Fiery heat tumbled through her. Something knowing flashed behind Lord Malik’s expression, and she shook her head, hoping her cheeks weren’t as red as they felt. “We should probably hurry. I really don’t want to be here when he wakes from the compulsion.”
Stolas gave a disappointed sigh. Then he jerked his chin at Lord Malik. “You inflicted the potion so you are the one who can compel him.”
She squared off in front of Lord Malik, trying and failing not to gloat at their switch in positions. Now she was the one in power. “How do we reach the Keeper?”
Lord Malik swallowed. Blinked. He was fighting the compulsion. His gaze slowly coasted behind Haven. “Take the tunnels behind the hidden doorway there. When it branches off, take a left. Her chambers are just beyond.”
“There will be some kind of lock or spell to prevent entry,” Stolas warned.
She looked into those horrible eyes once more. “How do we enter?”
“I have . . . the key.” Beneath his stupor she could see him fighting every word.
“Where.”
“My neck.”
Stolas snatched the key and slipped it over his head.
“Anything else we should know?” Haven asked.
“It has been too long since I fed her.” His lips twisted into a grin. “She will be so delighted to have company.”
Goddess Above. Haven couldn’t wait to be done with this nightmarish realm.
“You are going to forget what happened here,” Haven added. “Forget everything about us. You won’t remember me or my companion. Understand?”
“Yes.” Malice glinted inside Lord Malik’s eyes, and she knew he was aware now of everything that was happening, even if he couldn’t do anything to stop it. “The little mouse and the dark wolf.”
Haven froze as a shiver rolled through her. Did he know who Stolas was?
They were running out of time. The compulsion would only last so long. “Stay in this room. Don’t leave it all night, and if anyone knocks, tell them you’re busy.”
She crossed the chamber, firelight glinting off the diamonds at her neckline and dancing over the room, when something made her look back. Stolas had taken the knife out of the Demon Lord and stabbed him again, in the side this time.
She realized why a second later as he whispered something into the Demon Lord’s ear. Now Stolas could compel him.
Jaw clenched and eyes burning with hatred, Lord Malik removed the dagger from his side, positioned the blade longways with the sharpened edge over his chest, and sliced deep. A grunt followed as oily black blood poured from the cut.
Stolas caught up to her, grinning, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes.
“What did you make him do?” she asked as they found the tunnel behind the hidden panel.
“What is the saying, death by a thousand cuts?”
Haven flicked up her brows. “Is it wise to provoke him further?”
“You mean, beyond drugging him, overriding his will, stabbing him—four times, I might add—and forcing him to give us access to his most prized possession?”
“Point taken.”
Stolas closed the panel with a soft click and then turned to her. Torches flickered from somewhere just beyond, the air cool and dusty. “Lord Malik deserves to be flayed alive for what he did to you. But, for now, I’ll settle for a few removed parts.”
“You didn’t?”
A muffled groan of pure agony came from the Demon Lord’s chamber, and Stolas’s lips curled in a devious grin.
He did. Shadeling Below.
A garbled scream followed, so loud that anyone on this side of the castle would hear it. But Haven knew screams from that chamber were a nightly occurrence.
No one would come to Lord Malik’s aid.
49
Haven thought after dealing with Lord Malik, the Keeper would be tame in comparison. She was wrong. When they approached the final passageway to the Keeper’s quarters, silky white spiderwebs blocked their way. The webs were intricately woven patterns that ran floor-to-ceiling, bigger than any normal spider could make.
The door to the Keeper’s quarters was even more ominous. Spiders scuttled across the iron surface, thousands of them.
Haven made a face. “And here I was thinking Lord Malik was the worst thing we would encounter tonight.”
Stolas released a ragged breath. “The Keeper is an ancient blood augur, the oldest in existence that we know of. She’s part demon, part witch, and part something insidious that’s not of this world.”
“She can tell the future?”
“In a way. Some say she weaves the strands of destiny on a giant web. That she can even manipulate fate.”
“What is she like?”
His mouth twisted in disgust. “Vile. Hideous in every way. The first time