“You’ve completely lost it.” Avaritia shook his head as he re-buttoned his jacket. “Valefor’s going to destroy you when he finds you, and I’m going to laugh.”

Lux considered going after Avaritia and really teaching him a lesson, but Wick was right. They didn’t have time to waste. If Avaritia didn’t know anything, then they didn’t have any reason to interact with him anymore. Avaritia left, slinking out the front door the same way he had come in.

Wick gathered up a few more things they might use on their journey, and then she and Lux ventured out in the night, into the Necrosilvam.

12

The last quarter of a mile, Ira had tired of fighting her, so he simply dragged Lily on the ground behind him. He bound her hands and tied a rope around her ankles, so he could pull her along. She’d wailed like a banshee after he’d taken care of Lux, and for the first hour or so, she’d sobbed and hit at him with her puny fists.

Eventually, she wore herself down, but she’d never completely gave up. No matter what he did to her or what he threatened her with, Lily never stopped fighting him or vowing to avenge Lux. Ira had never actually seen anyone fight that long or hard before, not in the face of such a clear obstacle.

When he got to the mote surrounding Valefor’s lair, he picked her up and slung her over his shoulder. She wriggled a bit, but her body was battered and bruised from being raked across the ground. She too worn down to do much more than that, and it would be easier if he carried her.

Valefor’s lair rose high in the sky, a burnt crimson tower that looked as mangled and twisted as a unicorn horn. It was made of rocks and magma, carved many centuries ago, and it had quite obviously seen its share of battles and fires.

Avaritia, who’d always had a taste for the finer things in life, once asked Valefor why he didn’t move or at least fix his crumbling tower. Valefor said he liked it better that way. The more destroyed it got, the more it reminded him of home. After that, Avaritia didn’t ask any more questions, because he hated to be reminded of where Valefor really came from, where he and all the other peccati would someday reside.

On the other hand, Ira looked forward it. No place on Earth felt more comfortable to him that Valefor’s lair. Here the smell of brimstone was so strong, Lily couldn’t ignore it. Ira had tied a gag in her mouth to silence her, and she coughed around it as she breathed in the scent.

Her hair fell over her face, so she couldn’t see where they were going. She could only see the ground below Ira’s feet as it shifted from dirty wood to the murky water of the moat and finally to the worn black stones of the tower floor.

She heard Ira talking to the guards at the door, their voices booming and inhuman. The language they spoke sounded vaguely like her own, but she couldn’t really understand it.

Lily tried to look around, searching for any landmarks to tell her where she was, so she could make her escape when the time came. She didn’t know if Lux was alive or dead, but she would do everything she could to return to him, even if it was only to bury him.

What little she could see of the walls did not look pleasant. They were covered in scratches and splashes of red that looked suspiciously like blood.

Stranger still, the longer Ira walked, the warmer she got. The hallway they were in seemed to go on forever, then she heard a heavy door groan open. The heat hit her so hard, it felt like she was going into an oven. In fact, she’d become convinced that Ira meant to cook and eat her.

She fought harder against him, kicking at him with what little strength she had left. Her whole body ached when she moved, and even though she hated to admit it, she knew she didn’t have that much fight left in her.

Ira dropped her onto the ground with a painful thud, and she immediately scrambled to sit up. The room wasn’t an oven, as she’d expected to see, but rather, it appeared to be some kind of chambers.

The walls were dark, stained with ash like the chimneys at her palace. A long fire place ran along one wall, its fire blazing, but somehow, the room felt dim. It was furnished with several chairs and a long table, all of them made out of the black lava rock, so they seemed to glisten in the light of the flames.

“I’m going to take the gag from your mouth,” Ira said, bending down in front of her. “But if you scream, even once, I will knock all the teeth out of your face. Do you understand me?”

Lily sat on the floor, her feet bound underneath, her arms bound behind her back. Her dress was torn and ragged, as was her skin underneath, staining the white fabric red. Dirt and sticks knotted her hair, and it hung in a mess around her face. She stared up at Ira, knowing she had no choice, and grunted her understanding.

He ripped the cloth from her mouth with more force than necessary, and it yanked her painfully.

“Now, what do you say?” Ira asked, smiling down at her.

“What?” Lily asked, glaring up at him. “You expect me to thank you? I will spit on your grave before I thank you, and then and only then will I thank you for doing the world the service of leaving it.”

“Get it all out of your system,” he said, only smiling wider. “Because when my master gets here, you won’t get away with it. He’ll make you wish you had died back there with your boyfriend.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” she told him, raising her chin defiantly. “I will get free, and when I am, you will be the one that wishes you had died back there.”

“Such big threats from such a tiny girl,” Ira chuckled. “Valefor is going to eat you up.” He laughed again, then turned and started walking toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Lily asked.

“As much as I’d love to see what the master has in store for you, I have other business to attend to,” Ira said as he opened the door. “But don’t worry. He won’t keep you waiting much longer.”

Ira laughed again, then shut the door loudly behind him, leaving Lily sitting alone in the middle of the room. It was so hot that her skin had become slick with sweat, but that could work to her advantage. She wriggled her wrists, trying to get them free.

She’d just about gotten one hand loose when the door on the other side of the room opened, and she lifted her head to see Valefor walk inside.

13

The creatures in the Necrosilvam usually didn’t mess with Wick anymore. They had learned that it was pointless, but even she wasn’t prepared for how quiet the forest could be when she walked with Lux. Around him, nothing made a sound.