Page 95 of Liar Witch

I can’t interfere. Can’t get in the way of my men’s orders without risking them being forced to turn on me. So I hover, unseen, as they watch Cas and Kier load the grim cargo onto the boat. None of them exchange a word, but the glares both sides shoot each other make it clear this isn’t a friendly transaction.

Only when my men are rowing away and the humans have opened the door behind them do I dare to move closer, slipping through while they’re distracted muttering amongst themselves.

The tunnel on the other side is nothing like the tunnel my pirates rowed down. It has the look of a place which has been well used, but also carefully looked after. It’s dust free and lit at regular intervals, but otherwise empty. The main feature is a set of rails running as far as the eye can see in either direction. The two humans climb into a well-maintained—yet still obviously old—cart, studded with dim-glowing crystals that glow as they press a small button.

Mage-tech. Probably created by my target.

I slip into an alcove and watch as the cart starts to move off, emitting a low whirring noise which echoes down the tunnel.

I let them keep going, following only when they’re far enough ahead that I’m certain they won’t notice me flying behind them.

The tunnel slopes downward quickly. The angle is steep, and the cart accelerates naturally, taking the corners at a rate I struggle to match on my broom.

It doesn’t take long until the passage levels off, and the cart loses some of its momentum. It takes a left fork, then a right before losing more speed.

“Finally,” the taller of the two grumbles as the brakes squeal and the cart jolts to a halt. “I hate dealing with those pirates. Why her Majesty can’t just use reputable soldiers from her navy, I don’t understand.”

“Because the men in the navy would ask questions,” his partner replies, climbing out of the cart. “You know how loose lipped those sailors can be. The pirates are her slaves; they can’t spill her secrets, thanks to the little fae bargain they made to save their shifters. They’re scum, but reliable scum.”

I press myself against the wall as they approach the door. My sigils aren’t going to cut it down here, I realise, as they both look around before unlocking it and slipping inside before I can follow.

This whole place is too well lit, and the guards are too attentive.

I clip my broom to the holster across my back as I dash into the spirit plane and flick through the door,following the two pricks of light illuminating the humans as they cross an empty room to another guarded door.

I kill the guard on duty as soon as the door shuts behind them, a spirit blade dissolving his body to ash, then flick through into the next room.

What lies beyond is so horrifying that I lose my concentration, falling out of the spirit plane with a gasp of disgust.

Only a quick burst of moonlight to the sigils on my spine disguise me and the sound before the two guards striding along the metal catwalk can notice.

I’m not focused on them anymore.

No. My eyes are glued to the scene unfolding below.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Nilsa

The guards I’m following have walked out onto a metal catwalk overlooking a strange, cavernous room. The floor is covered in neat rows of circular pools, each one barely three feet wide, and topped with a metal grate.

“Open a hole!” a woman yells, thrusting a naked siren through a door below.

Guards haul ass to pull away a grate from one of the pools. The siren—mouth stuffed with a gag which is securely buckled behind her head—is dragged across the space by her bronze hair, her familiar white eyes wet with tears as she fights against the two men who force her forward.

Even at this distance, I know exactly who that is.

Cassandra.

Klaus’s sister.

What the fuck is she doinghere?

Why did she leave Marisang? How did she get here before us? Why would she even…?

My questions are cut off as she’s forced closer to me and the state of her battered body becomes clear.

Her arms are red and raw, bleeding from several spaces, and her legs are red with blood. The wounds are in distinct lines and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the horrifying reason for that.