Page 52 of I Am the Storm

We leave Lily—who is almost entirely healed—with the carriage and I follow Sebastian down a narrow cobblestone path. It's barely wide enough for one person to walk, and thorny bramble has taken over much of that room, leaving us both cut up and bleeding by the time we arrive at the massive building. Sebastian heals almost instantly, there are perks to being a vampire, it seems, but my cuts will take longer, of course.

The prison is a tall gothic cathedral made of black stone and sharp, spiky architecture. Atop it sits a massive black dragon, obsidian scales glimmering under the lights of the Dragon's Breath.

I can't tell if the dragon sees us or even cares that we're here. It seems to be content on its perch. "The Dragon of Darkness, I presume?" I ask Sebastian as we stop at the door. Beside the entrance are two skeletons, and it would have felt a bit Halloweenish except these are alive, and they scare the shit out of me when they step forward and demand to know what we want.

"We are here to see a prisoner in the course of an investigation," Sebastian says.

I flash my ring from Ava'Kara and Sebastian tells them who we want to see.

"Yes, that's the Dragon of Darkness," Sebastian says, as we follow one of the skeletons inside the building. "His name is Ra'Terr and he cares little for anything save guarding this prison. It's his magic that keeps so many creatures of different sizes, strengths, and abilities in check."

We step into a hallway lit only by torches set on the walls. It smells of brimstone and body odor and other—worse—things. I try to breathe through my mouth, but then I can taste it, and that's even worse.

Sebastian smiles sympathetically at me.

"How can you stand it?" I ask.

"I can suspend my breathing when needed," he says, and I've never been more jealous of anyone.

The skeleton leads us down long stairways that feel as if they might crumble under my feet and down long halls lined with moaning and screaming prisoners of all species. There are no bars and when a man who looks like he's in mid transformation into a wolf lunges at us, I scream and unleash a fireball at him, only to realize that there's an invisible barrier that keeps him within his cage. He hits it—hard—and is zapped back to the other wall with a cry of pain. My fire hits the wall and fizzes to nothing.

We pass a mermaid a few cells farther down, her torso resting on a mat while her tail dangles in a small bucket of water. She looks close to death and I shudder to imagine what this must be like for her. But I also wonder what she did to deserve such a punishment. She glances at me with big coral eyes and a sadness so profound I want to weep just looking at her.

Finally, we step before a cell at the very end, and it's so dark within I can't tell who—or what—is inside. The skeleton taps on the invisible barrier. "You've got visitors."

He then leaves us alone, traveling with clacking bones back to his watch.

"I hope you were paying attention to how to get out of here," I say nervously. "It was a maze, and I didn't leave any breadcrumbs."

"I know my way around," Sebastian assures me.

A moment later, a slithering sound alerts us to the basilisk's presence. He comes close to the edge of the barrier, his forked tongue tasting the air around him. "What do you want, vampire?" he hisses.

Like Ethne, he is blindfolded. But unlike her, his seems permanently sewn into his face. Ouch.

"We came to ask you some questions about your sister," I say.

"I have no sssssissster," he says.

"We know you do," Sebastian says. "And she's been killed. We're trying to find out what happened."

At the news that she's dead, the basilisk falls back, his tail faltering beneath him.

"Ethne is dead?"

"Yes," I say. "I'm sorry for your loss. Please help us figure out who did this and why."

He laughs, but it is a cold, hard, sad sound. "What would I know of anything, rotting in here for all eternity?"

"Ethne was a guard for Ava'Kara, and was killed while on duty," I say.

"Then you have the wrong perssssson," Lester says. "My sssssisssster—if I had one—would never work for the dragonsssss. Ssssshe'd die first."

Interesting. "And yet, she did. Work for them. And die," I say. "Don't you want to find out how? And why?"

When he says nothing, Sebastian continues. "It looks like she was involved in a plot to steal the water dragon's egg and was killed by her partner. Any idea who she might have been working with?"

Lester laughs again, and it sounds like the laugh of a madman. "That'sssss more like my Ethne. She has avenged our family at lasssst."