But as amazing and beautiful as I would normally have found it, Aeslinn’s trophy wall had left an acid taste in my mouth, and a creeping sense of horror up my backbone. It had killed my sense of wonder, to the point that I was thinking of trying to pull away. To leave this strange journey, even though I knew I’d probably never have this chance again, to see how Faerie worked from the inside, to understand even a few of its leaders. So, I stayed, as we approached what proved to be the final stretch, this one clad in obsidian.

It was as black as night and covered not only the corridor itself, but the huge doors at its end, which were opened by a couple of fey guards as we approached. It spilled all over everything like a puddle of ink, and yet… there was movement in there, too. Little plinks, like falling raindrops, showed up in the midnight color occasionally, only visible by the light that they disturbed on its surface.

And there was a lot of surface. We walked through the doors, but not into another room as I’d expected, but into a short corridor that was completely black—walls, floor and ceiling. It gave me a weird feeling, like I was falling into nothingness. The stone didn’t help, seeming to absorb any light that dared to enter, and yet, in the darkness, I could still hear them: plink, plink, plink.

It was the only thing I could hear, as the stone muffled sound. It was like walking into a sensory deprivation chamber, and I suddenly realized that I wouldn’t do very well in one of those. I would be gibbering inside a minute, something I could now confirm with absolute certainty, since that was about the time it took for us to traverse the hallway.

And finally burst out of the other side, after what felt like a year, giving me half a second to feel genuine, heartfelt gratitude, before—

“Where is that bastard Arsen?”

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty

The voice stopped my feet, or it would have if I’d currently had any. Since I was just a metaphysical backpack, we kept moving forward, despite the fact that that was the last thing I wanted to do. Because I’d know that bellow anywhere.

Aeslinn.

The world suddenly went swimmy, but I didn’t think it was from shock. I’d already figured out where we were headed, and had been bracing myself for it. But my surroundings blurred anyway, until I was once again seeing two scenes at once.

But this time, they weren’t two different scenes, like in Gertie’s stairwell. But more like two almost identical ones that had been superimposed over each other, making everything blur around the edges. I blinked and things snapped back to normal, so quickly that I’d hardly had a chance to realize that anything was wrong.