eyes widened.
The enormous study could easily devour the Merikh’s library, but unlike Castle Dusk, this shadowy windowless space sent a chill skittering down her spine. Since neither of them knew what to search for, they perused the cluttered tables and shelves littered in papers and strange magical contraptions. The thin red rugs covering the creaky floorboards reminded her far too much of the blood river.
Like the room itself sensed their presence, sconces flared to life as they passed by. She surveyed the wall covered in countless books, each more ancient than the next, all in a blur of earthy colours. Each book hummed with the same strange energy. She turned to a series of closets and locked doors.
Over her shoulder, she whispered to Dez, “What do you know about Deimos?” The first doorknob rattled under her trembling hand.
“He was a scholar,” Dez replied, equally hushed though his deep voice carried. He rifled through the papers on a nearby table, then moved to the bookshelves. “He was passionate about animals and beautiful women. Before he was trapped in that slab of ice, of course.”
Emmery eased open the door to find a mostly empty broom closet. She clenched her teeth and slid it shut with a soft click, though clearly no one else was here. And why would they be? This damn vault of a room only had one key, which now was tucked between her breasts.