He emerged on the other side coughing, brushing cobwebs off his shoulders.
"Right," he muttered, wrinkling his nose. "Still the most unpleasant entrance in the city."
That same man in green robes—the one who never spoke—stood ahead, silent as a shadow, guiding him down a spiraling corridor deeper underground.
They passed through a veil of mist, then into a room lit by faint jade torches.
Kael stepped into the dusky chamber, its scent a mix of incense, velvet, and old stone.
The green-robed attendant bowed and vanished behind the heavy curtain, leaving him alone with the woman on the divan.
Seraphine reclined like a spider waiting at the center of her web, lips already curled in that familiar, taunting smile.
"So... the devil remembers me, hmm?" she purred, her voice low and laced with honeyed seduction.
"I was beginning to think you'd forgotten."
Kael didn't glance at the slit in her robes or the curve of her pose.
Really!!
