Mask of Poison (Fall of Under Book 1) by Kathryn Kingsley (great novels to read txt) 📕

are rather fragile.” He smirked down at the clay mug in his hand. “Not sure they could survive the drop.”

She stayed silent, watching the man. She knew her eyes were still the size of saucers. She could feel her adrenaline desperately working to build back up, but it had nothing to draw on. She hadn’t eaten in a day. She hadn’t had time to hunt. Her stomach grumbled as if on command.

“Go ahead.” He motioned to the tray. Next to the pot of honey was a small collection of what looked like…cookies, maybe? She hadn’t seen any in a long, long time. “I promise you, nothing here is poisoned.”

“How do I know?”

“Why would I poison you?” He sipped his tea. “I do not mean this to scare you, but if I wished you dead, you would be. I am not human, as you have likely noted.” He gestured to her mug. “Please. Eat. Drink.”

If she needed to fight, or run, she couldn’t be a useless, shaking leaf. With a long sigh, she nodded and reached forward to put a drop of honey in the tea and snag one of the cookies. They smelled amazing, whatever they were. “Thank you.”

“You are very welcome.”

“Why was everyone staring at me?” She glanced at the door. If she tried to escape, she wanted to know what she was up against.

“We do not often get mortals here in Under. And when we do, it is by very, very different means. I’m afraid they are just as frightened of what has happened as you are.”

“You keep calling me mortal…”

“Yes, because I am not. I have not been mortal for nearly twenty-three hundred years.”

Ember’s eyes went wide again as she shrank back in the chair. She wanted to deny that it could be true. She wanted to tell him he was lying. But something about the look in his eyes—the strange, forlorn sadness that seemed to cling to him—made her believe him. He looked that old. He felt that old.

It left her with only one question. “How…?”

He smiled, his expression softening the lines of his face. “You believe me. What a relief. That will save us a great deal of time.”

“I’m not sure I’m in the position to deny much of anything when there are moons hovering in the sky that I don’t recognize.” Ember shook her head, resisting the urge to glance away from Lyon and out the window to confirm that the impossible was still her reality. “Denying what you’re saying doesn’t fix the fact that I don’t know what’s happened, I don’t know where I am, and I…I think I’m about to have a heart attack.”

He chuckled. Standing, he put his mug down on the coffee table in front of them and moved toward a table by one wall. Opening a cabinet in the front of it, he reached in and produced a glass decanter. Returning to his chair, he sat and, pulling the glass stopper from the stem, offered it to her.

She might not recognize the cookies, or the tea…but she recognized the smell of alcohol. She took it without hesitation and poured some into her mug before handing it back. “Thank the old gods.”

Lyon had a small, amused smile on his face as he took the decanter and added some to his own mug. “I am not usually one for imbibing. But…today is a particularly alarming day.”

“You’re not the one who was dropped into a strange world.” She took a bite out of the cookie and let out a grunt. She couldn’t help it. It tasted amazing. “What is that?” She pointed at the dark lumps in the cookie.

“Chocolate.”

“Never heard of it.” She laughed tiredly. “I guess this world can’t be all bad.”

“It has a great many benefits.” He sat back in his chair. The man was immensely tall. It made him look thinner than she suspected he probably was, because of the fact that he was so very long. “I fear that yours is not the only one whose day has been…eh…upended, pardon the pun.” He turned his attention to the window, his expression once more growing troubled. “I fear I should be headed to meet my peers this very moment to learn more of what has transpired.”

“Why aren’t you?”

Ice-blue eyes flicked back to her. “You are part of the equation. My peers would likely wish to meet you, and I did not think it prudent to drag you there kicking and screaming. Or worse, as my hypnotized thrall.”

She felt the blood drain from her face. “I appreciate that, thank you…”

He nodded once. “I will ask you to join me once you have eaten your fill and have gathered your wits.”

“Go? To...do what, and where?”

“The ‘what’ is surprisingly easy to answer—I suspect you will answer a great many questions about who you are and the world you mentioned to me. Gioll, was it?”

She nodded.

“I have never heard of Under coming into contact with any world by that name. Indeed, any other world besides one called Earth. Do you know that name?”

“No.”

Lyon tapped long fingers on the side of the clay mug that rested on his leg. “As to where, we will go see the Orrery at the Great Hall.”

“I know what those words mean separately, but together they’re nonsense.” She took another bite out of the cookie, and then a third, and with a fourth, it was gone. She reached for another one. I’m pretty sure I’m willing to risk being poisoned for this stuff called chocolate.

“The Great Hall is the home of the House of Fate.”

She shot him a look. “Still not helping.”

“Yes. Right. Forgive me. It’s been a long while since I’ve had to deliver ‘the lecture.’”

“What lecture?”

“The fact that you have been brought here from another world is not unique. The exact method and location of departure is what sets you apart. Under…collects souls. Simply put, we cannot increase our ranks by more traditional means. We cannot reproduce. So we take.”

“You take people?” This conversation was going from