Chapter 44. The Last Heat

There was no ceremony to mark her arrival. No ranks of silent sentinels. No rattling of shackles or muffled threats in the gloom. Kai and Lora moved together down the spiral stairwell in perfect quiet, as though they were merely taking an after-dinner stroll through some dimly lit gallery rather than descending into a hidden vault of magic and consequence. Kai walked several paces ahead, torch aloft in one hand, his cloak billowing slightly with each deliberate step, and his shadow flickering and stretching along the ancient stone like a curious companion.

Lora followed close behind, the soft scrape of her boots the only other sound in the air, which grew heavier and cooler with every turn of the hewn steps. Dust floated in the torchlight, settling on her cheeks and shoulders in a delicate, gilded film, and Lora smelled it keenly—an earthiness mingled with something metallic and old, as if the bones of this place had been buried for centuries. Magic, she thought, with the fai