“You don’t understand. It had to be like that. I restrained my wolf as much as I could, but bindingsomeone like me… it had to be like that,” he said, peering down at my arm with regret in his eyes.
Jimas said the same thing to Salinas every night when he hit her for back-talking him. I wouldn’t be one of those women.
“Someone like you?” I asked. A traitor wolf? Or something else? I wouldn’t forget what he’d said in the train car last night. He wanted Valkaryn by any means possible.
“Brynn…” He breathed my name like a prayer, but before he could say whatever it was, the Watcher was back in the opening and called my name.
I stepped forward as instructed, away from Kaelric. My boots scraped against the stone as I approached the dark tunnel. One of the Watchers held out a hand. “Weapon only. No light stones. No cloaks enchanted against sensory distortion.”
I chuckled. I didn’t have any enchanted gear. I barely had boots that fit.
I peered over my shoulder once, and Kaelric’s yellow eyes met mine briefly. He nudged his head forward once, like a promise.
Then I was escorted inside.
The stone hallway sloped downward, and after a dozen steps, all light vanished.
I froze.
The light didn’t dim. It disappeared all at once.
It was like falling into an endless void. I blinked, waved a hand in front of my face. Nothing. Not even the faint outline of fingers. Not a shadow. Not a sliver, just the Watcher breathing next to me and then the sound of his boots retreating.
“Good luck, Dreg rat,” he spat on his way out.
His insult barely fazed me. I was too focused on this void. This was wrong. It wasn’t natural darkness. It was… something else.
A low hum prickled at the edge of my hearing, soft and rhythmic like breathing.
Or whispering.
The floor beneath me felt slanted, my steps awkward as I tried to move forward, my balance skewed like I was walking sideways. Every sound echoed strangely, too sharp, too close, or impossibly far.
I can’t do this.My heart hammered like a war drum as panic gripped my mind and took hold.
I took a shaky breath and stepped forward again. The moment my boot lifted, the hum shifted. Like something moved with me.
I spun, heart pounding, blade drawn, but saw nothing.
Of course I didn’t. I was in an abyss of blackness!
I blinked rapidly, praying for shadows, a sliver of light, anything.
Don’t panic.
Valkaryn gave the faintest pulse in my palm. No words, but I felt her… presence, quiet and steady.
I pressed on, unsure if I was actually going anywhere.
My fingers dragged along the wall to guide me, but halfway down what felt like a corridor, the stone ended. My hand met air.
No. The panic inside of me opened into full-blown madness. I staggered forward drunkenly with my arms out, one hand clutching my weapon, hoping that if danger came for me, Valkaryn would see when I could not.
‘My power works through you. I am blind as well,’she said almost sadly.
No.
A scream ripped through the air, and I froze, craning to the right. No, the left. No, was it above me? Sound was a lie, and I was completely lost. The thought of me not being able to see, but others seeing me, hunting me, caused dizziness to wash over me.
