Her bound hands swung up, connecting with the guard’s temple. He grunted, staggered. I threw myself at him, using my body weight to knock him off balance. He went down, hitting his head on the stone floor.
He didn’t get up.
“Holy shit,” I breathed. “It worked.”
“Keys,” Thessa hissed. “Get the keys.”
I fumbled at the guard’s belt, found the ring of keys, unlocked Thessa’s cuffs first and then my own. The relief when the wolfsbane left my skin was immediate. The burning stopped. My strength started to return.
“Can you shift?” Thessa asked.
I reached for my wolf. It was there, eager, ready.
“Yes. But not yet. We need to get outside first.”
“Agreed. Let’s go.”
We slipped out of the cell, moving as quietly as we could. The corridor was empty, dark and damp, stretching in both directions. We picked a direction and ran.
We made it maybe fifty feet before the sounds started.
At first, I thought it was thunder. A distant rumbling, vibrating through the stone walls. But then I heard the screams, the clash of metal, the howls. There was a battle raging somewhere above us.
“What the hell?” Thessa whispered.
My heart leaped.
“Caelan,” I said. “He got my message.”
The sounds grew louder. Closer. And then a section of the ceiling exploded inward.
Stone and dust rained down. I threw myself against the wall, shielding my eyes. When I looked up, a massive golden wolf was standing in the rubble, eyes blazing amber, fur matted with blood that probably wasn’t his own.
Caelan.
He shifted mid-leap, landing in human form, and then I was in his arms.
“I heard you,” he said against my hair, his voice rough and broken. “Goddess, I heard you. I came as fast as I could.”
“You came,” I whispered. “You actually came.”
“You called. I will always come for you, Riley.” He pulled back, cupped my face, looked at me with an intensity that stole my breath. “No matter what. Do you understand?”
I nodded. I couldn’t speak. There was too much happening, too many emotions crashing through me. The truth about the rejection. The fact that he’d saved my life. The fact that he was here, now, holding me while a battle raged around us.
“We need to move,” Thessa said urgently. “Soren...”
“Is being handled,” Caelan growled. “My father and Patt have him surrounded. But there are still enemies in the compound. We need to get you both out.”
“Which way is the exit?” I asked.
Caelan’s jaw tightened. “Through the battle.”
Of course it was. Nothing in my life could ever be simple.
He shifted back into wolf form. I followed, my white fur bright against the darkness. Thessa shifted too, gray and sleek.
Together, we ran toward the sounds of war, toward the clash of metal and the howls of wolves, toward the chaos we had to pass through to reach freedom.
