Elora moved swiftly through the tunnels, her steps quiet but sure. The path Tehvan had told her to follow was clear, the darkness offering her no challenge with her sharpened senses.
The tunnel twisted ahead and soon she reached what seemed to be a dead end. She stared at the sharp wet stones.Where do I go?Her eyes caught sight of a small grate at the bottom of the wall, where water trickled through. She crouched down, pressing her face close to the grate, peering through the bars.
Beyond it was the secret cove Tehvan had spoken of. Moonlight bathed the hidden shore, and she could just make out the small, discarded dinghies resting on the sand, their worn frames waiting for someone to set them back to sea. Freedom was just on the other side.
Elora pushed her hands against the grate. To her surprise, it gave way easily, the rusted metal shifting with little resistance. She could leave. Now. Just slip through the opening, reach the shore, and disappear into the night.
But it wasn’t time yet.
Tehvan had told her to wait for the signal. She swallowed her impatience, her fingers curling tightly around the slick bars as shewatched the shore, the tantalizing image of escape hovering just out of reach.
The minutes stretched on, feeling like hours, her nerves fraying as every heartbeat echoed loudly in her chest. The silence of the tunnels pressed down on her, her mind racing with a hundred what-ifs.
And then she heard it, a distant but violent explosion.
The sound echoed through the tunnels, shaking the very ground beneath her.That’s the signal.
She didn’t wait another second. Pushing the grate aside, she slipped through the small opening and crawled onto the sand. The chilly night air hit her as she scrambled to her feet, her eyes darting to the dinghies resting on the shore. She didn’t know how much time she had, but she knew this was it. This was her moment to escape. Her feet sunk into the sand with every step, she was almost there—
Strong arms wrapped around her, locking her in place. A cry ripped from her throat as she thrashed against the hold, her fingers clawing uselessly at the air, her arms pinned tightly to her sides. The grip was unyielding, crushing her in a way that stole the breath from her lungs.No! I’m so close!
The sand beneath her felt like it was falling away, the ground slipping further from her reach with every failed attempt to break free. And then came the pain. Sudden. Blinding.
A jolt of electricity tore through her without warning. She was unable to even scream, the sheer force of it robbing her of sound, of thought, of everything except the unbearable fire spreading through her. The sharp, searing pain forced her claws and fangs to retract, and in an instant, her body and mind snapped back to her human form. The stripping of her magic left her feeling weaker, smaller, and utterly vulnerable.
A force violently threw her back the way she had come before she even processed what was happening. Her body slammed into the sand and rocks with a harsh thud. Dazed, she blinked up at the night sky, the world spinning around her. The moonlight, once bright and clear through her enhanced vision, now looked muted.
But she didn’t need her sharpened senses to recognize the voice that followed.
“Did you really think you could escape me?”
Thorn.How?His voice dripped with malice, each word seething with barely controlled rage. Her instincts screamed at her to move. To run. But before she could get to her feet, a sharp kick landed squarely in her stomach, knocking the breath out of her. Pain rippled through her midsection like a lightning strike. She gasped, desperate for even a sliver of oxygen, but every attempt felt like dragging knives across her lungs.Get up. You have to get up.
Thorn loomed over her, his dark silhouette blocking out the moonlight. He crouched down, gripping the front of her dress with both hands, yanking her torso and head up from the sand. She sensed his fury, not just in his grip but in the heat radiating from him, like the air itself recoiled from his presence. She tried to look anywhere but at him, but his dark, piercing eyes held her in place, pinning her just as much as his hands did.
“How dare you,” he growled, his voice low and venomous. “You thought you could get away from me? You thought you couldstealfrom me?”
Her mind raced, desperately trying to think of a way out. She thrashed against him, but her body was still weak from the electric shock, and without her enhanced strength, she was no match for him. Thorn’s grip tightened, lifting her higher as if she were nothing more than a rag doll.
“You think your existence as a ward has been bad so far?” he sneered, his eyes narrowing with dangerous intent. “You haveno ideawhat awaits you now, after this pathetic stunt.”
She struggled beneath him, trying to pry his hands off her, but it was useless. She was utterly helpless in his grasp. He dropped her roughly back onto the sand, and she gasped for breath, her body aching from the repeated blows.
His knee slammed onto her chest, his full weight pressing down like an unrelenting vise crushing her ribs until she felt like they might snap. Her hands clawed desperately at his arm, his leg—anything to pry him off—but her dull human nails scraped uselessly against his clothing. He didn’t flinch, didn’t so much as acknowledge her efforts.
His hands tore through her pockets, his fingers prodded at every seam and fold of her dress, searching every possible hiding place. It was impossible to hide anything in most of the places he checked, but he hunted anyway, his desperation mounting. When he finally removed his knee, she gasped, choking on the air she dragged into her lungs.
“You took something from me,” he hissed. “Where is it? Where is the recipe?”
Elora clamped her jaw shut. The satchel lay several feet away in the sand, half-buried but unmistakable. She had tucked the stolen recipe inside, along with the ring. The damn ring. She cursed herself bitterly for not putting it on her finger when she’d had the chance.
“Who helped you?” he demanded, his hand tightening around her collar. “Did Tehvan help you? Tell me now, and I might show you mercy.”
She couldn’t betray Tehvan, no matter what Thorn did to her. She swallowed hard, shaking her head weakly. “No one... helped me,” she wheezed, the lie barely escaping her lips.
“You’re lying,” His cold gray eyes saw right through her. “And I’ll find out soon enough.”
“I didn’t have any help,” she pleaded. “Your experiment. It gave me everything I needed to escape. I didn’t need anyone else.” That certainly didn’t explain how she had gotten the vapor that knocked him out, but maybe Thorn wouldn’t ask about that.
