Dread clenches my stomach into a tight fist. I should feel relief that the man who abducted Denver is dead, but there is none to be had. Because whoever killed the Achijj is a thousand times worse and now, we are left with nothing to bargain.
And there were no signs of siege. The front gate was wide open, and the fortress is impeccable aside from the corpses. Which means that the Achijj let the wickedness in through his own front door. Was it his mysterious guest?
“Should we get him down?” Cal asks uncertainly. Even in the face of the heartless warlord who kidnapped our mentor and forced us into abducting Mirren, Cal’s need for compassion and humanity wins out.
Unfortunately, we have no time for it. “We keep moving.” I thrust past the cloud of apprehension that’s settled over the room. Cal only nods, lifting his bow once more. Mirren raises her chin but says nothing as we leave the throne room.
When we find the entrance to the dungeons, I feel as though I’m leading my friends into the mouth of the Darkness itself. I keep moving, determined to outpace my trepidation. I force my feet down the tunnel, convinced that if I pause for even a moment, I’ll be stuck here forever. Max strikes a match, lighting a torch, and its dim light reflects off the steeply sloping floor.
The walls here are hewn stone, grittier and without the ornamentation of the floors above. The passageway is only wide enough for us to descend single file and is easily defensible if we’re to be attacked. There’s no way an entire army lurks down here if this is the only way in.
When we reach the bottom, the river rushes in the distance and the granite beneath our feet is wet, dark pools gathered and gleaming in the dimpled rock. The narrow passage veers off in both directions, no doubt leading to a maze of cells and torture chambers.
I close my eyes momentarily, listening to the sounds of the underground, feeling the prick of heat along my spine. “Toward the river.”
There is no dissent. I try not to think of how undeserving I am of their faith, especially if I am leading them into what I expect I am. I should have made them turn back. I should have knocked them out and tied them each to a tree and came myself. Then at least they would be safe.
I push the thought away, burrowing into the abyss and letting it burn at my fingertips and at the edges of my ruined soul. There is only Shaw now, ruthless and brutal and unyielding. I am a weapon. Weapons do not feel, and they do not fail.
And because Anrai is gone, and with him, fear and love and anything else that is human, I don’t even flinch at the sight that lies before me.
The passage opens to a small cavern, roughhewn and dripping. In it are twenty soldiers, armed and hardened, and expecting us. But it’s what lies beyond them that focuses my rage, that hones it into something sharp.
There, strung up and chained, is Denver.
His body is unnaturally splayed, his arms and legs stretched impossibly wide between the large iron chains. He’s so much thinner than when he bid us goodbye before his journey and his skin is covered in welts and burns.
Red coats my vision as the abyss roars. The sound echoes out of my mouth as I move, cutting down the first soldier. Cal’s arrows are already flying and Max spins, lashing out at a man twice her size and bringing him to his knees with a well-aimed blow.
Mirren exhales a breath of surprise and I force myself not to hear the fear that lines the small sound. Because I can’t be Anrai now, made vulnerable by a ragged heart and a sense of humanity if I’m to face who holds a blade to Denver’s spine.
“It took you long enough.” The man’s voice is a gruesome whisper, the sound of nightmares. The result of a new scar that glistens an angry red at his windpipe. His eyes light on Mirren, frenzied and hungry. “I’ve waited so long for you, little bird,” Shivhai growls.
ChapterThirty-Eight
Mirren
The cavern erupts into chaos. With a sound more animal than man, Anrai hurls himself into battle. He takes the first soldier with a blow to the stomach and a swipe across their sword arm, before he drops to his knees and takes the second and third by sliding his blades along the back of their knees.
To his left, Max faces two soldiers at once. Both tower over her, masses of muscle, but only fierce determination lines her face as she outmaneuvers them. Her lithe body twists as she wields her swords. The men fall at her feet, gasping and bleeding, but she pays their pain no attention, already whirling to the next opponent. Calloway follows behind her, notching arrow after arrow, each hitting its mark with a decisivethwap.Behind every soldier that falls, another stands ready to take their place, a never-ending hell ride of violence.
My heart beats in my throat and my power writhes as it feeds on the heightened emotions of the dungeon. No matter how much progress I’ve made throwing knives, I’m next to useless in the heat of battle, so I linger on the outskirts and send my power into the depths of the fight.
I blast a soldier in the face, blinding him until Max can move to finish him. My fingertips tingle and waves crash against my heart as myotherdemands more. AsIdemand more. I sing to the water in the cave, each droplet its own moment in time, its own swirling magic. They dance in rhythm with my heartbeat as I send them smashing into more of the enemy. They don’t even have time to cry out; they gasp with wide eyes and gaping mouths as they drown on dry land, their hands clawing desperately at their throats.
And I do not balk from it, do not wonder why I demand their blood. The reason is clear enough as I fight my way toward the other side of the cavern. Toward my father, his mistreated body chained and strung up. His skin is raw and bleeding, and his head has been roughly shaved. The bones of his thin body jut in all the wrong directions. It seems silly now, to have wondered if I would recognize him after all these years. I would know him anywhere. It is ancient and deep, the part of him that is something of myself, something of Easton. It no longer matters that he left me or that I’m angry with him; it only matters that he stays alive to be angry with.
Shivhai has disappeared from his post as jailkeeper. My throat tightens as I realize he’s cutting his way toward Anrai. A blood debt to be paid, one that began well before I arrived in the Praeceptor’s camp. I feed my fear to my power, and it rises in answer. The droplets freeze to ice as they swarm a large soldier, pelting him with shards sharper than any razor; my fear personified. I don’t stop to watch. I dash across the dungeon.
The floor is wet with river water and blood, staining the stone an odd shade of pink. A soldier makes to grab me, and I imagine the water reaching up and grabbing her ankles, miring her feet and pulling her toward the ground. She falls with a terrified scream.
When I finally make it to my father’s chains, bile rises in my throat. From far away, Denver’s injuries appeared grievous. Up close, they are nothing short of horrific. He is naked except for a frayed pair of undershorts. His face is unrecognizable beneath a web of slashes and bruising. His legs, no longer able to support his weight, sag listlessly and from the morose way one of his feet points, it’s clear at least one of his ankles is broken. The skin of his back and abdomen is mottled with angry red burns and lacerations in different stages of infection. His shoulders are dislocated from the pull of the irons and his head lolls with unconsciousness. I can only be thankful he isn’t awake to feel his injuries.
Both his eyes are swollen shut and for a moment, I can only stare at what the Dark World has done to the man from my memories. There are no laugh lines to be found, no twinkling mischief. There is only a broken body. And a pulse.
Relief courses through me, sharpening the edges of my vision. He’s alive.
I examine the chains. Made of thick iron and drilled deep into the cavern rock above and below, there are no locks to be picked. The shackles around Denver’s wrists and ankles appear to be one complete piece. Cursing, I search for something to leverage but there is nothing on the sparse cavern floor.
