“This building,” he said, “is cursed.”
A shiver went down my spine as we began our trek up the stairs. “Cursed how?”
“Death lives in this place.” He continued to climb.
“Are you going to elaborate on that?”
Heaving out a sigh, he pushed open the door to the fifth floor. “When most of the gods were banished from this realm, one of them got trapped. The God of Death. She’s here, in this building. Her soul lives on, though she’s unable to do anything but watch and listen. It is a cursed place.”
My heart thumped. “You’re telling me that we’re trapped inside a god’s house. And she’shere.”
“Yes.”
My mouth dropped open, and then I snapped it shut. I didn’t even know where to begin with that information. It was bad enough that we were stuck inside because of a storm that Kalen couldn’t fight, but to add this on top of it…
“We need to figure out how to leave,” I whispered.
“Trust me,” he ground out. “I know.”
We fell into tense silence as Kalen led the way through the dimly lit hallways. There were no torches to light the way here, and the tall, angry fae king beside me was the only reason I didn’t get lost. When we reached a set of looming oak doors, Kalen shoved inside.
The expansive room stretched out before us, filled with oak dining tables hidden under a thick layer of dust. Empty chandeliers hung from a ceiling held up by wooden beams. Red-and-gold tapestries hung from the wall—Oberon’s banners. But it had been a very long time since the king had stepped foot in this place.
“This was one of Oberon’s cities, before you conquered this part of the world,” I murmured, trailing over to pick up a helmet emblazoned with the king’s sigil. Kalen put a hand on my arm before my fingers touched steel.
“Best not do that,” he warned. “This place is cursed. Don’t touch anything.”
I snatched back my hand. “You think picking that up will do something to me?”
“I don’t know. But let’s not test it.” Kalen moved away from my side and approached a wall where five little windows lined up, side by side. Bracing his hands on either side of one, he leaned close to peer out into the storm. The muscles in his back clenched beneath his tunic.
I went over to him and looked through one of the other windows. It was impossible to see a damn thing.
Kalen pulled one of his communication stones from his pocket and held it up in the dim light. It shattered in an instant, and the shards rained down on Kalen’s boots.
He scowled. “Whatever is affecting my powers is destroying my stones. I can’t contact Dubnos without them until this storm is over.”
“I guess it might be a little while before it dies down.”
He grunted. “If I were them, I wouldn’t let up for weeks. What better way to destroy your enemy kingdom than by battering them with a brutal storm they’re unable to fight? Shattered remains, the only thing left behind. No one left to fight. It’s the perfect form of attack, particularly when they’ve discovered a way to neutralize my powers.”
I shivered. “You make it sound so hopeless.”
“Because it is.”
Kalen grabbed a chair, dragged it over to the windows, and sat. His entire body coiled tight, he stared at the storm with so much concentration that it felt like he was trying to stop it with his mind. Maybe he was. After a while, I grabbed my own chair and set up camp beside him. If he was going to do this, so was I. Silence stretched between us for a good long while.
And then something occurred to me. “You said this place holds the power of a god. Could we use it somehow for our own benefit? Maybe it could stop the storm.”
He whipped his head toward me and looked at me with so much dread, I almost wondered if a pooka had materialized behind me. What I’d said wasn’tthatshocking. “Absolutely not. That’s far too dangerous.”
“But you’re the…well, you’re you.”
“I would doanythingto protect my people,” he said roughly. “Anything. Except one thing. And that’s use the power of a god, especially this one. That’s how dangerous it is. That’s how much horror it would bring.”
I frowned but decided not to argue. He was pretty damn convinced about the whole thing.
“So, what are we going to do?” I asked. “If we can’t use this power, we have to do something else. We can’t just let them trap us here for weeks.”