From the raised voices of the Fae Thomas and Daniel were obstructing, I could tell our host was upset.
The pit didn’t release its victims. And it didn’t allow them to be saved. Those truths might as well be engraved somewhere.
It had been foolish on my part to have attempted an escape.
In my defense, I was pretty sure Liam intended to try to rip a hole in the ceiling regardless.
“Hush, sister. It’s pointless arguing,” Connor soothed before focusing a grim look on Liam. “There’s magic in the bars to prevent them from breaking.”
Liam gave no sign of hearing as he grabbed the bar next to the one I was holding and pulled, the veins and muscles in his neck standing out from the effort.
Connor got on his other side, doing the same.
The metal creaked in protest but it didn’t budge.
“I’ll help too,” Drake said, already half over the wall.
Deborah was at his side, looking like she was about to jump down in here with the rest of them.
“Stay there,” Connor ordered, releasing the bars to gesture them back. “You’re no use out here and you wouldn’t survive anyway.”
“He’s right,” I told Deborah. “Don’t risk it.”
Liam pounded his fist into the bar. “Damn it.”
“You tried,” I told him.
It wasn’t his fault that it hadn’t worked.
I glanced down at the sands of the pit. Brax’s wolf had lost interest in me and had started to wander toward Baran.
“Don’t you dare let go,” Liam ordered.
That was my lover. So autocratic. Even in a life and death situation.
Others might waste time with flowery words and pretty sentiments. He barked orders up until the very last second. As if he could bend circumstances through sheer force of will.
“I mean it, Aileen. Do. Not. Let. Go.”
Liam was scared, I realized. Terrified and helpless. Two things he wasn’t used to.
To be fair—this was Brax I was up against. The two went back centuries. At times uneasy allies. Other times foes. Liam knew better than anyone what the werewolf was capable of.
“I’m not going to die,” I told him.
There was too much that I still needed to live for. Fights we needed to have. Followed by really great makeup sex.
I didn’t want to miss a moment of our future.
Liam heaved on the bars one last time, uncaring of the damage he was doing to himself. His palms were blackened and charred as the magic zapped him.
Still, he refused to let go. Despite the scent of burning flesh and the sizzle of magic biting into him. It was worse than what I was enduring. Likely because he was actively trying to tear open the bars.
“Liam, look at me.” I waited for his gaze to find mine, my heart clenching at the desperation there. “I will survive this.”
It was a promise to him and the werewolf standing frozen on the steps not far away.
Caroline’s stricken gaze went from Brax’s pacing wolf to where I dangled just above. Her expression showed she was at a loss. For perhaps the first time in her life, she didn’t know what to do next.
