Thana gave her an exasperated look over one shoulder, but shekept going.
They halted in a dark corridor similar to every other darkcorridor. Thana frowned and looked in both directions, craning her neck as ifshe could see around the corner they’d just passed.
“They should be here,” she said. “They came straight here. Andthis…is probably the right spot.” She glanced around as if the hall haddeveloped clues in the past few seconds.
Sylph rubbed her shoulders, feeling guilty for adding to heranxiety earlier. “There are many reasons for tardiness.”
“I know.” She leaned into Sylph’s touch. “The queen probablywanted to talk. Ivar and Illis might have still been dealing with where to putall the captives. There might have been some court nonsense Gunnar had to takecare of.”
“He might have needed to speak with the nobles’ council and calmmy father if he isn’t already out stirring up trouble.”
“Won’t he be out looking for you if he’s doing anything?”
Sylph snorted and quoted him. “Never waste time doing anythingsomeone lesser can do in your place. Focus on those tasks which only you canaccomplish.”
Thana turned slowly, a look of pity and horror on her face.“Looking for you isn’t wasting time.” She closed her eyes and breathed hard asif calming herself. “If necessary, I will always find you myself.”
With a laugh, Sylph kissed her nose. “I will endeavor not tobecome lost. And I’ll find you, too. Provided I’m not busy with something else,of course.” She lifted an eyebrow to Thana’s look of affront and then squeakedas Thana tickled her. They laughed for a few moments until Sylph noticed thatThana stood on tiptoe, leaning against her, and the passion of the night beforecame rushing back.
And there was nothing else to do except try to help Thana relax.
It was medicinal, really.
Sylph kissed her and found eagerness returned. Thana’s hands ranalong her body, and thought became lost to sensation. She had a brief moment ofwonder that a dark, dusty hallway could be a place of possible ecstasy beforeThana took her breath away.
Then, slowly, a siren call wormed into her thoughts, mergingbriefly with passion before pushing it aside.
New crystal, shaped into a power similar to that of themalevolent pyramid.
Sylph tried to lose herself in Thana while also summoning thewords to warn her. But this pyramid promised delights equal to Thana’s. No rageor destruction here, no mere power of cancelation. She could surrender to thiswithout consequences, be carried away with a feeling she was tired of fighting.
“Sylph? What’s wrong?”
Thana’s fiery touches stilled, but sensation still carriedthrough Sylph’s mind, ecstasy from the inside out.
“Sylph? Is it…okay, don’t panic. Here.” Something cold andunbreakable slid into her hand, her pyramid, but how could it match thispromise of flesh, a host of possibilities beyond unfeeling stone?
“Don’t you feel it, Thana?”
“No, but I’m trying.”
Sylph grabbed her hands, falling with her through the facets of adetection pyramid. It took them through the earth, past the beating heart she’dfelt earlier, itself an echo of this power. There, the siren call, far belowbut moving closer.
“Fiend magic, spirits above,” Thana said, her voice a harshwhisper in this place of revelation. She yanked the pyramid away, but Sylphbarely needed it now. “Sylph, stop. Let it go. Focus on your stone, please.Come on.” Desperation and tears flooded her voice. “Don’t let it carry youaway.”
Fiend magic? Evil monsters from children’s stories had their ownmagic? It was absurd. “Come with me, Thana. Feel this.”
“No, break free from it. Now. It’s evil, Sylph, please. It’s themagic of the pyramid you sensed before, and I should have warned you. Breakwith it. I have no idea what will happen if you use it, and that should scareyou because I know everything, remember?”
Sylph managed to open her eyes, drawn by that distress. She waslying in Thana’s lap, her pale, anxious face hovering above. Tears ran down hercheeks as she pleaded. She wiped them on her sleeve. Sylph tsked.
Thana’s face brightened. “Stay with me. Keep your eyes open.” Shebrought Sylph’s hand into view with the stone pyramid inside. “Stay here.” Shesqueezed, and the sharp points dug into Sylph’s palm, making her gasp.
“See?” her pyramid seemed to say. “Flesh is ephemeral. I ameternal.” And through it, so was she. And it wasn’t cold, she saw as she let itcapture her senses. The world had been born in fire and carried that flame atits core, a force of such magnitude, it tore itself open on occasion and spreadmolten rock that birthed new land.
The siren still called, but it only reminded her that flesh hadone point in its favor: Thana. And she was in pain.
Sylph struggled to sit up, forcing herself to breathe and lettingThana’s words and touches ground her. “It’s still there,” she managed. “Andcoming closer.” And the large pyramid, the heart that scared Thana so, wasbeginning to beat in time with the new pyramid as if coming alive.
A rumble began in the stones around them, and Sylph asked herpyramid for answers.
Far below, something stirred.
Chapter Twenty
“Spirits above,” Thana cried. “What now?” The palace rumbledaround them, but at least Sylph seemed to be out of the grip of the newcrystal. Thana pulled her upright and kept her close until the rumbling dieddown. “Did you do that?” she whispered.
“No,” Sylph said, the words mumbled in Thana’s hair. “It’ssomething under the palace.”
Thana breathed in so sharply, her chest ached. There was only onething buriedunder the palace: Yanchasa the Mighty.
“Shit.” Thana’s mind raced. Sylph had sensed a Fiend pyramid madewith the new crystal, though the spirits only knew how the rogues had managedthat. In their tunneling, they must have detected the capstone, the pyramidthat kept Yanchasa prisoner.
But who knew what they planned to do with such a pyramid? Shecouldn’t let them get to the capstone, and she couldn’t wait for Gunnar. Shecouldn’t let two Fiend pyramids be brought together, or the rogues could awakenYanchasa.
“I have to go into the caverns below the palace,” she said, heartthundering in her ears
