“You won’t need that.”
“Bell.” She sheathed her sword and took him by the shoulders. “What is going on?”
“Do you remember the thing I told you Stolas released when you were in the Nether?”
Her pulse lanced against the tender flesh of her wrist. “His Shadow Wolf?”
“It’s loose again,” he panted, working to catch his breath. “It’s—it’s destroying the castle. The Seraphians are too scared to go near it. Even Nasira can’t get it under control. You may be the only one who can stop it.”
The first sign that something was wrong was the howls. Deep, booming, bloodcurdling howls that sounded more Netherworld beast than mortal wolf. They were in the royal tower, three levels below Stolas’s chamber. Bell and Haven made it to the growing crowd of Seraphians and Chosen just as Nasira came rushing around the corner.
Panic whispered through Haven at the sight. The slip of gorgeous silver and black strappy nightgown Nasira wore revealed claw marks raking every available inch of her arms and legs. And while the ghastly furrows were already healing, knitting together before Haven’s eyes, it was the sheer size of the wounds that alarmed Haven. If Stolas’s wolf had hit a major organ—no amount of healing would have saved her.
Nasira’s wings were ruffled and askew, missing feathers in more than a few places. Her gaze darted to Haven, and Haven was shocked by the rare shadow of fear darkening the Noctis girl’s expression.
“Where’s Stolas?” Haven demanded as Xandrian, Surai, and Ember rushed over.
Nasira shook her head. “Asleep. He must be having a nightmare.”
Xandrian scowled as his focus slid in the direction of the howls. “That’s the result of a nightmare? Dare I ask what happens when he actually gets angry?”
Nasira hissed, flashing her canines before turning to Haven. “I can’t stop it.”
His familiar had destroyed the Hall of Light in less than a minute, and that was when Stolas was awake to direct its bloodlust. She could only imagine the devastation it would wreak now. “Nasira, you have to wake him up.”
“I can’t, Haven. No one can get within a hundred feet of his chamber while he’s sleeping.”
A roar exploded from somewhere close by, followed by the boom of stone shattering.
Stone.
Goddess Above.
The castle trembled with the force. Dust and loose stone rained over them.
“I think it broke through the floor,” Surai muttered.
“The floor?” Haven tucked a rose-gold strand behind her ear, her hair still damp from her bath before bed. She didn’t know much about wolves, but dogs only dug downward when there was something they wanted. “Nasira, what is it trying to find?”
“Not find.” Her eyes closed, reopened. There was a hollowness in her gaze that Haven had never seen before. “Destroy.”
Delphine and Bane had approached at some point during the chaos, and Delphine explained further using signs. Haven could only pick up on a little.
Room. Magick. Secret.
Surai translated. “A few days before Morgryth attacked, the level two floors below was suddenly walled over and warded.”
“The entire level?” Haven asked, thinking that was a mistake.
But Surai nodded. “The entire level. Every window was paved over. Every door destroyed.”
Xandrian grinned. “Who needs doors when you can use the ceiling?”
Nasira looked a few seconds away from ripping Xandrian’s head from his shoulders, so Haven stepped between them and said to Nasira, “If there are wards then the Shadow Wolf can’t reach it, right?”
Nasira’s ashen lashes lowered as her gaze collapsed to the floor. “It can if the wards were created by its master.”
Stolas. What could have been so terrible that he needed such security to keep it locked away?
Another explosion rocked the castle. Another howl pierced the night. The intense rage and grief inside that otherworldly sound cut straight to her heart. Right now Stolas’s Shadow Wolf was his pain personified, and every ounce of his emotions was laser-focused on that room.
What the Netherworld was in there?
A pulse of magick flared over them like a band snapping.
The first ward was broken.
“Perhaps it will stop destroying everything once it finds whatever the hell is pissing it off so badly?” Xandrian proposed through a yawn.
The color leached from Nasira’s face. “That can’t happen. There is a . . . a curse on the thing inside that chamber. An amplifier curse.”
Surai sucked in a breath. “Goddess save him then.”
“What?” Haven flicked a desperate look to Bell, whose face was stricken. “Bell? What is an amplifier curse?”
He slowly met her gaze. “It means whatever is inflicted upon the object will return tenfold to the aggressor.”
She blinked. Still not quite getting