A Dawn of Onyx (The Sacred Stones, #1)(47)

“I’ve lived here all my life, Arwen. I know every secret the castle has, and even a few the King himself doesn’t yet know about.”

Shoving away panic and nerves, we rounded yet another corner, and found ourselves in a passage I hadn’t been down before. It had the same sophisticated stonework and shadowed nooks and crannies as the rest of the keep, but was narrower and filled with fewer lanterns. As if to tell guests, this hallway isn’t for you.

At the end were two ornate doors, covered in inky, iron filigree, guarded by stoic sentries. But Mari led us past them quickly, and around a final corner to a lone display case. Inside were treasures I could never have imagined, like wartime armor belonging to the original king of Onyx, encrusted diamonds and amethyst crowding along the metal-like teeth. Below that, a gangly amphibian creature with delicate lace wings suspended in some kind of preservative. And further below, a massive harpy’s talon, taller and wider than me altogether.

Every day in this kingdom my understanding of this continent—this world—expanded.

“Come on,” she whispered, pulling me from the enchanting artifacts in the glass case.

I spun, looking around. “There’s nothing here.”

Mari murmured a phrase and, with a rumble I felt in my toes, the case that housed the unique items shifted and groaned, revealing a small enclave.

“What was that?” I whispered through clenched teeth.

“Secret password,” Mari said back, under her breath. “The door is spelled to only open when they’re uttered.”

How very surreptitious of Kane, having a hidden entry to his private studies. Fitting for a man who prized his secrets above all else.

Mari slipped inside and I followed, heart a furious beat inside my chest.

It was like stepping into a jewelry box. An ornate rug—clearly from Garnet or Quartz due to its elaborate detail—spread below my feet, sprawling over the floor and underneath bookcases, statues, and a leather loveseat with intricately stitched plush pillows. A stone-wrapped fireplace holding logs still adorned with cooling embers like jewels. Vases overflowing with the chilling Onyx lilies and violets I had come to love. Moonlight filtered in through a domed glass ceiling that seemed to reach up and up without end. It must have been the inside of the spiral tip of the castle, a tall and pointed spire that pierced through the clouds.

And in the center of the dazzling nook, a large reading desk—wood the color of copper and with nearly as much shine, and a delicious black leather chair that begged to be sunk into with four clawed feet. The desk was laden with shiny books, worn scrolls and quills, even a leftover goblet cast aside still marked with the stain of wine.

“Wow.”

“Yeah, I said that when I first saw it too.”

“You’ve been in here before?” Mari was more of a rebel than I would have guessed.

“Only once or twice,” she said, peeking through drawers and shelves. “Maybe a few more… After one of the kitchen maids spilled the passphrase to enter back when I was young, I’d sneak in every once in a while. He never used to come to Shadowhold anyway. I would just snoop around to see what treasures the king had collected. Or to hide from bullies.”

She said the last part so offhandedly I almost didn’t catch it. I wanted to press further, but she hurried herself over to a shelf filled with weathered texts and began to rifle through them.

“So, if you can get in so easily, why did you need my help?”

“I had heard rumors that when the king visited, he kept his pet in here. I thought I might need a spare pair of hands. But it looks like we’re alone, so this should be a breeze.”

Pet? The thought of Kane running around with a wide-eyed and scruffy pup melted my heart. I physically shook the images out of my head, and my eyes landed on a small, unimpressive wooden door nestled in the corner.

“Where do you think that leads?”

“The king’s quarters. But I don’t have a way in there.”

I hummed my understanding, but my thoughts were elsewhere. There was something startlingly erotic about thinking of Kane’s bedroom. What he did in there when he was completely alone. How he slept, who he thought of. I tried not to shiver.

It probably looked like the dungeons or his throne room—all stone and steel. A dark, cold room for a dark, cold person.

I could hear Mari’s eye roll in her voice. “You are king-crazy.”

I flushed at the realization that I had been gazing longingly at a wooden door.

“All right,” she approached the desk. “Briar’s amulet, where are you?”

Before I could join her, a haunting cry, like a widow’s wail, cut through the room.

A scream lodged in my throat at the sound and Mari and I both whirled around, caught.

A feathered creature prowled out from behind the loveseat, stretching like it might have been asleep. It was a strange, gangly thing that stared back at us. Upon first glance, it seemed just like a large owl. But with closer inspection, I recoiled from beady, human-like eyes and bony shoulders that folded underneath its raven-feathered wings. It crept toward us with impish delight, lanky legs, and a twitching cock of its head. As if an owl had mated with an underfed, demonic child.

It halted, regarding us peculiarly, then squawked again, revealing rows and rows of pointed white teeth.

“Mari. Is that Kane’s ‘pet’?” My voice didn’t sound like my own.