Page 46

Kaiser regarded me again, the cogs working behind his eyes to figure out the meaning of my amusement.

I flattened my smile, giving him a scowl instead as he led me along the top of the wall on the western side of the Heliacal Courtyard.

We climbed down and I landed lightly then followed Kaiser swiftly along the passage that led to the Vault of Steel.

He walked up to a sconce on the wall and Calcifiend flew from his shoulder, slipping into a gap between the large stone bricks and disappearing.

A click sounded on the other side of the wall and a hidden door swung open.

“He’s useful sometimes,” I commented.

“Yes, he is most useful. I can track his whereabouts and see through his eyes at any time.” Kaiser stepped into the dark and I was left staring after him in horror.

“You can do what ?”

“I can track his whereabouts and see through his eyes at any time,” he repeated as if he thought the problem was that I hadn’t heard him the first time.

I prowled after him, pushing the door shut and lunging for him in the dark recess, grabbing his arm and forcing him to face me. “You’ve been spying on me all this time?”

“From the very first moment he came to you in the bathhouse. Yes. I was gathering general intelligence, then you used your Void power on that secret doorway, and I decided it was best to watch you to understand what I had witnessed. I can control his movements too if it is necessary, though only a nudge of encouragement is usually required. He is quite loyal.”

I felt violated. How many times had Calcifiend been there while I was dressing or washing or-

A cold lump of dread formed in my throat. My forging techniques. My secrets. My experimental lacquers and concoctions. Kaiser could have seen it all. Taken the knowledge. Passed it to fucking Pyros.

“What did you see?” I demanded. “What information have you stolen from me?”

“I am not always present with him, that would be a waste of my own time. But I watched while you travelled beneath the Keep with the Sky Witch. I know you had an allegiance. I know everything that you know about the Reapers too, silka la vin.”

“I…no, it wasn’t an allegiance with the Sky Witch, we were just using each other.

I would never ally myself with anyone from another land,” I spluttered in outrage and the worst part of that was that it felt like a lie, which only made my anger spike.

“And what is with that damn nickname?” I snapped.

“Come, we don’t have time for any more idle talk.” Kaiser delved on down a spiral staircase, and I continued to make demands of him for answers while we walked, but he didn’t reply to any more of my questions.

Calcifiend clicked his tongue at me from the Fury’s shoulder, his tail igniting in a faint blue glow.

“I’d started to forgive you, you little wretch,” I hissed at him.

He clicked his tongue sadly, but I wasn’t going to be softened by those big eyes and that innocent cute-as-shit face. He was a rat through and through.

I needed to know what Kaiser had seen. Had he witnessed my deal with Mavus Angelico?

I tried to remember all the times Calcifiend had been with me and what he might have shown his master, but he came and went like the wind.

There was a high probability that Kaiser had seen every important, profound, shameful or secretive thing I’d done since the little fiend had first come to me in the bathhouse.

I wanted to scream. No, I wanted to tear Kaiser’s eyes out then shove that tiny Dragon up his ass.

I huffed a furious breath between my teeth. I couldn’t even question him on what he had seen specifically in case he hadn’t seen it.

Realisation snared me all of a sudden. “That’s why you came to Vesper’s room the same time I did. You used Calcifiend to follow me there. Why?” I demanded.

“I intend to keep your head on your shoulders. I came there to ensure you didn’t get caught by the Reapers.”

“I don’t need you watching my back.”

“I’ll be the decider of that. Now hush,” he said. “I am concentrating on our route.” He took a passage to the right at the base of the stairs, ignoring three others that led away into the dark.

“Well excuse me for being pissed off about yet another violation of my life. You are, without a doubt, the worst Fae I have ever had the misfortune to encounter and if you had even a scrap of animosity toward me, I would be certain you were my Astral Adversary, bound to me by the stars to clash with me time and again and drive me to the brink of insanity. But it seems this hatred is one-sided because your empty heart has withered into a fucking prune. You wouldn’t know passion if it jabbed you repeatedly with a rusty fork, then cut off your cock and swallowed it whole. ”

“Hush,” he repeated.

This time, his possession took hold of me and forced my lips to lock together. I screamed a tide of curses at him, but they were trapped in my throat, the sound muffled and useless.

Kaiser walked on, taking turns left and right, and I tried to memorise the route in case he fell down a ravine and I had to find my way back alone. Come on Scorpio, make him slip and crack his head as he falls into a watery grave.

At that image, my rage simmered into something sweeter and I followed obediently on, wondering if the Nightfire would let me cast ice beneath Kaiser’s feet to help him slip away into a deadly crag.

Kaiser stopped abruptly and I jerked to a halt before I bumped into him, peering around his broad shoulders to see where we were.

The glow of Calcifiend’s tail lit a metal door which had a chalice sitting in a recess that was made from a carved circle of twelve faces, each twisted in its own horrified expression.

All of them held markings of a star sign and the chalice was engraved with the sun and moon above a cursive script.

Ius solis et lunae offerat

“What does that mean?” I whispered, realising Kaiser’s possession had lifted from my lips.

“Offer the Elixir of Sun and Moon.” He took a vial from his pocket, the liquid within it sparkling like diamonds. He un-stoppered it, pouring it into the waiting chalice and I held my breath, staying behind him so he could act as a shield if something dangerous happened.

“How did you know how to make that elixir?” I breathed.

“My mother sent me some information that helped me locate it. It was not an easy thing to brew. It required the blood of a Reaper – and that was not simple to acquire without their knowledge.”

A heavy clunk sounded the door unlocking and the oppressive sense of magic crackled through the air before dissipating. Kaiser pushed it open and I peered into the gloom beyond.

Stairs. The type that dropped away into nothingness and promised death on the icy wind that was blowing up from the depths of nowhere.

I unsheathed my blade from the folds of my coat, raising it in preparation of what was to come.

Perhaps we would find a host of hungry beasts down there and while they were busy chomping on Kaiser’s bones, I could slip back up these stairs and escape.

But I hoped to get some answers before they descended.

“A door like this must be hiding many secrets,” I whispered.

“My thoughts exactly. I discovered it in my first week at the Keep. The inscription here suggests a potent magic contains something truly powerful within.” He pointed to the curling words around the edges of the door that I couldn’t decipher.

“I can taste your fear, but you are not as afraid as I expected,” he said quietly.

“I’ve never been afraid of the dark.” I stepped past him, but he knocked me back and took the lead.

“Well if you want to walk first into that gaping asshole of doom, be my guest,” I muttered.

“You are an important asset.”

“One you’ve led here? To this safe little place. At the top of a terrifying staircase that beckons us toward an unknown, but likely violent, harrowing death?”

“Sarcasm?” he guessed.

“Well done, clever boy.”

“You will walk to far more dangerous places than this with me when the time comes. No matter what battle I face in the future, you will be there to bolster my power. That is your destiny now.”

“Lucky me. But as much as I can’t wait to be your travel snack forevermore, you do realise I’m never going to let that happen, right?”

“Your confidence is unfounded.”

“That’s what you think, pishalé.”

He started down the stone steps and I followed him into the narrow space, the air in here chilling me to the core. My grip tightened on my dagger, the elevation of my pulse a crescendo in my ears that marked each step I took towards the blackness below.

Kaiser ignited a Faelight and let the amber orb float down the stairway, enticing us into the dark like a will-o’-the-wisp.

At the base of the stairs, the Faelight hovered above an open hatch in the floor with a wooden ladder disappearing into the pitch darkness. This was far worse than a disconcerting staircase, but there was no other way forward, the walls around us holding no doors.

Kaiser stepped onto the ladder, dropping down a few rungs without pause then looking up at me. I half expected a beast to grab him from below and yank him out of sight, but I had no such fortune to collect from the stars.

“There is an inscription on the wall behind you. Move aside,” he urged and I turned to face it, finding the words faintly glittering there.

Nulla lux in fenestra

“That is odd,” Kaiser commented. “I do not quite understand its meaning.”

“What does it say?” I asked.

“No light may pass into the window.” He glanced down into the abyss beneath him. “We had best progress without light.”

“And head down there without being able to see?” I hissed.

“The dark frightens you,” he commented.

“I told you; I don’t fear the dark; it’s what lurks down in that hole that I’m concerned with. I don’t like not being able to see my enemy.”