Page 33 of Grave Revelations (Prophecies of Angels and Demons #3)

Chapter 32

Sophia

Sophia woke to the familiar sensation of her arms dangling overhead, body suspended in air.

In Sheol, it had been quiet. Even the river, normally flooded with souls, was mysteriously empty. She’d searched for Elizabeth or the strange woman whose image was difficult to grasp, like a memory buried within the recesses of her mind. She knew her name was Sanura, could remember when the woman found her in the cave and accused her of being mean to Elizabeth. But the memory always ended as the woman touched her face.

When she’d found no one, she sat in the cave's mouth, the day blurring as her thoughts raced toward that night and returning to Rebecca.

Now, she wished for nothing more than to return to Sheol rather than endure this sort of torture again. She peered around the room. Sooty cave walls carved from the earth in a honeycomb pattern with ancient Greek carvings in the walls could only mean one place: Demre.

It had made sense to her once she put it all together. Myra Necropolis in Demre was an ancient Lycian city dating back to the fourth century. It was famous for its rock tombs—a city for the dead.

What better place for a necromancer to form her stronghold than in the city built to commemorate her craft? Behind the facade of tombs situated high along rock outcroppings—the ideal place for bodies in fourth century BC when people believed winged creatures carried away the dead—was a network of tunnels leading deep into the mountains.

Although the caves were a tourist attraction, bringing people from around the world, the tombs themselves were a protected bit of history.

Sophia let her head fall back, staring up at those damned spelled chains, the ones she couldn’t break a thumb to get out of. She was trapped. Again. If she was here, though, it meant they must have Rebecca, too. A pit formed in her stomach even as some invisible binding in her chest loosened.

It was as if she’d completed a task she couldn’t name.

Shuffling over stone drew her attention, and after some time, a shadow fell across the floor, elongating and stretching across the stone surface. She listened for any discernible tells but sounds bounced off the walls in this cavernous space, making everything echo.

A creature stepped into the room, and her heart stuttered. “Nita!”

Nita moved with a graceful speed that would have marked her as one of their kind had her eyes not given her away. Her sister stopped at the entrance to the room, trailing her cold gaze over Sophia.

Sophia whimpered. “Sister, please. Help me.”

Nitai’s dead eyes stared through her, and their vacancy chilled Sophia to her core. “You failed her.”

Sophia strained against her cuffs, another small sob escaping her.

Without another word, her sister turned, leaving the room.

“Nita!” she cried.

Nita didn’t answer. Didn’t turn back.

Tears ran down her cheeks as her heart shattered. Sophia had held out hope that even if they’d been changed, they’d be like her—their minds free to make their own choices.

But one look in her sister’s dead eyes and she knew. Nita was gone. What remained was the sort of creature they’d been taught about as children. The kind you feared .

Sophia’s bones ached. Her joints screamed. Her mortal body needed food and water; her immortal one needed the essence of a human or a demon. Not that she’d seen any demons since she’d been turned.

It wasn’t yet dawn, but the pain shooting down her arms felt weeks old. She longed to return to Sheol, to have even a moment’s reprieve from the throbbing in her limbs and her blinding hunger.

How difficult would it be to end herself? To find a sharp object and stop the suffering? Whatever awaited her, she preferred the free-floating abyss of a soul untethered. Bodies were such a hindrance, and hers—racked with pain—was something she never wanted to return to.

Could she get lost in Sheol? Find her coven’s souls and join them for eternity? Was this to be her hell?

A familiar sound had her jerking her head up toward the entrance to her cave. Phoebe and Cassia moved into the room, and Sophia cried out at the sight of them, the same dead, lifeless eyes tracking over her. Were they all to visit her? An endless parade of her coven, reduced to these husks?

She thrashed in her chains.

If she could dislocate her arms and pull them free from their sockets, she would tear herself free. She didn’t need arms to plunge herself into the sea. To let the ocean claim her. She pulled harder.

Something stirred in Cassia’s gaze, and she darted forward, lifting Sophia from the floor so she couldn’t harm herself. Sophia kicked and fought, but her sister’s arms wrapped around her in a vicelike grip.

The girl had been feeding; her essence was strong. Perhaps Sophia imagined it, but something wicked glinted in Cassia’s eyes for only a moment. Then it was gone, replaced by the yellow orbs staring at nothing.

Phoebe raised her hands, saying something too quiet for even Sophia to hear, and the bonds fell away .

She dropped into Cassia’s arms and began flailing wildly, trying to get free, but Phoebe moved in to clamp an iron hand around her neck, and she stilled. Something under Phoebe’s touch immobilized her. The earth magic had been tainted; rather than giving life, it sucked it away, leeching her energy.

They moved down a long hall, lit by illusory glowing objects, stopping in a vast room. Several arched entrances encircled them, and in front of each, a yellow-eyed creature blocked the exit. They stared ahead, unblinking gazes focused on the object at the center.

On a stone dais in the middle of the room, Rebecca lay motionless. Her arms and legs were secured at either end of the table, and a thin line of blood ran down her cheek.

The sight roused something in Sophia. “Rebecca,” she called weakly.

Rebecca didn’t respond.

Beside the dais, Elizabeth, small in stature but not in presence, dominated the room. She barked orders as night beings moved around them. And there were other creatures in the room, too. By their eyes, they appeared human, but their faces were wrong, skin torn away and sagging in places.

Elizabeth’s head snapped up as she entered, her sharp yellow eyes trained on Sophia. There was something different about Elizabeth from the others, but she couldn’t say what it was. Her aura was bigger, alive in a way the others weren’t, and her eyes glowed brighter, nearly gold in their iridescence.

“Bring her. Bring her quickly,” Elizabeth ordered.

Phoebe and Cassia stepped into the center of the room, dragging Sophia with them. Moisture collected on Sophia’s brow, crystallizing and freezing on her cheeks.

Even in this subdued state, water strained to be near her. Her change hadn’t affected how the water reacted to her, only how her magic intertwined with the element. If she could speak to it, ask it instead of command, could she regain the pure magic she once held?

She collapsed to the floor in a heap as her sisters dropped her at Elizabeth’s feet.

“I'm disappointed.” Elizabeth tsked. “I asked you to bring Rebecca. Instead, you fought at every turn and encouraged her to run. ”

Sophia lifted her head, turning to the side, and spit on the ground.

Elizabeth scowled. “No matter. You led me to her all the same and I have another use for you. Sophia, stand.”

To Sophia’s abject horror, she did. Legs moving on strings, she pushed to her feet with a strength she hadn’t known she possessed and stood.

“Good. Now, Sophia, I want you to go to your friend. That’s right, go stand by her.”

Sophia moved mechanically, stopping beside Rebecca.

Rebecca’s eyes were rolled back in her head, and she let out a soft moan when Sophia’s hip bumped her swollen, reddened flesh.

Rebecca must be cold, or perhaps she was beyond feeling. Her bare skin was red in too many places to count, and there were several puncture wounds in her chest and stomach. The trickle of blood near her mouth matched the others on her body: dark, viscous blood seeped from them all.

A buzzing started in Sophia’s head, her mouth going dry. Stop , she pleaded with herself. She’s your friend . The conscious part of her mind fought with everything she had against the hunger zinging through her.

Rebecca groaned again, her head twisting to the side, and several puncture wounds on her neck began to bleed.

Sophia’s mind went blank.

She moved, sinking teeth into soft, warm skin and sucked the shimmering vital essence that was so much sweeter than the other humans.