Page 87 of Gilded Curses

The bathroom water turned off, and Aurora emerged ten minutes later. Her white-blonde hair hung around her shoulders, and her dark brown eyes were red-rimmed but shone with fury when they landed on Desmond.

Alda nudged Desmond with her foot before stepping back. “He’s healing; he’ll wake soon.”

Orin went to the other room to retrieve a chair before returning to the bedroom. He lifted Desmond onto the seat and held his shoulder while Alda tied him to the back of the sturdy piece of furniture. When they were finished, he strode over to sit on the white chair in the corner.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR

Sahira didn’t think it would be so obvious, but after some debate, she and Pip decided to try for the next lightest color gray. Going for the color closest to white worked the first time; maybe it would work again.

Stretching out with her toe, she hesitated before pushing down hard enough to trigger something. The second she did, a click sounded, and she yanked her foot back before the floor dropped out.

Except, this time, the floor didn’t fall away. Instead, dozens of darts shot out from unseen holes in the walls.

If they hadn’t been encircled by her protective air bubble, at least four darts would have hit them. As it was, one of them pierced through the spell and whistled past her ear. Thankfully, it shot through on the side where Pip wasn’t sitting.

Rattled by how close the dart came to them, Sahira wiggled her fingers and murmured some words to repair where the flying projectiles fractured the bubble. She glimpsed one of the darts lying on the ground while she worked. A green coating covered its sharp point; she had no doubt it was poisonous and probably would have left them writhing in agony before killing them.

“I’m so small that I probably wouldn’t set these things off,” Pip said.

“I don’t think you should test that theory. If you set them off, you’ll be beyond the protective bubble.”

“There’s no way they designed these traps with my kind in mind. Everyone always underestimates us and never counts on us for anything.”

Sahira couldn’t argue with that. She’d heard about brownies before encountering them but never given them much thought, and she certainly wouldn’t have recruited them for a war. But the tiny immortals were fierce, proud fighters who would make anyone who underestimated them pay for it.

“If I get to the other side and open the door, maybe it will disable all the traps and you can make it safely across,” Pip continued. “Who knows what the next stone might unleash on us.”

It could be poisonous snakes with which they’d be trapped inside this room. Sahira shuddered at the possibility.

Sahira didn’t want to let the tiny creature go out there alone, but she had to. “Okay, but be careful.”

“Of course.”

With that, Pip slid down her arm and fell to the floor. With deft, unhesitating steps, she moved beyond the reach of Sahira’s protective spell. She didn’t even pretend to be careful; instead, she sprinted across the floor.

And as she’d predicted, her weight didn’t set off any of the stones. When Pip made it to the door, she grasped the rocks beside it and scrambled up the wall to a set of stones.

From where she stood, Sahira couldn’t see anything different about those stones, but there must be something there as Pip leaned closer. Then, she pulled one aside and hit a button.

Three clicks sounded as the locks disengaged. The ground quaked a little when the metal door slid to the side to reveal a dim glow beyond. Again, nothing rushed out to attack them.

Pip twisted on her perch to call to Sahira. “Are you coming?”

Taking a deep breath, Sahira braced herself before stepping onto a dark gray stone. She yanked her foot back and ducked, but the floor didn’t give way, nothing shot out of the walls, and serpents didn’t rise to destroy her.

Carefully lowering the hands she’d thrown over her head, Sahira rose and stepped fully onto the dark gray stone. Nothing happened.

She didn’t know if that was because the stone had always been safe or if Pip’s opening of the door had disabled the traps, but she wasn’t taking any chances. Alternating between the lightest and darkest rocks, she moved in a zigzag pattern across the floor until she reached Pip’s side.

She stood next to the brownie as they leaned forward to peer into the room beyond.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE

“This little piggy went to market. This little piggy went home. This little piggy had roast beef. This little piggy had none. And this little piggy went wee wee wee as it was chopped the fuck off.”

With that, Orin used the hunting knife he’d uncovered in a weapon’s room just off Desmond’s bedroom to chop off what remained of the man’s pinky finger. Desmond screamed against the ball gag Orin had shoved into his mouth as sweat poured down his florid face.

While hiding in the tunnels beneath Del’s manner, Orin had gathered his fair share of refugees from the Lord’s war; some were human. Nessie, who arrived with her four-year-old nephew, Jayden, would often do silly nursery rhymes to keep him entertained.