Kade’s body was chained to the stone wall, his shadows nowhere in sight. His head hung low, and his tunic stuck to his chest, ripped to shreds. Blood stained the torn garment, but also, thick, long lines of burns were etched across his chest as if fire itself had whipped his body.
Fuck, this was bad.
Jax raised his eyes expectantly and mouthed to me, “See anything?”
I nodded but knew I needed more information. Kade’s body had taken too much of my attention. Jax moved back a few steps, walking to the other side of the pathway, and crept forward to investigate the room as well.
I peeked around the corner once more and noticed another figure in the room. A man sat in a regal-looking chair, a terrifyingly calm expression on his face as he glared at Kade. He twirled a black whip in his hand.
I jerked back, looking at Jax. “Thames?” I mouthed my question.
All he did was nod once.
“It’s useless,” Thames laughed. “Submitting to me now will allow you to end your suffering. If you don’t, every minute will be painful until I throw you into the pit and let the world erupt. Then I will be untouchable by even the Fates themselves.”
Kade didn’t lift his head to acknowledge Thames.
“Though…” Thames grinned. “I do enjoy this form of entertainment as I wait for the others to finish up. Not much longer now.”
Kade remained unresponsive.
Absolute dread drowned my rationale momentarily. Jax appeared just as horrified.
That was probably the worst possible thing we could’ve heard. If Thames thought it wouldn’t be long until his plans were ready, we were royally screwed. He was waiting for the volcano to erupt? But why? Was that the weapon?
Can you hear?I asked Raya.
“Every word.”
Scuffling behind us snapped both our gazes down the pathway as the shadow of a person approached.
Jax and I both lunged back toward where we’d come, moving to silence the Fae, but before we could take him out, he shouted, “What are you doing here?” Footsteps thudded; he hadn’t been alone.
We didn’t think. We just ran. Lucien wheezed spurts of fire as he cleared our path.
“Shift!” I shouted as I began the transformation into my hawk form, just as two dark ones skidded to a halt in front of us.
We ripped past them, and Jax ran his clawed hands across each of their necks before completely shifting into his panther form. He grabbed Lucien around the neck with his mouth and threw him up onto his back.
A pugron riding a panther in a volcano? On any other day, I would have appreciated this ridiculous scene, but we needed to get out, and fast. It would be a tavern story for the ages if we lived to tell the tale.
As we traveled farther down the path, shouts rang out from somewhere else in the cavern. We made it to the opening, slipping through and running around the outside of the volcano.
The sounds of dark ones gathering, barking orders at each other carried into the fields around us.
We had to get out of here—now. There would be no rescue mission today. No more opportunities to find out more about whatever weapon Thames had inside the volcano.
But at least we knew where Thames was.
And Kade.
Raya remained with me, quiet and somehow masking whatever she was feeling. Perhaps she did it on purpose to help me focus.
We fled farther, trying to find a safe enough spot to portal back to Brookmere.
My heart pounded as my mind filled with deep sadness. We couldn’t save Kade yet, as much as I’d wanted to, and I had to be the one to tell Lana what happened. I didn’t know why his shadows weren’t helping him like usual, or why he couldn’t heal himself at all while chained against the wall.
Jax let out a pained growl and shifted back to his human form. I did the same, landing on both feet.
