We both stiffened. Maz reached for his sunstone knife. I shook my head.
Stay calm. Stay quiet.
I turned on my boot heel and kept striding down the tunnel. This time, Maz kept even with me.
“Wolves aren’t supposed to be here!” The supervisor’s strident voice followed us. “Stop! Show me your papers this instant before I report you to the High General.”
I halted immediately. Bold of him to threaten a Shadow-Wolf.
My muscles trembled with restraint as I sauntered back to the supervisor. The man’s smug smile splashed scarlet over my vision.
“Good dog,” he said. “Youmustshow your papers when asked. And according to my schedule,”—he waved his ledger in front of my mask—“no Wolf shipment is due for another threeweeks. So let’s have them.” He snapped his fingers and held out his hand.
I’d strangled every carnivorous shadow that had stirred in my chest while creeping around this pit. But those demons reared their heads one by one as I stared at the man’s outstretched hand. Then at the ledger of sordid deeds he carried, like he was measuring grain, not people’s lives. Last, my gaze fell to the sunstone club at his side, so familiar I could almost feel my bones breaking beneath it.
As they had seven years ago, when another supervisor leered down at me, waiting for me to surrender.
Those shadows—every warped remnant of fury and hatred—swallowed the last bit of light from my mind.
I seized the supervisor’s hand and wrenched until I felt several finger bones snap.
He shrieked, stumbling back.
I yanked the club from his belt and snarled, “Welcome to the Abyss.” Then I cracked it against his skull.
Chapter 30
Aiden
The supervisor’sbody collapsed at my feet, his head a bloody clump. His helmet clattered against the rocky ground—a thunderstorm in the deadly quiet.
I stood, frozen, gasping for air. I felt like I was drowning in this gods-damned mask. Suffocating in my vengeance. That was who I was, deep down. A monster.
I dropped the club and faced Maz and the prisoners.
Maz had taken off his mask, his face white, his eyes grim. “The body,” he grunted.
I hissed a curse between my teeth.
But then Bruna spoke up. “Mazkull? Is that really you?”
His face softened when he looked at her. “Sigrid sends her love. Don’t tell her I spoke to you.”
Bruna’s eyes filled with tears. “She’s out there? Are you here to rescue us?”
Maz darted a glance at me. “Soon, I think. Just hold on a little longer.”
I grimaced. He shouldn’t be making any promises. I’d disappointed enough people to give me a lifetime of regret.
“Help us move the body into the rubble,” I said gruffly. “You can say a rock hit him when the tunnel collapsed.”
Bruna slowly rose to her feet, wincing. “He already reported the cave-in. More supervisors and workers will be here any moment.”
I growled, throwing my arms wide. “Then tell them there was a secondary collapse. You two, clear a hole,” I barked at the two prisoners with pickaxes who’d stopped digging to gape at me.
“We’ll have to spread the rubble more,” Bruna said, her hoarse voice growing stronger as she helped the other prisoners to their feet. “And we’ll have to create a few injuries of our own to be believable.”
“Fine, just hurry,” I snapped.This is your fault,that voice in my head taunted mercilessly.They could be executed for this. You did this to them.
