Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas Read Free Book Online Page A

hall to her room. There were plenty of strange people in a castle this large, and even though she rarely saw another soul in the library, perhaps some people just … wished to go to the library alone. And unidentified. In a court where reading was so out of fashion, perhaps it was merely some courtier trying to hide a passionate love of books from his or her sneering friends.
    Some animalistic, eerie courtier. Who had caused her amulet to glow.
    Celaena entered her bedroom just as the lunar eclipse was beginning, and groaned. “Of course there’s an eclipse,” she grumbled, turning from the balcony doors and approaching the tapestry along the wall.
    And even though she didn’t want to, even though she’d hoped to never see Elena again … she needed answers.
    Maybe the dead queen would laugh at her and tell her it was nothing. Gods above, she
hoped
Elena would say that. Because if she didn’t …
    Celaena shook her head and glanced at Fleetfoot. “Care to join me?” The dog, as if sensing what she was about to do, made a good show of turning circles on the bed and curling up with a huff. “I thought so.”
    In a matter of moments, Celaena shoved the large chest of drawers from its spot in front of the tapestry that hid the secret door, grabbed a candle, and began walking down, down, down the forgotten stairs to the landing far below.
    The three stone archways greeted her. The one on the far left led to a passage that allowed for spying on the Great Hall. The one in the center led to the sewers and the concealed exit that might someday save her life. And the one on the right … that one led down to the ancient queen’s forgotten tomb.
    As she walked to the tomb, she didn’t dare look at the landing where she’d discovered Cain summoning the ridderak from another world, even though the debris of the door the creature had shattered still littered the stairs. There were gouges in the stone wall where the ridderak had come crashing through, chasing her down to the tomb, until she’d just barely reached Damaris, sword of the long-dead King Gavin, in time to slay the monster.
    Celaena glanced at her hand, where a ring of white scars punctured her palm and encircled her thumb. If Nehemia hadn’t found her that night, the poison from the ridderak’s bite would have killed her.
    At last, she reached the door at the bottom of the spiral staircase and found herself staring at the skull-shaped bronze knocker in its center.
    Perhaps this hadn’t been a good idea. Perhaps the answers weren’t worth it.
    She should go back upstairs. Come to think of it, this could only be bad.
    Elena had seemed satisfied that Celaena had obeyed her command to become the King’s Champion, but if she showed up, then it would seem like she was
willing
to do another one of Elena’s tasks. And the Wyrd knew that she had enough on her hands right now.
    Even if that—that
thing
in the hall just now hadn’t seemed friendly.
    The skull knocker seemed to smile at her, its hollow eyes boring into hers.
    Gods above, she should just leave.
    But her fingers were somehow reaching for the door handle, as if an invisible hand were guiding her—
    “Aren’t you going to knock?”
    Celaena leapt back, a dagger already in her hand and angled to spill blood as she pressed herself into the wall. It was impossible—she had to have imagined it.
    The skill knocker had spoken. Its mouth had moved up and down.
    Yes, this was certainly, absolutely, undeniably
impossible
. Far more unlikely and incomprehensible than anything Elena had ever said or done.
    Staring at her with gleaming metal eyes, the bronze skull clicked its tongue. It had a
tongue
.
    Maybe she’d slipped on the stairs and smacked her head into the stones. That would make more sense than
this
. An endless, filthy stream of curses began flowing through her head, each more vulgar than the next, as she gaped at the knocker.
    “Oh, don’t be so pathetic,” the skull huffed, its eyes narrowing.