Page 184 of Loreblood

“Um. Where ishere, exactly?” I scan the room, moving my eyes away from my three mates—my world—for the first time.

“Base level of Sutlis Spire,” Vallan says. “I cleared a path. Come on.”

We follow Vallan through the room and into another, which is strewn with bodies, many of them dismembered, all of them very, very dead. At least eight bloodsuckers in all.

“That would explain all the blood on you,” I say.

“Most of it’s not mine.”

I inhale sharply. “Most?!”

Weaving around and over the bodies, we come to another door. It opens into a familiar-looking room I’ve seen too much of in my life—

A jailhouse, with box-shaped cells lining the corridor on the left and right.

“You’re leading us to the Relic, right?” I ask suspiciously, biting my lip. “Please don’t tell me we went through all this due to bad intelligence. Keffa told us—”

“It’s here, silverblood. Come.”

Iron Sister Keffa never told me the Relic was located in the Tanmount, of course. That was a ruse for my story to Madame Kleora. According to her, it’s always been here, beneath the largest prison compound in the Judgment Ward.

I vaguely wonder if Lukain will try to pick up the scraps of the chronicle to read over, if he can find all the fluttering pages.

Many pages burned. Good. I don’t need my tale getting out to the masses. Too much of it was true.

Vallan stops us at a cell. There’s something in the shadows at the back, a large, round object.

Vall struggles with a set of keys in his pocket—surely picked from one of the bodies he eliminated—and finds the correct one. “Here we are,” he says, sweeping his hand out.

The door swings inward with a rasp.

“What . . . the fuck?” I mutter.

A plump, vaguely familiar woman in tattered clothes steps out of the shadows. She hugs herself, narrowing her eyes on me—and they are eyes I certainly recognize. I just can’t place my finger on where.

“Fuuuuck,” I moan, rolling my head back on my shoulders. My mates look at me with odd expressions.

The woman drawls, “Pleased to see you too, brat princess.”

I throw my arms out wide. “You’re supposed to be the Relic! An artifact. A pricelessthing!”

“Well, some call me a relic. I think it’s a bit hurtful.” She huffs. “I’m notthatold.”

Anger riles inside me, mixed with unending frustration.All we’ve been through . . .“The artifact we were supposed to find is supposed to be an object of great power. A scroll or tome or something that can give me answers. Not—”

“A woman from a painting?”

I blink. My mouth stays open. “Oh. Shit.That’swhere I recognize you from.”

Garroway snaps his fingers and points at the woman. “You had far fewer clothes on in the painting.”

The woman frowns. “Astute observation, sir. I was younger and more explorative then.”

“You sure this is the correct cell?” I ask. I’m pissed Keffa has seemingly led us astray.

Vallan gives me a grim nod. “Should we leave her? We need to be getting out of here.”

I frown at the woman. Her eyebrows arch and she sighs, shaking her head. “You are not very good saviors, are you?”