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All at once, the ground rises up beneath me.

I land hard on a pile of bones, the brittle remains crumbling beneath my weight. A plume of dust kicks up, unfurling slowly in the molasses-like air.

I dust myself off, taking in my surroundings. I can’t see much besides bones and bones and bones. There are skulls and femurs and ribs and so many other bits of anatomy that I can’t identify. The longer I look, the more I begin noticing the tarnished armor amongst the bones. A crescent moon is stamped onto a metal shield. Another helmet bears the same mark.

Night soldiers.

Shit.

“There you are.”

My head snaps up as Galleghar steps out from the darkness. He’s bloody and his clothes in tatters. All across his skin are bite marks and, in some areas, missing flesh. It’s healing over, but each wound is a grim reminder of what might’ve happened to me if I didn’t have my glamour to fend off all the fae living in the Pit.

I glance back down at the bones.

“Why are there Night soldiers down here?” I ask.

Galleghar kicks a bone uselessly aside.

“Long ago, I invaded the Kingdom of Death and Deep Earth.”

Horror dawns on me. All of these bones, they belonged to fairies Galleghar had brought down here—brought down here to die.

“Illuminate this place,” I command him.

Galleghar stares at me for several seconds. Then, extending his hand, a ball of light forms. As I watch, it grows bigger and brighter before lifting off of the fallen king’s palm and floating into the air above us.

Now I get a good look at our surroundings. As far as the eye can see, the ground is an ocean of bones. There must be …thousandsof bodies.

“Why?” I ask, my eyes searching the remains.

“The Thief needed a realm to rule.”

I glance sharply at Galleghar. “What do you mean the Thief needed a realm to rule?”

Des’s father gives me a cryptic smile. “He was an invader.”

My eyes sweep over the graveyard. “And you helped him.”

Galleghar brought an army here to take over a kingdom. He allowed these soldiers to die, all so that he could insert the Thief onto a stolen throne.

Jesus.

Someone else used to rule this place. Someone presumably who now is under the rule of the Thief. I shiver to think what the afterlife must be like for them.

“I did.”

Galleghar moves away from me, the bones of his former soldiers crunching under his feet. He pays them no attention. And why should he? In his mind, fairies are only as good as their use.

“This way,” he says over his shoulder. “Unless you’ve changed your mind.”

We stride on, wading through the frightening graveyard. Among the dead soldiers are skeletons of monsters who lived and died in this place. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen something like this—or that I ever will again.

Galleghar’s earlier light bobs along above us, illuminating a massive stone archway ahead. On our side of it lay the bones of the dead, on the other side, thick, curling smoke obscures our view.

The fallen king passes under that archway without a backward glance, the smoke stirring as it swallows him up.

I hesitate.