Soul Ties

Chapter 61: A Piece of History Covered In Death

My skin is already soaking up as much water as it can. I stare up at the window we burst through, the water on the other side rippling against it but not leaking inside. It reminds me of the pods on the ship. Even though no light has turned on when we came in, and no guards were waiting, we still have to get going. Who knows what kind of security system Demien had? I definitely didn't want to find out.

Estella shakes off the water from her wings, the droplets flinging everywhere. Her helmet is completely shattered, the collar holding a few shards of glass. She reaches for it and unhooks it from around her, tossing it to the floor without another thought. She stares up at the ceiling, turning her head every which way to observe where we are.

It's so dim in here, the light from the hole we created being the only illumination to guide us. Candles of every size are scattered around, some lit while others have melted to the point that they can't burn anymore. I guess Demien really liked setting the mood, or just making it look oddly creepy in here.

A huge staircase sits before us, wide and inviting. On either side stands a light blue statue; a female Sidin on one and a male Pharon on the other. The Pharon stands with his chest out, horns high and menacing. Underneath his feet are bodies of what seems like every species. Their tongues hang out, spears protruding from their limp bodies. To my disgust, one of them even looks like a child.

A shiver runs through me. Was this Demien's father? Possibly someone older, a grandfather maybe? I move my attention to where the Sidin statue is. Her four arms hold her chest, as if she's trying to clutch her heart. The stone scales on her body glitter and she has a veil covering her eyes. Her mouth is still exposed and I can see a frown etched in her expression. I take a step, my reflection on the floor matching my moves. Estella follows as her eyes continue to scan our surroundings. Dark blue pillars stand from the floor, touching the high ceilings. It's weird that everything outside of this place looks so modern, and yet here we stood in a place that seemed stuck in the past. Everything around us seemed aged.

"This place gives me the creeps," Estella mutters, but her low voice still touches every corner of this room. As bare as it was, I still felt surrounded. Maybe it was because I was waiting for the guards to come in at any moment and take us.

I peer around the Sidin statue, my foot touching one of the steps, and my mouth falls open. Behind her is a child, its hands gripping on to the floor length veil. From the tail and the smooth head I can tell it's a Luniod. It clings to the back of the Sidin, a long thick spear stuck in its back. My head whirls and I think I might be sick.

Estella joins me at the steps, her teeth clamping down hard when she sees the stone child. She shakes her feathers roughly, like she's shaking away the image.

"These people are seriously fucked up," she says. I try to nod but my neck feels stiff. Is this what the Crypt family represented? Murderous people in power who killed anyone and anything to get where they are now? Demien ending his sisters life didn't seem so much like a rumor anymore. If anything, that betrayal was passed down through his family, literal backstabbing.

"Come on," I tell Estella through gritted teeth. My insides were humming, fury and displeasure burning through my pores as I make my way up the steps. At the top is a huge wooden door, two metal handles hanging from each side in the shape of a hand. They almost resembled the hands of the Sidin statue.

Estella gets closer, our feet padding up the last set of steps when the door starts to creak open. The groan from it vibrates so loudly I feel it in the tips of my toes. I freeze. This was it. The guards had come to take us. We'd gotten nowhere and we were about to be taken in to see Demien. Seren and Scorpius would never be saved.