I shrank back into the shadows slowly, not wanting to abandon Soren.
“Don’t care.” The fae didn’t budge. “Time for you to leave.” He waved a hand to two fae behind him, who’d been hidden by his bulk.
They moved forward to grab our arms.
I hadn’t moved fast enough.
Thick fingers lifted me up. Though I struggled to pull away, they yanked me through the tunnels, dragging me when I tripped, until we reached a lower-level door. Opening it revealed a dark, barely lit dirt tunnel.
Without ceremony, they threw us out.
Soren managed to land gracefully on his feet, but I fell on my butt. Hard.
“Ow,” I moaned, rubbing my backside as I hauled myself up.
The door slammed shut.
In the dark, I shivered. If I’d thought the tunnels by Soren’s place were creepy, they had nothing on this one. I couldn’t see my own hand in front of my face.
“I’m sorry, Brynn.” Soren sounded genuinely upset. “I should’ve known someone would tell Cosmo.”
“Why was he so mad that you were there?”
“I may have been banned from ever entering his home.”
“Why in the world would he ban you?”
In the dark, I couldn’t read his face, but I felt him hesitate. “Tensions between the Shadow Court and the Hollow Court run higher with some members than others.”
Politics and word salads.
Letting it go, I turned to consider the closed door. Were the goons on the other side gone yet? Risking it, I felt for the handle and tried to push. It was locked.
When I turned, I brushed against Soren, who’d come to stand behind me. I tilted my head back to look up despite it being pitch-black down here. “I can’t see anything.” I sighed. “I have a flashlight on my phone.” It’d likely use up the remaining battery before we even made it back, but what else could we do? I reached into my pocket.
“No need.” Soren pulled a glowing object from his pocket—a piece of one of the stalactites from the party! “I broke a piece of this off earlier. Just in case.”
Genius.
But worries crept back up as I stared at the locked door. “How do I find them now?” I muttered.
“I have an idea.” He lightly touched my arm for me to follow him as he began moving down the dark tunnel. Speaking in hushed tones, he said, “Caius has until midnight to finish gathering the contracts. If you give me your family’s full names, I can request for them to be included.”
Relief made my knees weak. I could hardly walk.
They’re safe. They’re not injured. Soren’s going to save them.
My throat ached as I told him Dad’s, Rissa’s, and Olive’s full names. I wanted to tell him about Mom too, but word vomit rose up each time I even considered it.
Guilt grew along with gratitude.
But hope slowly overpowered both, because if Soren truly wanted to rescue all the humans here, maybe I eventuallywouldfind Mom.
Distracted and blurry eyed, I bumped into a big rock sticking out and swayed slightly.
Soren tucked my hand under his elbow. “The sooner we get back, the sooner we can put things into motion,” he said, as if to justify helping me.
“Sure.” I held on, even when a brighter tunnel began after a few minutes. “Can I ask... Why didn’t we just add their contracts from the start?”
