“We don’t have time?—”
“Open it,” I demanded.
Kade groaned, but leant me against the wall and moved for the girl’s cell.
Leighton's eyes shot open as she arose from a dead sleep to a stranger unlocking her cage, before he tossed the keys to the ground. Her eyes found mine, and I held a finger to my lips, quieting her before she could verbalize her fear.
I ushered her to follow us, and she did, even helping me walk by supporting my other side.
The two of them dragged me up the stairs, a wince of pain escaping me every time my heel hit the floor. When we reached the top, I was met by another hallucination. One so horrific and terrifying that I heaved, though I had nothing in my stomach to release.
“What the fuck isthat?” I whispered to myself. In the moment, I began to wonder if Kade was even here, or if he was another thing created by my bleeding mind.
The creature before me resembled a mortal, but was clearly no such thing. It was naked, its ribcage expanding far past its shoulders with each growling breath it sucked in. Its jaw was distended and sharp, like it had been torn open and never healed. Dark hair laid messily atop its pale, grayish skin, and along the knuckles of its hand were jewels. Five of them, each a different stone.
My knees threatened to fall out from under me as I allowed the delusion to consume me, but reality found me at the sound of a voice.
“No way,” Leighton breathed, then stuttered in fear, “I didn’t think it was true. That’s impossible.”
Frozen to the floor, Kade mumbled without moving his lips. “What is it?”
“I thought I was making this up,” I garbled, my sense of consciousness fading by the second.
“Shh,” Leighton silenced us, hiking my arm back over her shoulder to better support my weight. “Go. Back. Down. The. Stairs,” she enunciated each word.
Carefully we backed up, creeping down the stairs and back into the dungeon as the creature wandered further down the corridor above us and out of our vision.
“What was that?” I repeated, my words cut off by a low roar coming from the creature.
“We need to find another way out,” Leighton said, disregarding my question and tucking her matted, black hair behind her ears.
“What was that thing?” Kade enunciated each word, demanding an answer.
“He calls them hischildren,” Leighton whispered.
“Who? Beaumont?” I asked for clarification.
She nodded. “Yes. Listen, I will explain, I swear, but we need to get out of here first. There are more of them, I’m sure of it.” Her head shot side to side, then she pointed to the other end of the dungeon. “That way. I think there's a tunnel at the end of this row of cells.”
We followed her lead, and the further we got and the more energy I used, the weaker I felt. Slowly, darkness crept up on me.
“Stay with me, Hawthorne,” Kade said under his breath, and I tried, I really did.
Chapter
Nineteen
MAEVE
My body followed Beaumont’s eyes to where Jensen now stood out in the open air.
“What the hell?” Beaumont growled, storming right past me and starting off in a run to where Jensen stood, sword drawn and holding a woman captive.
“Please,” she begged, desperately trying to grasp where he held her wrists. “Don’t let him kill me.”
“Let my civilian go, or you will be incredibly sorry,” Beaumont snarled, drawing his own sword and approaching the situation.
Jensen had no intention of killing the poor woman, but it needed to be convincing. And since he was even playing his role right now, that meant…
