“I kinda love it. It’s… very pretty.”
“It really is. Eyebrows has outdone himself this time.”
Pell offers me his hand. I take it, and then we walk like that through the maze of tombs. Not talking. Just kind of strolling. I want to do this with him forever. Take long walks, and lie on a blanket in front of the lake, and kiss, and have sex, and just generally give him a hundred percent of my attention.
But I have work.
And Pell has to finish his magic bag.
We stop near Tarq’s tomb and face each other.
Pell smiles at me. “I’m gonna miss you today.”
I lean up and kiss him, then turn in the direction of the tomb. Because I do not want to leave and if I say anything else, I might just change my mind and never go back.
Pell must feel the same way, because he doesn’t call out for me. And then there’s my door. So I know he walked away.
I step into the doorway and start a brand-new day in a whole new world.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX – PELL
I get my fire going and work on the bag. And even though these tasks are important, it’s not enough to distract me. I think about last night. Run it over and over in my head. Smile, almost continuously, as I fully internalize that Pie was inside my tomb.
No one has ever been inside my tomb.
And that’s great. I love it. I love her being there. But it’s more than that—it feels like she belongs there, too. Like it’s a place for both of us. Which is a new experience for me. Even though, for as long as I have been a prisoner inside Saint Mark’s, I’ve had a slave caretaker, I’ve never really felt like I have a partner.
Pie being in my tomb feels like a partnership.
But. There is always a but in the world of cursed things. But that portal door. And the fireflies. And was the black tomb a dream? Or something else?
This is also what I’m thinking about as I finish weaving the rings into a chainmail bag and forge an iron plate to put on the front. It needs some kind of sigil. No. Words. They are so powerful and Pie seems to be mastering them quicker than anyone expected, so this bag requires a spelling.
And, conveniently, she has already composed one. So I get a tiny chisel and start tapping letters onto the plate.
Obviously, her spell last night to enter my tombs was a game-changer. But after her spell this morning, I’m starting to get a feeling about all these new changes. A good feeling.
However, that portal cannot remain a mystery. We need to figure it out. And the rings, too. I like the idea that they build upon each other to create powerful magic. But the way that ring practically attacked Pie and melded into the one already on her finger disturbs me.
What the hell was that all about?
I can take a good guess. I’ve been around long enough to understand where this might be headed. And here’s where I land:
The entire bag of rings is about Pie. And somehow Pie is connected to that door. And that ring that slipped on her finger is also connected to that door. That ring is a key to the portal, same way the first ring was a key to the sanctuary. So this bag of rings—which I am currently trying to add magic to—is a bag of keys through portal doors, and so far, at least, I think they are meant for Pie.
Pie says Tarq can’t get through the doors. And she thinks it’s my bloodhorn that makes all the difference. Because while Tarq is the one with the all-powerful spellbook of Ostanes, he doesn’t understand that the bloodhorn—in the spell he gave Pie, at least—isn’t the common flower, but is a code for… well… me.
I am the key ingredient.
This makes sense to me. In fact, after all these thousands of years, this little puzzle piece almost pulls the whole shit show together in a new way.
We all got something powerful from Ostanes. Tarq got the book. That part has always been clear. But my part has never really lined up. Yeah, I am the master of Saint Mark’s. And inside Saint Mark’s are tombs. But what’s inside the tombs?
All this time I have just assumed that there were monsters like me inside them. I mean, based on the statues outside, this is a perfectly logical conclusion.
But after last night, I’m having doubts.
About all of it.