“Do you want to hold the lantern?” he asked, gesturing to the way she’d been grasping onto it like a lifeline. She nodded, feeling weak, but the thought of being stuck here in the underground in the darkness was too much to bear. “Alright. Lead the way.”
Mina took a deep breath and began to walk.
The air was heavy and wet, thick with the scent of earth and mildew. Water dripped from somewhere overhead, the sound echoing through the stone corridor. The ground beneath their feet sloped downward, allowing for more space as they moveddeeper into the tunnel, and all the while, Mina’s mind was racing.
This had been the same stranger who’d offered her escape before, the night before everything had changed. But still, she didn’t know why he’d been here that night, or even why he was here now. What if she’d just gone from one kind of prisoner to another? She tried to force the thoughts away, focusing simply on each step forward.
Eventually, the path began to widen, then it split into two separate passageways. Mina paused, looking down each black tunnel, but the man directed her left, and so she went.
“Is this how you made it in the first time?” she asked, her voice still scratchy from underuse. He merely grunted his agreement, and she let the silence enclose them once again.
Mina couldn’t say whether they walked for minutes or hours, each step into the endless shadows feeling like an eternity, her chest tightening with the fear that these tunnels might never end, that she would be trapped here to wander eternally. But then, the air grew colder, the damp scent of earth giving way to the sharpness of pine. When she heard the distant groaning of wind, felt the tendrils of a fresh breeze, hope alighted in her chest.
A hand grasped her arm, and she halted, turning back toward the stranger. There was a look in his brown eyes, an expression of concern that she hadn’t yet seen. Anticipation crawledthrough her—they were so near to the end of the tunnel, so close to freedom.
“What are—”
“Shh,” he said, his entire body still, as though he were listening.
She stopped. Her heart was loud in her ears, and she spared a glance behind him, into the pitch blackness.
Then, she saw movement. A shape in the shadows.
“Don’t tell me you’re leaving so soon.” The voice was smooth, melodic, and Mina peered around the man, her eyes falling on a woman with long red hair.
Clarimonde.
CHAPTER 32
Mina froze, flashes of that night so long ago passing through her mind. Their teeth, the sinking pain in her skin, the crashing of the glass falling about them. She looked to the man with fear in her eyes, desperate for him not to antagonize the woman any further. He couldn’t know of her nature, couldn’t know the beast that lay behind her beautiful exterior, but Mina knew then that they were dead.
“And who let you out of your cage, little Jane?” Clarimonde asked, tilting her head as if in amusement. A soft smile touched her lips, and if Mina didn’t know better, she might have thought the gesture was sincere.
“We mean you no harm,” the stranger said, stepping between Mina and the woman. He stood tall, nearly blocking Mina’s view entirely. “Just let us go.”
Clarimonde raised her eyebrows in surprise, then her laugh echoed off the walls. She clasped her hands together. “Oh, you’re just darling,” she said, a smile to her face. “You couldn’t do me harm on your best day.”
“Step back, Mina,” the man said under his breath. Mina looked between the two, then walked backward, the glow of the lantern wavering in her shaking hands.
“You wouldn’t harm a woman, would you?” Clarimonde asked, taking a step forward. “A big, strong man like you.”
“What do you want?” he asked, his voice gruff.
Clarimonde blinked her wide eyes. “Her.”
Mina took another step back instinctively, the thought of returning to that dungeon sending a chill down her spine. She couldn’t—wouldn’t—return. She’d rather die here and now.
“And why is that?” he asked. “Your husband not entertained enough with the three of you?”
The smile vanished from Clarimonde’s face, anger behind her green eyes.
In the blink of an eye, the woman had crossed the path and now held him firmly by the throat, lifting him off his feet. Mina gasped, her thoughts going back to that night in the study, to the way the Count had done the very same to Clarimonde, and just like that night, Mina knew she was powerless to help.
“Stop,” Mina said, panic woven into the syllable.
The stranger did not grasp Clarimonde’s hands or try to wrench free. He simply stared down at her, a low grunt escaping him as his gaze locked with hers. It was suddenly clear—despite the woman’s size, she was far stronger than he was. She seemed to realize it as well, and that knowing smile returned to her lips.
The man shifted.
