Page 20

I walked along the hallway, working on memorizing the small shifts in the wall in order to learn my way around the castle. The crack in the wall, the torch that was a few inches lower than the rest—they were all methods for me to remember my way back.

After bathing, the shadows had expanded to bring me another face towel, and it currently trailed behind me, almost not seeming to have energy.

I could understand that, considering I was famished and on my way to get food from those pantries in the room he’d brought me to the first time.

I was glad I’d eaten when he dumped me in the room, because it’d held me off until now.

Even as hunger pains twisted my stomach, I couldn’t get rid of the panic of not being able to wake Corvus. I’d left him in his bed, sleeping, and he’d not even twitched after the time I’d spent trying to shake him awake.

Shadows wrapped around my wrist and jerked me to the side, and now I faced a door.

A very familiar one. I shoved through to a descending staircase with those same slim, pizza slice steps.

With my palm pressed against the wall, I inched my way down as slowly and safely as possible.

One misstep would send me on a painful tumble.

It took me a while to get to the base that opened to the endless hallway, but I made it.

Once in the small room, the first thing my eyes snagged on was the husk on the floor. It was drained, as if she’d been put into a food dehydrator.

I shivered and yanked my gaze away, shuffling over to the pantries lining the furthest wall from the door.

I quickly found water bottles and chugged them, then took a fresh one, tucked it under my arm, and closed the pantry to look at the next section containing food.

There was nothing new. I grabbed a packet of the jerky and saltine crackers, trying not to think about the dead body in the room as I stuffed my face.

“Don’t judge me,” I muttered at the pulsating black fog clinging to the side of the wall.

I hadn’t realized how hungry I was. I finished up the entire packet and held the trash. There was nowhere to put it, so I placed it in a neat pile on the surface in the pantry and closed it, planning to ask him where he disposed of things later.

Here I was thinking I’d be staying with him, as if we were in a relationship. I scoffed and thumped the water back down in the pantry.

I wasn’t living after Novareth—he’d made that clear.

Clean, fed, and hesitant, I left the chamber to return to try and wake Corvus.

As soon as I took a few steps, a low sob echoed to me.

I whirled, but it sounded like it was coming from multiple locations.

It was the damn acoustics of this place, noise bounced off everything because there was nothing to muffle it.

The haunting cry came again, and I squinted to the left.

It had to come through the wall. I inched closer.

Were the shadows trying to hide a passage?

Approaching, I held out my hand, and it went into the accumulated shadows.

I stepped through the hole that cut into a corner and spat me out on the other side into another hall with torches lighting up the way.

I whirled and eyed the surface I’d walked past. It almost seemed an illusion with how the torch light flickered.

Making my way toward the murmurs, I passed empty cells, the heavy smell of rust permeating the air.

Movement caught my eye, and I rushed to the cell with hands poking out of the bars.

As I neared, I saw the male leaning against the iron, his arm through the bars.

His attention fell on me, eyes peeling wide.

“Let us out,” he snarled, flashing fangs— a Novian . At his words, more people crowded the bars, grabbing and slipping hands through them. There were humans in there, too. There had to be a minimum of fifteen people crammed into the small space like some sick farm.

The cell across the way held a smaller group behind the rusted bars.

I went to the latch of the cell nearest to me, which had the most people. I yanked at the heavy latch securing the door closed, struggling to lift it.

“Hurry,” a human man next to the Novian hissed.

“I’m trying,” I snapped, miffed, angling myself to the side and bending my knees. Propping my shoulder under the latch, I braced and used my leg muscles to push.

A high-pitched squeal ripped through the cell, and finally, it popped free, and the latch thudded open. Immediately, they shoved, and the hinge of the door screeched, assaulting my ears. In a scramble so fast I struggled to grasp, they swarmed out, crowding me and getting in my face.

“Show us the way out,” he snarled, holding a jagged rock toward me. I put my hands up and backed away.

“What have you done?” Corvus’s silky voice caressed my ears. Every single Novian and human recoiled, backing away as a collective.

“Release us, Lord of Shadows,” the Novian snapped, his hand squeezing the stone.

Corvus didn’t even look at him, and I saw it because I anxiously watched him approach me. I craned my neck to keep my eyes on him. Shadows whipped around him, and his wings twitched with irritation.

“What is this?” I croaked, jabbing a finger at the crowd.

Corvus cocked his head. He looked evil and frightening—like death.

“Meals,” he responded succinctly.

My mouth dropped, and I didn’t know why I was so fucking shocked. The prisoner’s shouts and sobs ripped me out of my paralysis. “Let them go.”

“No.” He said nothing else.

“I’ll kill you?—”

Corvus lifted his hand, and shadows enveloped the Novian, whirring until he was hidden within the shroud. Once it pulled away, it left behind a husk. Cries exploded from the rest of the observers.

“Corvus,” I snapped, feeling like I was going crazy. Guilt writhed in my gut because I’d been enjoying him while people were suffering down here.

“Yes, my Little Mortal?” he rumbled, his voice silky and dangerous. A swell of chatter wove across the onlookers. Pieces of conversation reached my ears.

One of the women detached from the huddle.

“I will offer myself to you, Lord of Shadows.” Her expression was set with determination.

“What are you doing?” I spat, shaking my head.

She raised an eyebrow at me and turned away. “I am a much better option than this woman, Lord.”

I couldn’t see the color of her eyes with the shadows playing along her features. “I will please you,” she purred, her voice taking on a seductive tone.

I gasped, my eyes widening, but worse was the jealousy thickening in my throat. She took another step forward, and shadows descended upon her. It happened within the span of moments, then they lifted, also leaving a husk that began to disintegrate. She’d pissed him off.

He hadn’t even allowed me a moment of jealousy. I studied the people gawking at the dust on the floor. One of the men shook with rage, and his eyes settled on me.

“Don’t—” He charged at me. I backed up as another and then another person joined, converging on me.

The flames of the torches fluttered with the whip of darkness, and screams erupted through the shadows.

They suddenly cut off, and the shadows dissipated, leaving me staring at piles of husks, some disintegrating more than others.

Corvus shivered and flared out his wings. He groaned with pleasure.

“I will bring you anything you please, Little Mortal, they have fed me.”

My mouth closed and opened.

“Why,” I croaked.

“None threaten what is mine. They deserved death.”