I took several more breaths and focused my eyes on the ground. I stood and dropped my invisibility. “N-n-no.”
“Okay then. Let’s go.” Nico began moving through the trees, taking it slow and stopping at each trunk to wait for me to catch up.
We came to a large group of boulders that seemed out of place in the forest. He moved around the side of it, running his hand across them and then finally reached a gap between two.
“This leads into a cavern, then to a passageway that takes us right into the dungeon area. Do you think you can handle that?”
I looked up at him and then quickly glanced away. His brow furrowed with concern. Iwantedto handle it, but I hated unknown situations. Pushing past the fear, I nodded and followed him as he slipped between the rocks.
It was so dark, and despite my night vision being exceptional, I let out a small whimper. Nico’s large hand took me by the elbow.
“I’ll lead you. It’s going to be okay, Kage. One foot in frontof the other. It’s really not that far, and only the royal family knows about this passageway.”
I could barely hear him over the pounding of my heart. I had no business attempting to rescue people with him when I needed my own rescue.
The longer we walked, the more my stomach churned. How far was this secret entrance? He kept saying a little farther, but he was clearly lying.
Just as I was ready to wrench my arm away and run back to the forest, we came to a drop in the floor.
“There’s a short drop, and then we’ll need to crawl.” He let go of my elbow and jumped down, his shoulders and head still visible.
There was a faint light coming from where we were supposed to crawl, which provided a little comfort, but I shook my head vigorously.
“Do you want to wait here then?” The pinched notes in his voice told me he was losing his patience with me.
Iwas losing patience with myself.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I dropped down, my feet hitting the ground awkwardly. I stumbled into Nico, and he steadied me with two hands on my arms. Before I could tell him I was turning around, he dropped to the ground and began crawling on his stomach.
You can do it. You can do it.
I must have repeated the phrase a hundred times in my head before we pulled ourselves up from the crawl space and into a dimly lit hallway. To a passerby, the hole looked like a vent, much like the other ones in the castle.
We turned a corner, and the large dungeon room stood before us. Empty cells lined the walls, and three cells stood open.
“They were here recently.” Nico went near the stone steps leading up to the main part of the castle. “I don’t smell themgoing out. Why don’t I smell them?” He was stroking his beard in thought.
Something was wrong, and I started backing up toward the crawl space. “We sh-sh-should go.”
He grunted but followed me to the secret passage. I tried to convince myself that we had just missed them somehow. Maybe there was another exit, or in the time it took us to get to the entrance of the passage, they’d sprinted down it and out into the forest.
Not that the forest was ever truly safe, but the alternative left a sour taste in my mouth. I swallowed hard, pushing the thought away. It was too soon for them to be taken to the square for punishment.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
SAMARA
Ipaced my cell like a caged animal, kicking at the grimy straw and feathers beneath my feet. White feathers stuck to the bottom of my boots, clinging to me like all the bad decisions that had led to this moment. The dungeon’s holding cells were even worse than I remembered from my childhood explorations—dark, damp, and reeking of despair and bodily fluids.
How had I ended up here? One minute I’d been sitting at the head of the council table, trying to warn everyone about the vacant threat, and the next, Edmund had everyone voting to throw me in the dungeon for crimes I hadn’t even committed.
I gripped the bars until my knuckles turned white, glaring at the iron door that led to the more permanent cells down the long corridor. Beyond that lay another door that connected to the servants’ quarters, and beyond that... freedom. So close, yet unreachable.
I kicked at a large clump of feathers, sending them swirling into the air. “What kind of bird did they even keep down here?”
In the cell across from mine, Amari rattled his bars, testing their strength for the fifth time since we’d been thrown in here. The enchanted cuffs on his wrists glowed faintly in the dim light, suppressing his abilities. Even with his impressive strength, the bars didn’t budge.
“Save your energy.” I sank onto the floor, exhaustion finally catching up with me. “The entire dungeon is warded against magic and strength. My father made sure of it.”
