Consciousness returned to Emily not with a splash of cold water, but with the smell of old dust and dry rot.
She opened her eyes, expecting the limestone ceiling of the Moon Cave or the darkness of a cell. Instead, she was staring up at a vaulted ceiling that spiraled into the darkness like the inside of a massive shell. But as her vision cleared, the architecture resolved itself into something far more macabre.
The arches weren't stone. They were ribs. Massive, fossilized ribs of some ancient leviathan, curving upward to meet in a central spine.
Emily tried to sit up, but her limbs felt heavy, weighed down by a magical lethargy that seeped into her bones. She was lying on a slab of cold, polished black marble. Her hands were unbound, but when she tried to slide off the table, an invisi
