Page 72 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

Blair

Blair stares at the wall, sitting in the exact same spot since Melody left.

Food. The girl brought her food. An act of kindness. Wasted on her. It doesn’t matter whether Blair will starve to death down here while she’s waiting for her execution, but that her belly no longer aches from hunger feels good, she can’t deny that.

She licks her teeth, ignoring the cold of the unforgiving stone seeping through her torn clothes and into her bones. She can feel Caryan, even down here. He is in everything around her. It’s his magic that built the Fortress, his magic that still writhes and hisses through the stone. Being so close to it—it’s torment enough for a lifetime. Oh, how much Blair would like to think he keeps her because Caryan still cares on some level. But it’s a lie. The only reason she’s still breathing is that Melody wrought a promise from him.

Not that this means anything. Melody doesn’t yet know enough of their rules. Or maybe she had just been too weak by then, on that mountain.

But Blair knows Caryan will keep her only until things have cooled down a bit. Until the girl has forgotten about her. And then, sooner or later, one of his lapdogs will come down here to snap her neck. Caryan’s in no rush. He will wait. It could be weeks from now, or months. He is patient and it’s not like Blair can do any harm .

Or maybe… maybe he would just let her starve to death. Not that it matters, how she dies.

Blair’s mind drifts back to her mothers. They will be alright. They must be. She slices off the thought, and pushes back the ugly fear that threatens to grab her by the throat.

No, she won’t allow it.

She wrenches her thoughts back to the present, and they snare on Melody again. That weird half-human thing . Caryan’s latest pet. She reeked of desperation when she came down here before. She smelled of salt, too, which told Blair that she’d been crying.

She came to ask about her mother, so Caryan, the cruel bastard, has told her shit. Of course. Had he told her anything ?

Blair snorts, leaning her head back against the cold stone, her white hair falling around her body, bereft of pigments, as if magic had made her hair shine. Now, gone, she’s half a corpse.

A moonmaiden . A kind thing to say. Blair hates it, the girl’s kindness. It makes her want to be kind back. But kindness is weakness, and if she got weak, she would break for good. Do you think Caryan is bad? That’s what Melody also asked her. I think he is dangerous.

Funny how that little creature had more sense than Blair ever had. It doesn’t make Blair like her more. No, not at all.

But she’s thought about it, oh yes. Melody’s question struck deep. Is Caryan bad? No. She loved him.

But then, didn’t she say exactly that to the blacksmith—warning him, about Caryan?

She’d been so blind. Blind with love. Perenilla had been right, all Blair wanted was to be at his side. She’d never really thought about anything beyond that.

And avoided thinking of him at all after they split up.

What if she’d overlooked something essential?

She laughs, quietly to herself, like a lunatic. There is no stopping Caryan anyway. There is no one in this fucking world who could stop him. Not even with all their forces aligned. She’d seen him on that battlefield, and that was before he broke her aunt’s chains and consumed all her magic.

And once he found those relics…

She looks up when she hears someone running. Fast. A second later, the girl appears, Blair’s black sword strapped down her spine. Her eyes are feral, her breath coming fast and uneven. There are bruises on her wrists and around her neck.

“I’m going to run,” she says. “You can come with me if you promise not to hurt me.”

Crazy little thing indeed. Blair smiles with her teeth to hide her surprise. “I knew you were a bad idea the moment I saw you.”

“I don’t have time for this. You want to come or not?”

“Sure,” Blair says and gets up. “I like bad ideas. I just doubt that you can open that door.”

“I think I can.”

Blair watches Melody drawing closer, her eyes coming to rest on some of what looks like Caryan’s runes on her wrist. What the fuck? How did those runes end up on her body? And what is that in their middle? A fucking bargain.

Melody puts her hands on the wall next to the door. The runes on her arm start to gleam, and the bars begin to dissolve as if they were never there.

“How the hell did you get Caryan’s magic?” Blair snarls, torn between fascination and, yep, bone-eating jealousy.

“Long story. Later. Let’s run,” the girl says. She’s already turned on her heels, sprinting towards the stairs.

For a second, Blair contemplates grabbing her. Dragging her back to Caryan. What would he do? Maybe he’d take her back if she’d delivered his precious half-human up to him on a silver platter. But where the hell is Caryan?

And no, Caryan would probably kill her anyway, the girl wouldn’t change that. So Blair follows, for now.

They run. The girl seems to know her way around the Fortress. Yet as soon as they leave the claustrophobic staircase to the dungeon, Blair can’t help but stare at the breathtaking architecture, the perfect mixture of the fae and human world. When Ronin and Kyrith brought her here, she’d been half dead, but now the lightness and splendor hit her like a blow as they dash down a vast corridor.

“Do you actually have a plan?” Blair asks.

“Cars. There were cars,” Melody says, pushing against a door and bolting down stairs.

They reach an empty hall that looks almost like a cave, something hewn in stone, not necessarily by anything with hands, Blair notes.

“Fuck, where are they?” Melody mutters, because there is no trace of cars.

Blair looks down on her nails. “Fuck is always my favorite option, although you’re not exactly my type.”

“There’s a tunnel. They must be in there somewhere.” The girl ignores her and runs towards that black, cavernous mouth of a hole in the wall.

“Whoa, wait a second, firecracker! Maybe we should contemplate finding another way,” Blair suggests as the faintest hint of carrion reaches her nose.

“It’s the only way,” the girl shoots back and slinks into the dark. Great.

Blair stalks after her. Darkness envelops her, so pristine that even her night vision is useless. Hells, it’s so much like Caryan’s deadly power it makes Blair’s skin itch and crawl.

“That’s for sure not the only way—” Blair starts, blurting into the cloud of darkness while she keeps her hands out so she won’t hit the wall headfirst.

“It is if you don’t want to end up eaten by a sand worm,” Melody says from somewhere close by. “Or fight our way through the soldiers who guard the stables.”

Point taken. Caryan’s guards are skilled, and cursed; and Blair in her miserable state is too weak for a fight. Not to mention the half-human, probably more hindrance than help.

“Where is Caryan?” Blair asks as the darkness around them shifts, swallowing them whole before it tears slightly, like pushing through a veil until they can see outlines again. What the fuck is this? It’s as if this was a living thing.

“Close,” the girl retorts, walking ahead, her voice pressed.

“Are these bones?” Blair asks with a frown, kicking aside a skeleton that looks very much like a human ribcage. Interesting.

Melody casts a glance at the mortal remnants before her eyes dart to Blair’s.

Blair starts to cackle. “You have no idea where this is leading, huh?”

“I want to get out. And survive,” Melody snaps back, but her eyes shine quite wildly, and she smells of despair.

“What happened?” Blair asks again. “You reek of Caryan’s blood, and you obviously have some of his runes on your wrist.” Not to mention the bruises there and on her throat. “I’d say good sex, but sadly for you, you don’t smell of sex,” Blair adds when the girl stays silent.

Melody pauses as if she’s heard something and puts a finger to her lips. Just then, Blair hears it too. A faint rumble, as if something big is moving their way.

Fast.

“I asked you a question,” Blair hisses. Threat or no, she would not be shushed. By anyone. “And I’m better not ignored,” she adds, just to make that very clear.

“As I said, long story,” the girl whispers back, still staring toward the source of the noise. She’s unsheathed the sword from her back and eased into a fighting stance, but that sword is almost too heavy for her human body.

“I like long stories, especially if I’m not to slit that person’s throat,” Blair croons.

The girl cuts her a glance, her tone sharp. “Is that a threat?”

Blair flashes her teeth at her in a saccharine smile. “Did it sound like a compliment to you?”

“I think we have bigger problems right now. Later. Let’s get out first,” is all Blair gets in return. The tone in Melody’s voice makes her blood boil .

“Oh no, not later. I want to know what you did exactly before I take another step.”

Melody turns to her fully. “Yeah, then, you know what, turn around and crawl back into your cell if you liked it so much.”

For a second, Blair’s speechless. Not sure whether to admire the girl’s courage or throttle her. It’s not every day someone dares to speak like that to a witch. But it’s also the girl Caryan’s obsessed with, so Blair’s rage wins, flashing red in front of her eyes.

She grabs Melody’s slender throat, her other hand closed around Melody’s hand still holding the hilt of the long sword. She pushes the girl against the ragged stone before she can so much as blink.

“Watch your tongue, human, or I’ll rip it out and eat it as dessert,” Blair drawls slowly, her teeth mere inches from Melody’s neck, hot blood pulsating underneath in a too-fast rhythm. All it would take is to sink her teeth in to taste it. Hells, it smells delicious.

Another rumble shakes the cave, sending tiny stones and debris raining down on them. It’s followed by a snort that must belong to a massive beast by the way it travels along the halls.

Blair’s head reflexively snaps towards the sound. A mistake, because just like in the human world, that nasty little thing comes for her. Melody’s knee slams into Blair’s solar plexus, and gods help her, she struggles for breath like a pathetic youngling. The human pushes her off, and just because Blair is weak, she lands on her fucking ass.

“You’re going to pay for that,” Blair seethes between breaths.

“Good, make me. But first, let’s get the fuck out of here. Alive,” the girl snaps back, her tone laced with temper. Her gaze probes the darkness that has started to move again around them, like a cloud of pure blackness. As if it wants to hide them within. Weird.

“Tell me what happened, right now,” Blair demands, getting back to her feet, swallowing the bile in her mouth that’s threatening to rise—the aftermath from the blow. “Or I swear I’m going to convince you that you just freed your worst nightmare.”

The girl glances at her, and it must be something in Blair’s tone because her face falls. And once her facade is gone, she suddenly looks terribly tired and young. Even her eyes have taken on that haunted quality again. As if Caryan indeed shattered an intrinsic piece of her and beneath the surface is nothing but a fissure, yawning, running deep.

It reminds Blair too much of herself.

“I… I don’t know what happened,” Melody starts. “All I remember is that Caryan forced his magic into me, and my magic somehow… Caryan’s hurt. But not for long. Is that enough for now?” The girl’s tone is neutral, but her eyes are pleading.

Blair just stares at her. So Caryan gave her some of his runes—purposely. Why in the damn hells? Because he wants those relics, of course. But… when in the Abyss’s name did he tattoo them into her? Because Blair sure as death didn’t spot that rune on her a little more than two hours ago. And how? And where did he get that magical ink from?

The girl holds out her hand. A truce. An offering.

Blair snarls at it, but Melody doesn’t pull it back.

“Please, Blair, I need you. I need your help,” she says, and for some inexplicable reason, Blair finds herself taking her hand.

“For now,” she warns.

Melody only nods, and both of them stare down into the darkness as the sound of very heavy steps ghost through the halls once more, followed by a scratching sound, as if something hard carves the stone. Something gigantic, with more than two legs. Maybe horns.

“What kind of cars did you see exactly down here?” Blair asks, eyeing the cave walls around them again and not liking the sheer dimension of it at all.

“Ronin said they were demons,” Melody admits, her eyes alert, her heartbeat even faster than before.

Blair twists to her. “Demons? Are you fucking kidding me? We should run the other way, right now!”

Melody only shakes her head, her face set and limned with icy determination. “And go right back to the Fortress? No. I won’t. That’s not an option.”

“But being eaten by a monster is?”

Before Blair can grab her, the mad woman has sprinted off again, surprisingly fast and nimble, right towards the suspicious noise. Blair throws a last glance back, and then—to hells with it—follows her.

But just like that, another wave of darkness erupts right in front of them, swallowing them whole, so thick they can barely breathe. Unnatural. It makes every hair on Blair’s body rise in answer. Something pushes and probes against her in the shade, fading as it realizes she has no magic in her. Then a gush, like water but insubstantial, rushes around them. When Blair blinks again, she finds herself in a huge hall.

Or rather, what once was a hall, ages ago. Marble columns still flank it, but the stone already has cracks and fissures, and the ceiling has started to sink and collapse in places. Melody lands next to her, looking equally scared.

As Blair glances down, she realizes the ground between her feet is strewn with bones. Bleached piles of more bones stretch up to their left and right, gracing the walls like some macabre fashion, and rising high, glimmering in the shade. Cows, fae, humans, and who-the-fuck knows what else. It’s a damn cemetery.

And something ate them all and spat them out here.

“Tunnels, over there!” Melody says, pointing a finger towards three holes on the other side of the bed of bones.

“Wait! Can we, for a second, wait and think?” Blair starts.

“And what? Wait for whatever prowls these halls to come and find us?” Melody shoots back over a shoulder. She’s already dashed right into the cemetery, sinking hip-deep in the macabre sea of death, pushing her way through with hands and feet.

Blair follows. Both of them work through it, wading through sharp bits and treacherous forms, clawing their way through it with mainly their hands and pure iron will towards the tunnels. Three of them, gaping like black mouths ready to devour them whole. Blair doesn’t even want to imagine the creature whose claws ripped into the stone to build them. Maybe the same one who uses these halls as its lair. Maybe different ones. Everyone knows Caryan’s kingdom is haunted by demons from the nine hells.

When they finally reach them, panting, sweat streaming down their bodies in rivers, Melody casts a glance back at Blair. “Which one?”

Blair brushes her hair back out of her face and sniffs the air. “The bad news is—all of them reek of blood.”

“And the good news?”

“The right one reeks of old blood.”

The moment they dive into the right one, another rumble shakes the cave, so strong they both stumble, landing on all fours. Blair curses as the hard stones cut her palms but falls silent as she looks up.

Right into two huge golden eyes, embedded in a scaly head.

“The dragon,” Melody whispers from beside her.

“No. That’s not a dragon.”

“Well, it damn well looks like a dragon to me,” Melody shoots back.

Blair shakes her head. “No, the color of the scales is not right. Nor are the horns.” Its scales have the shiny quality of Blair’s wyvern. So do the horns. But there are four of them instead of two. Massive and curled, protruding left and right out of his head, scratching against the ceiling. “Dragons only have two horns,” she explains.

“Well, maybe anything a little more helpful, Blair?”

“Those aren’t just demons. Those are Trochetian horses. Shape-shifting demons, in the form of a dragon,” Blair explains, suppressing the shiver that runs down her spine. Fuck, she’s only ever heard rumors about them. “A creature from the Abyss, and fucking deadly if you’re not his owner. They’re rare and utterly lethal.”

“Their diet doesn’t, by any chance, happen to exclude half-humans and witches? ”

“Not that I know of,” Blair whispers, ignoring her heartbeat that’s started to skyrocket.

“Anything else that might help our cause?”

“Well, they obey their owner, so you might just pray Caryan shows up here to save us,” she drawls sarcastically.

Melody scowls at her before she pushes to her feet. “Run, Blair! Now!”

At that, Blair startles to her feet too, and they bolt back the way they came, the dragon so close on their heels its hot breath warms the tunnel, carrying the unmistakable scent of flesh and carrion.

“If it fucking likes fried food, we’re dead,” Blair pants through her gritted teeth. Her weak body protests against the strain, but she pushes even harder as large, utterly deadly teeth snap shut behind her, missing her by mere inches.

“What?” Melody throws her a glance, eyes wide at the teeth right behind Blair.

“They can breathe fire,” Blair throws back. “We’re gonna end up as fucking barbecue.”

“Not today,” Melody has the nerve to snarl back.

Just before the darkness swallows them again as if it wanted to protect them. It spits them out a moment later, throwing them right back into the cavernous hall and the sea of bones, saving them from the unmistakable heat that has started to emanate from the demon’s mouth.

“Left tunnel!” Blair screams.

They skitter over the bones, half crawling, half running. Sharp edges cut open their skins, drawing blood as they push towards the leftmost tunnel.

“I think we shook him,” Blair pants between her teeth, right as another dragon—a green one—comes shooting out of the middle tunnel right behind them. It wants to launch itself at them, but it, too, is slowed by all the bones, skittering awkwardly towards them over the slippery surface.

Blair stares at it for a moment too long before she catches herself and starts to push on. But something holds her back .

“Fuck,” she curses under her breath. “My leg got stuck in a ribcage.” She pulls and pulls, but her ankle has snared, interlocking with the other bones. Game over.

“Run. Use me as bait and get out!” she shouts to Melody, meaning it.

But the half-human turns around and, hells, is coming back for her. Again.

Blair bares her teeth. “Save your fucking, miserable life,” Blair snarls as the girl grabs her arm, trying to drag Blair out.

The demon skitters closer, its teeth snapping for Melody.

She draws the Nefarian’s sword again. “Good, you want to eat us? Then earn it,” she spits at the monster.

The demon lets out an irritated hiss, its eerie eyes fixed on the black, thrumming metal in Melody’s hand. Unsure whether to strike or not.

“Get up, Blair!” Melody orders as the demon starts to perform some strange, serpentine movement Blair knows all too well.

“Get the fuck away, girl! It’s going to burn us!” Blair screams as the demon’s tongue starts to curl. “Leave me!”

But Melody just grabs her arm harder and pulls with impressive strength.

Blair slams her hands over her ears, and her whole body locks up as demonic fire blasts towards her, singing every patch of exposed skin. It feels like it goes on forever, but there’s no excruciating pain incinerating every cell of her being.

When Blair glances up, she finds the blue blast roaring over her head and illuminating the whole cave—and Abyss fuck her—she’s lying flat on her belly like a stranded fish. And in front of her, having fallen backward as she dragged Blair out, is Melody, breathing hard, her eyes wide, her hair plastered to her face from heat and sweat.

The ringing in Blair’s ears stops, along with the stream of fire. All that remains is a surreal moment of total silence before the beast rears his head, realizing they are still alive and not fried. Then it comes for them, swinging its massive head, its jaws locking with an audible click, slamming shut right over Blair’s head .

Blair blinks a few times as the air saws out of her.

Melody stands, the sword right at the demon’s eye. “Think twice,” she says, her voice impressive with contempt.

The beast blinks and Blair suppresses a sound as saliva drips from its mouth and lands on her shoulder.

All three of them startle as another growl sounds, the entire mountain shaking with the impact as the other demon pushes itself through the cave mouth and comes towards them. The green demon pulls his head back slightly, as if passing on a meal to make room for the even bigger predator.

Blair swallows against her dried-out throat. The other demon found them—the gargantuan monster they’d encountered in the tunnel. Horror coils through her and settles somewhere deep in her stomach. Here, in the hall, it looks even bigger. Bluish scales seem to shimmer on their own when he moves, his body so heavy and huge the bones crush to dust under its weight.

Instinct makes Blair press herself even deeper into the bones, as if she somehow can make herself smaller. Invisible. A motion born out of primal fear and despair and the knowledge that she’s lying here like some pathetic weakling with her magic gone.

The demon pauses in front of them, crouching low, sniffing them. Another blast of steam washes over them as it exhales, the temperature soaring in answer. But, Abyss, Melody just stands there, looking the bluish behemoth right in the eye, unfazed by the size of its bared teeth.

“Don’t,” she says, her head raised high, her voice pure command. Almost like Caryan’s.

The irony of it doesn’t escape Blair. But the demon halts, his eyes blinking slowly as if he, too, is surprised by her not running and screaming.

Melody pulls up her sleeve and holds the arm with the runes up to him. “You recognize this, don’t you?” she probes on, in the same unforgiving tone.

And, Abyss help them, Blair finds herself actually holding her breath as the demon angles his head, one huge, golden eye fastening on that tattoo. It blinks once.

Melody’s voice is strained but firm as she continues. “You obey your owner. I am your owner. I carry his markings and his magic.”

The two demons—dragons, whatever—exchange a glance, a silent communication between them. The blue one growls again, lower and more viciously. The green one retreats another step, not taking its hungry eyes off Blair yet.

“Help me. Please,” Melody says, still looking at the blue demon. “We don’t have much time,” she adds, as if the creature can understand her. As if it was sentient, and not just a hungry beast. But it cocks his head, considering her words.

“Keep going. I take it as a good sign that they haven’t eaten us yet,” Blair bleats.

Melody shoots her an exasperated look.

The greenish one growls again, and another waft of steam and hot breath blows Blair’s hair back. The bluish one swishes its massive tail once in warning, before it bends its impossibly large head down to Melody. Blair stares as its snout touches her body, so frail, so tiny compared to the monster next to her.

But Melody doesn’t retreat. Doesn’t even flinch. She just stands there and, eventually, lifts her free hand and lays it against the leathery skin, right between its flaring nostrils.

Blair’s throat has dried out by the time Melody says with a jerk of her chin, “Come, Blair, let’s go. Get on his back.”

“What? Are you mad? No fucking way.”

“Come on, Blair,” she says again.

Blair watches with rapt fascination as Melody, indeed, starts climbing up the dragon’s back. At another snort from the greenish one, Blair gets to her feet, too, and with one last glance at the blue dragon, climbs onto its back and slips into a scaled dip behind Melody.

For a moment, grief slices through Blair like a sword dipped in fire. Her beautiful wyvern . Without her magic, she will never ride on her again. Never taste the wind in her heart, let the coldness rip all around her, never scream along with her beast into the storm. Her beast, her friend. Her family . Real or not real.

“Are you alright?”

Her head snaps up as Melody turns to her, as if she felt Blair’s shift.

“I’m riding on a fucking demon instead of dying by its teeth. I’d say I couldn’t be better right now,” Blair snarls back.

Melody twists back to the front, just as the demon turns its massive body and starts to run towards the tunnel it just came from in a lizard-like motion. Melody and Blair reflexively crouch close to his back as the dragon slithers back into the narrow tunnel, shaking loose more stones and rocks, his massive wings tucked in tight. Melody’s holding on to two spikes that have sprouted out of his back, and Blair can’t do anything other than cling to her slender body.

They cut through the darkness that now seems to make way for them. Night shimmers at the end of the tunnel—the light of the stars, Blair realizes, thrown into the endless darkness.

The tunnel ends in an abyss, and the dragon plummets before it throws out its impossible wings and they are airborne.