Page 26 of Queen of the Crimson Throne (Queen of Blood and Stardust #2)

26

LUCIANA

We all sat around the large round table in what my mother considered the family dining room. It was the room where we ate as a family or when we had a small number of guests. The room had a much warmer feel than the large formal dining room with its extended rectangular table.

Several bottles of wine were passed around the table as everyone filled their glasses.

My mother’s consort, Endora, sat beside her, having arrived back from her day out of the palace. The pair sat with their hands intertwined on the table.

I had seen my mother with her fair share of lovers. She was never the kind of mother to hide her exploits from me. If anything I thought she shared too much. Too much about everyone except my father. I didn’t even know if he knew I existed.

He had to though—he had to know the Queen of the Mystic Court had a daughter. Unless he didn’t know my mother was the heir when they were together. These were the thoughts I spiraled over time and time again.

But Endora, Endora had been different from the start .

She was the first and only consort my mother had ever taken.

They had been together for almost five years now, but she officially became the queen’s consort shy of a year ago.

My mother loved her passionate love affairs, moving from one to the next after she grew tired of them. I think that is what kept her from making Endora her queen alongside her. My mother still worried she might tire of Endora, or the other way around. Not that I thought it would happen, but it wasn’t my battle to wage.

My mother ensured she had an easy escape route if needed.

Her sister’s murder only furthered that need.

If my mother and Endora were still together ten years from now, my mother might consider making Endora Queen, instead of simply her consort. Or maybe I’d be Queen and none of it would matter.

“It’s so nice to finally meet you, Endora,” Kara said from across the table.

“Yes,” Lennox added, turning her attention to Endora. “We’ve heard so much about you. We’re excited to meet the female who has captured our aunt’s attention as it’s not an easy feat.”

“And I should say the same to you, shall I not?” Endora moved her long ebony hair over a thin shoulder. “It appears you have quite the reputation that precedes you.” She glanced toward the vampire prince at Lennox’s side.

“Unfortunately, you’re correct,” Lennox grumbled, but there was a teasing lilt to her voice. Laughter rumbled throughout the room at her comment. I enjoyed seeing these little peeks of my cousin creeping back out from the darkness.

“From the sounds of it, I might get along better with the Blood Prince than you, Your Majesty. ”

“Considering Lennox doesn’t get along well with anyone, I think you’re correct.” Luka laid his arm across the back of Lennox’s chair .

My mother chuckled and clapped her hands. “Oh, Lennox, you truly have found one that keeps you on your toes haven’t you, how wonderful.”

Lennox glared at Luka, who only smiled at her. “If anyone is keeping one on their toes it’s Lennox.” He elbowed her gently. “Isn’t that right, Sweetheart? I never know what I’m going to get with you.”

“I’ll tell you that you’re going to get, a swift kick to the shin if you keep talking about me like this,” Lennox responded. I hid my smile behind my glass. I loved watching her and Luka go back and forth, it brought back the sparkle in her eyes.

“I’m sorry if I started something,” Endora said sincerely, a pale blush rising to her porcelain skin.

Nico laughed. “Don’t worry about anything, this is basically foreplay for these two.” I about spat out my drink. Did Nico have a death wish?

“Ouch!” Nico wailed as he reached under the table and gripped his leg.

Lennox smiled sweetly. “Sorry, my foot slipped.”

“You’re lucky it was her foot.” Luka sat back in his chair. “Could have been her dagger.”

“So where exactly are we heading tomorrow?” Declan asked as we continued to pass the remaining bottles of wine around the table. My mother and Endora had left us on our own well over an hour ago. We remained, taking advantage of my mother’s exquisite wine collection.

“It’s called the catacombs—they are like a maze of sorts leading to the place where Astria last remained before returning to the sky.”

“A maze with a terrifying backstory,” Kara added.

Nico rubbed his hands together. “Care to enlighten us with said terrifying backstory? ”

“It’s only a tale of reckless childhood nonsense,” Lennox said plainly.

“You can’t go into the story without telling them the lore first,” I added. “That’s half of the allure.”

“You’re right. Tell them the story, master story keeper.” Master story keeper , that was a title I hadn’t heard in ages. Not since—not since the last summer Nol was here. He was the one who gave me the ridiculous nickname in the first place. I’ve loved stories for as long as I can remember—particularly anything to do with witch lore. I felt like that’s all I read growing up. There were days when my cousins visited where we’d all sit out in the grove of trees past the garden and read all kinds of books on witch lore, sharing the stories we loved as we read. Kara and Lennox usually got bored after a few hours and left to find something else to do, leaving Nol and I to read for hours on end.

Whenever we’d visit one another, the first thing I’d do was fill him in on all the witch lore I had learned while we were apart. He listened with intent, and one year he bestowed upon me the title of master story keeper.

“They say the catacombs are where Astria and Hecate performed the spell or ritual—or whatever the fuck it was—that allowed Astria to return to the sky and it left a lot of magic residing in the land there,” Lennox continued.

“What was the ritual or whatever it was?” Nico asked.

“Wouldn’t we all like to know?” Kara sat back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest.

“What she means is none of that is documented anywhere. There is only lore,” I explained. “Anyways, whatever was performed there fucked up the land—making it tumultuous. Lore claims the magic created monsters—abominations of magic.”

“And we’re going there?” Declan’s brows pinched as he leaned forward in his chair.

“Yup,” Lennox said dead-faced .

“But you’ve all been there before?” Luka looked between the three of us.

“If you can even call it that,” Lennox added. “We made it to the top of the catacombs, heard one sound, and ran for the hills.”

“You‘re kidding?” Luka laughed.

Lennox shoved him in the shoulder. “You’re telling me you wouldn’t run from an apparent monster when you were fourteen? We barely knew how to hold a weapon or harness our magic. Stories of the catacombs are what our parents told us to keep us from sneaking out at night. I wasn’t taking my chances.” Lennox crossed her arms over her chest defiantly.

“It was Kara who ran first, we had no choice but to follow after her,” I added.

“Hey!” Kara protested. “I had never even held a sword back then, I would have been easy prey!”

“We‘re losing track of the point here,” Declan said, attempting to steer us back on track.

“Anyways, we will need to enter the labyrinth tomorrow and find the center, Astria’s catacomb, where the spellbook should be residing.” My head pounded at the idea of entering that space.

“We should all head to bed. It will be an early morning with a long day ahead of us tomorrow.” Declan concluded.

We all mumbled in agreement before we wished one another goodnight.

When I returned to my room, sleep was the last thing on my mind. I had several hours to research everything I needed to know about the catacombs.

I quickly changed into something more comfortable before heading to the library—my favorite place in the palace. The library took up an entire wing of the palace. Every previous ruler was tasked with making sure the library remained stocked with all the newest text, and the Scribes were tasked with finding any ancient text to add to the collections. Some of them roamed the continent their entire lives, hoping to find titles to add to the library.

If I wasn’t heir I would have loved to be a traveling Scribe. They never stayed in one place for too long, they got to explore all of Lethenia, in search of books. What a dream.

But that’s exactly what it was. A dream.

I used my key to unlock the towering double metal doors and entered the main room of the library. At this hour the floor was deserted, no one manned the massive circular desk in the center.

I bypassed the desk and ascended one of the twin metal staircases that curved around the desk, heading for the third floor.

When I arrived, I quickly scoured the shelves, having memorized where all of the books resided, hauling every book on the catacombs to my reading nook.

When my mother finally got annoyed half of the library would reside in my bedroom, she had a space created for me in the library where I could read comfortably.

My little corner resided towards the back wall on the second floor of the library, pressed up against four large paned windows, allowing for plenty of natural light during the day and the perfect view of the moon and stars at night.

The space had a large plush rug, a long couch, two oversized chairs, a desk, a coffee table, and of course, a bar cart.

Books were already stacked on carts surrounding the area so I placed my findings on the coffee table and got to reading.

I didn’t know how much time had passed when I heard the door to the library open, even two floors up the metal creaking of the doors was distinctive. I had no idea who would be in the library at this hour—it was rare anyone ever entered the library in the first place besides the Scribes. Maybe one of them had come back to get some more work done. I leaned forward on the couch, trying to catch a glimpse of whoever had arrived .

My stomach did an involuntary flip at the glimpse of hair the color of moonlight making its way up the staircase.

“Is this your room?” Nico asked, his surprise evident as he took in my state.

“No, this is my reading nook.”

“Okay.” He sat beside me on the couch. “Reading up on the catacombs, I assume?” He picked up a book from one of the piles and surveyed the cover.

“How’d you guess that?”

“I didn’t take you for someone who did anything without being properly prepared.”

“More like properly researched.”

“What I didn’t take you for is a library girl.”

“Why’s that?” I tucked my braids over my shoulders.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess all the people I’ve met that like to spend time researching in libraries don’t also know how to fight a male with a sword within an inch of his life.”

“People can surprise you.”

“You surprise me.” His words sent a tingle down my spine.

“What are you doing here anyways?” I asked, trying to ignore the impact his words were having on me.

“I figured you might need some company.”

Nico was a distraction I didn’t need when we were short on time. But if he could manage to stay on task it might allow me to get a couple hours of sleep in between the two of us reading.

Against my better judgment I handed him a book from the pile on the table and stretched across the desk for a pen and paper, passing them to the wolf. “Here, write down anything you find about the catacombs or the labyrinth or anything about the spell that got Astria back into the sky.”

“I’m not really the reading type.” He flipped through the book.

I glared at him. “Then what are you doing here?”

“I wanted to help you, I didn’t say I wouldn’t read them, I was only trying to make conversation, Lucy. ”

I huffed a breath. “We don’t have time for conversations Nico, I only have a limited time to do all the research I can before we leave in the morning.” I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to ignore the wounded look on his face. “So are you going to help me or not?”

“Got it, I’ll shut up and read.”

“Thank you.”

Dawn was still several hours off when we left for the catacombs. Nico and I had stayed in the library until— late . Only allowing for a couple of hours of sleep at his insistence.

If it were up to me I would have stayed up all night.

We were silent as we departed on our horses. The catacombs were about a two-hour ride from Arcadia. We had decided we’d travel by horse so I could save all the magic I could for whatever we might encounter. If all went according to plan we should arrive with the sun.

I could feel it as we got closer. The air became thicker, it was rimmed with magic. I could feel it pressing up against my skin, it made me uncomfortable, magic like this, when I had no control over it. There was no controlling the magic of the catacombs.

Up ahead, Lennox and Luka had stopped at the top of the hill, when I joined them I did too.

The catacombs resided in a landform similar to a bowl. It was curved on all sides. The terrain was hilly and hosted mouths to a handful of caves. Discovering which cave led to the labyrinth was part of the trick. A dark, shimmering mist covered the land—making it appear even more eerie.

We left our horses at the top of the bowl and carefully made our descent down the hill.

The air got thicker the farther we descended into the bowl. The sounds of leaves blowing in the wind and animals scurrying about halted—they were exchanged for the low groans and guttural roars of the creatures of the catacombs. As we made it to the bottom of the bowl, the mist swirled around us on a phantom wind, seemingly stirring the catacombs to life.

It was aware of our presence. I could feel it. The mist pressed thicker against us as we pushed forward—blinding us from seeing anything more than a couple feet ahead of us.

“Everyone still here?” Declan called out.

A murmur of yeses were called out in response.

“Stay close,” I said. “It will be easy to get separated. The land will try its best to do so.”

“I hate magical land masses,” Nico mumbled.

“What other magical land mass have you been to?” I asked.

“None. This is my first, but I don’t like it.”

“How do we know which cave will lead us into the labyrinth?” Lennox asked.

“According to my research, it will only reveal itself if it wants to. The catacombs will try everything in its power to trick and deceive you, Astria designed it as such. It’s up to us to show it we deserve entrance to the labyrinth, that we are worthy of entering Astria’s sacred place.”

“And how do we go about doing that?” Luka pressed.

We continued to press through the mist. I kept my senses open, feeling for any kind of pull—only to have my senses pulled in five different directions.

“I never found any explicit directions,” I continued. “But I have an idea. First, we need to make it to what we can assume is the center of the catacombs.”

I looked over towards Declan, his face was half covered in the mist, but his golden eyes glowed through the fog.

“Would you be able to fly over and direct us to where the center is?”

“I can, but I doubt we’ll be able to see one another.”

“If you talk to us we should be able to hear you, and as for you seeing our location…”

I looked towards Lennox. “Think you could put up a tower of flame so he can direct us where we need to go?” She placed her hands on her hips and smirked.

“Of course I can.”

“Alright, Declan?” I looked toward the harpy again.

With a dip of his chin, he flapped his mighty wings and took off to the air. The movement of his wings momentarily cleared the fog, giving us a larger view of the rocky landscape around us.

“I think it’s that cave,” Kara gestured to the rocky arch in front of us.

“It’s not.”

“How do you know?” Lennox pressed.

“That would be too easy. That’s the whole game of the catacombs. It’s trying to trick you into thinking what it wants you to believe. I’m sure there’s a nasty monster in there waiting for easy prey.”

Kara shivered, her cheeks and the tips of her pointed ears turning a shade of light pink.

“Hey.” I placed a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t be ashamed of thinking that was it. I did a ton of research last night to find out these things, why would you know?”

“Let’s keep going.” She shrugged out of my hold and nodded toward Lennox. “Luka and Lennox got the tower up.”

I turned to find the pair staring up at the column of flames balancing on Lennox’s palm.

“Well, that’ll do it,” I murmured.

We walked forward, straining our ears for directions from Declan. Maybe we wouldn’t be able to hear him through the mist after all.

“Keep straight.” His deep voice came from faintly above.

Kara let out a sigh. “Worried about bird boy?” I elbowed her.

“You weren’t?” The tone in her voice was cutting—a rarity coming from Kara.

“To the east.” Was his next direction .

We all shifted slightly, Lennox and her flames guiding us from the front with Luka by her side. Lennox might be determined to keep Luka at bay, but he was determined to stay by her side. Lennox stumbled slightly, her foot hitting a small rock. She righted herself, but not before Luka’s hand reached out, grasping her arm.

She gave him a tight-lipped smile before continuing. Luka released her arm, his hand flexed by the small of her back before moving back to his side.

“A little more to the east.”

We shifted again. “Now continue forward.”

We continued through the mist.

“Stop.” The mist swirled around us as the sound of Declan’s wings drew closer before he dropped to a crouch beside us, the mist parting around him.

“Well, that wasn’t dramatic at all,” Nico said.

“From what I could tell this looked like the center of the bowl. The entire area is shrouded in mist.”

“Nico, you still have my pack?”

“You know it.” He set the pack beside me and I opened it, pulling out my relics.

“You’re going to do a spell?” Lennox asked.

I looked up from where I knelt. “I need your and Kara’s help too.”

Kara knelt next to Lennox. “Tell us what you need us to do.”

“My hope is if we all combine our power, it will amplify our ability to sense which cave is the entrance. And if we use my half of the spellbook as a beacon, it should help our magic search for the other half.”

“Seems easy enough,” Lennox said.

“Is it dangerous?” Luka peered over Lennox’s shoulder.

“I’m not using Ichor Magic, Your Highness . You can back off, I’m not putting your bride at risk.”

I didn’t look up from the bowl I was mixing the ingredients in. I had no desire to see the scathing looks they were both throwing my way. If they wanted to live in ignorance, fine, but I wasn’t going to play into their game.

“I need some of both of your blood in the bowl.” I directed the sisters. Lennox didn’t hesitate, pricking her finger with the tip of her dagger before handing it off to Kara. Lennox let the blood pooling at the tip of her finger drop into the bowl as Kara repeated the action before handing the blade to me.

“Lennox, can you ignite the bowl?” With the flick of her fingers, the bowl erupted into flames. I placed the blazing bowl on top of my half of the book. The mixture hissed, sending up a plume of smoke that moved to mix with the mist above us.

“Ready?” Lennox, Kara, and I joined hands.

I closed my eyes, inhaling the scent of the smoldering offerings before I started my chant.

As I chanted, Lennox and Kara repeated after me, our words churning in an echo in the catacombs.

There was a slight tingle in my palm, like a tiny jolt of static. It moved through my palm and up my arm. I felt it in my chest before it returned to my other arm, zipping through my palm. Lennox jolted slightly as it entered her palm.

We were connected. I could feel it as Kara and Lennox’s power intertwined with my own, caressing itself around the threads of my magic.

“Now that we’re connected we need to search for the other half of the book.” I removed my hand from Kara’s and placed it on the book.

“C'mon, where are you Hecate?” I muttered.

I closed my eyes tighter, envisioning the path towards the cave that would lead us to the Astria’s chamber.

“Where are you? ” I gritted.

My vision steered in every direction. Zipping from one cave opening to the next.

“C'mon.” I felt for Hecate again. She was in me. I could feel her. It was her blood in my veins, fueling my magic .

My vision took a sharp turn, guiding me towards a cave to my left and stopping. There was a dead patch of flowers outside the cave, like all the others, but this one had one living flower that stuck out among the dead ones. A single red bud in the decay.

“There.” I gasped. Gripping the book and Lennox’s hand tighter. “That’s the cave.”

“I see it,” Lennox murmured.

“But how do we find it?” Kara asked.

As if the magic heard her, the illusion slowly backed away from the cave, tracing the path backward until it reached us.

When I opened my eyes there was a path through the mist.

“I think you guys passed the test.” Nico’s icy eyes sparkled as I met his gaze.

I let out a shuddering breath. “I think so.”