I stepped inside, only to freeze when my garlicky friend slid onto my shoulder. “Ah, I should probably leave him out here.”

  Glancing at the rolling hills, I bit my lip and turned to Clover. “Do you think it’s safe? Or should we clear the first floor and leave him there?”

  She shot me a look caught somewhere between fondness and exasperation. “Darling, that snail has survived on its own this far. Whether you put it out here or in there, it will be fine.”

  Heat crawled up my neck at her clear amusement, and I turned away with a grumble. “I just don’t want to accidentally get it killed.”

  She sighed, placing a hand on my shoulder and moving around to face me. This time, the exasperation was gone. “I understand that, but you worry too much.” Under her breath, she huffed, “About everything but yourself, unfortunately.”

  I grimaced. “I’ve heard that from nearly all my siblings at one point or another. Can we please not start now?” Knowing Beatrice, she’d have Daedra doing it too by the time I got back…

  Clover shook her head, a smile curling her lips. “If you have that many people telling you something, perhaps you should listen, Darling. But for now, I’ll drop it. You said you’d try to be more cautious, and if you hold to that, I’ll have no reason to scold you.”

  She gestured to the snail. “Set your friend down so we can move on.”

  I did as she told, gently placing him in front of the door. “There, you can decide for yourself where you want to wait until we’re done.”

  The snail looked between the bright outdoors and the dark dungeon. Without a second’s hesitation, he slid into the dungeon.

  I probably should have figured.

  “It’s amusing,” Clover said, stepping past me to lead the way inside, “seeing how concerned you get over even a simple snail. It’s not every day a grown man mother-hens so excellently—”

  She froze, sucking in a sharp breath. “The fuck?”

  Alertness slammed through me, and I straightened, hand on my sword’s hilt. Nothing moved, but her perception was higher. Was there a monster in the shadows?

  Focusing inward, I cast, “Chosen’s Blessing.”

  My sword glowed as I unsheathed it, but instead of a monster, bodies lay scattered across the floor. Adventurers.

  Clover shook off her surprise and rushed forward, hand raised and glowing with a healing spell. I followed, scanning the room.

  Something wasn’t right.

  Outwardly, nothing so much as twitched, aside from Clover moving between the bodies, searching for a survivor. I swept the room, even risked a glance at the ceiling—nothing.

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  No monsters. Not even a dead one.

  Then what killed them?

  I crouched beside the nearest corpse—an elf man with dirty blond hair and a bow clutched in his fist—and analyzed him.

  Gingy

  Level 6

  Hit Points: 0/90

  Mana: 50/50

  Status: Deceased

  No status ailments…

  A draft of decay slapped me in the face, and I grimaced. These people had been dead for days. If it had been a monster, at least some of them would have been eaten.

  Standing, I looked at Clover and shook my head. “No monster bodies, no poison in their status, no curses… They’re just dead. Does this make any more sense to you than it does to me?”

  She frowned, her healing spell fizzling out with nothing living for it to latch onto. “Bandits, maybe? But their belongings are still here.” She gestured toward an older human, grime caking his frame, though it did nothing to hide the gold locket resting around his neck. “If it were bandits, they would have stripped them.”

  I rubbed the back of my head, trying to piece together the jumbled puzzle. We were missing something—something big.

  The snail crept forward, breaking my train of thought as he slithered onto the dead man’s chest. My stomach rolled, and I gently picked him up, moving him aside with a wince.

  “I’ll find you some other food.”

  The snail didn’t seem offended, content to explore the room instead.

  Before I could turn back to Clover, something caught my eye. Kneeling, I moved the man’s stained shirt aside—and froze.

  “Clover, you’re going to want to see this.”

  I barely registered her coming to stand over my shoulder. My attention was locked on the fist-sized hole in the man’s chest.

  The fabric had hidden it before, but now, thanks to the snail, it was in plain sight.

  The edges were charred black. The crater nearly went all the way through to the other side, equally dark. And now that I was closer, I could smell something…odd.

  The disgusting tang of burnt flesh lingered, but beneath it, something metallic.

  I wrinkled my nose and stepped back, scanning the other corpses warily. “Every single one of them has the same wound.” I muttered, glancing at Clover. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  She nodded, brow furrowed. “Neither have I. It looks like fire or an explosion, but no spell I know of leaves a mark like this.”

  A memory flashed through my mind—the Combustion Scorpion. I eyed the wound again. “Maybe there is a monster here after all.”

  My spirit chimed in from the back of my mind, her tone certain. I sense no traces of the Inbetween. The cause of their deaths was not that.

  Great. So we were back to knowing nothing.

  I relayed the information to Clover, who nodded, gaze still locked on the wounds. “I figured it wasn’t that. The scorpion’s attack was bigger, less precise. Look at the edges—it’s a perfect circle.”

  She was right. That only led to more questions.

  I turned to her, but the look on her face made me pause. Suspicion darkened her expression. When our eyes met, she shook her head.

  “I have no proof of this, so take it with a grain of salt, but…” Her voice dropped. “I think Haltir did this.”

  A shiver crept down my spine, something in the back of my mind hissing in alarm.

  She’d said his eyes made her uneasy.

  Maybe I’d been too hasty to write that concern off…