Page 162 of The Lure of Wolves and Whispers

If I even live long enough to get to remember her.

All the pain slams back into me at once. I can’t breathe past it, and my eyes fly wide.

“Shock,” Cash says under his breath.

“No shit,” Wolf snaps at him, and he leans in to press anachingly soft kiss to my forehead. “I’ve got you. I’m getting you out of here.”

He grabs for something from the table, and I close my eyes. Let my body sag against the strong set of his shoulders as he works at the bolts keeping the shackles in place. One pops free, but the other fights him, and the tool slips, jabbing at the shattered knuckles of my useless left hand, jostling the tented bruise above my wrist.

I stifle a scream in the worn, warm leather.

“Fuck, I’m so sorry.” Wolf tenses and positions his hand so it’s between my skin and the tool. So any slip will slice into him, not me, and yanks at it again. “Come on, you piece of—”

The bolt clatters to the ground and the shackle releases me. He makes quick work of the others, even as the flood of emotions and shock bring a surge of nausea rising in my chest.

I won’t be sick. Not after everything. Not when I’m the one who’s still here, whose heart is still beating.

The Lady of Shadows might’ve shattered me, but I didnotbreak.

I didn’t give in.

Another blast explodes in the distance, and more dust scatters down from the rock above us.

Wolf loops an arm under my shoulders, helping me up. “Can you walk?”

My hands are useless, every knuckle crushed and the skin covered in blood and vicious bruises. My boots are missing—cold, damp stone chills the bottom of my untouched left sole, but not the other.

“My right foot—” I swallow hard, wincing as panic rises. “I can’t feel it.”

Wolf’s arm tightens around me, bearing my weight. All I can do is shake and test my weight on the foot the Lady of Shadows hadn’t gotten the chance to mangle yet.

My left ankle trembles but holds—barely. Pain spasms up my leg.

I bite back a cry again, but it still slips out. Wolf’s eyes fly to mine.

The sound of more boots slamming on dirt echoes from outside the iron bars, and his arm snakes around my waist, pulling me into his side. Cash raises his broadsword, cold menace chilling his navy glare as he pivots for the sound.

“It’s me!” a voice hisses out.

Talon steps through the iron door, flickering torch in hand, then stills at the sight of me. Their eyes flicker over my wounds, over to the other side of the table, where I can’t bear to look, can’t bear to see…

“Time’s up,” Talon says in a low voice. “You ready to face her?”

My ears ring, and Wolf jerks his head to the table—where the Lady of Shadows laid out all my weapons beyond my reach. One by one, he grabs the Málmar steel blades he gave me, then my short sword that looks just like Finn’s, and slides them into the empty sheaths down my sides. He levels a lethal glare at the edge of the room. “If you’re wrong about this”—he points a finger at Cash—“in front of the Martyr herself, I will split you open and feed your guts to every fucking serpent on the islands.”

“Isle,” I croak out, correcting him.

Wolf’s hand brushes the matted, blood-tattered hair clinging to the sides of my battered face. I feel him shake with barely contained rage.

“You’re welcome, by the way,” Cash says coolly to him, and flicks his icy gaze to the iron door. “Let’s go. Before they bring this entire castle down on top of us.”

“Fang wouldn’t fucking dare.” Wolf flicks a hard nod to Talon. Something passes between them, and my guard—my friend—nods back. Short and quick, but sorrow flashes there.

Cash holds back the iron lattice door, and we leave the darkness behind.

I leave my sister behind with all the pieces of my sundered soul.

I bury my face in Wolf’s shoulder and lean heavily on him with each lurching step forward. I can taste the sharp bite of stone and minerals in the air. The walls outside the room that was my cage aren’t even really walls. They’re pathways, tunnels hewn into the rock, just like the ones weaving behind the castle walls. And Cash leads us through one after the next.