Page 163 of The Lure of Wolves and Whispers

There are no gardai here, no one blocking our way. Just Talon, close behind us, their boots shuffling as if weighed down. And maybe it should make me feel better, but the suspicious absence of anyone else only roots the terror deeper in the wreckage of my heart.

Cash waves us down a twist in the narrow tunnel, around a curve where orange light throws shifting shadows over the walls. Flame flickers from the torch lying on the ground, right in frontof a lone door set into the stone. The smell of torch oil stings my nose, and the light sputters as a lone figure turns to face us.

Aoife, an apple clutched in her palm as if she doesn’t have a single care. The fruit slips from her fingers.

Her fingers find the hilt of the knife I gave her, and her blue eyes dart from me to Wolf to Cash.

“Please.”Aoife shakes, but she holds the knife out in front of her as Cash takes a single, menacing step. “She swore the queen will let my mother go if I just—”

“You should know by now,” Cash says, raising his sword. His sapphire eyes darken with something cold, and cruel. “Her promises don’t mean shit.” Cash moves so fast, his sword blurs.

Aoife cries out and falls.

Crimson stains the faded purple of her cloak across her chest. Her fingers clutch at the edges of it as she falls to the ground, pulling the fabric close around her like an embrace.

Cash leaves her lying there and kicks open the door. “This way.”

I don’t look back.

None of us do.

The smells of rotting earth and long-dead things hiss out of the tunnel beyond the door. From behind us, I hear Talon’s heavy breathing, the shift of their weight. My stomach twists, trying to look back at them, and Wolf’s hand tightens on my hip.

I suck in a gasp at the pressure on my ribs.

Wolf’s green eyes find mine, and the dark worry there tears at my heart.

“I could carry you,” he offers quietly.

He would. I know he would. But I can’t let him. I can’t get the words out, but Wolf nods, eyes fierce. “Then you’ll walk. And I’ll help you.”

Together, we step into a foul tunnel carved beneath the belly of the mountain. All I can do is bite back against the pain of each step and pray we’ll come out the other side.

FORTY

The explosions and groaning of rock come quicker now.

They’re so close, I feel every vibration in my teeth. Even Wolf flinches, his jaw flexing and the branching scar tugging taut.

There’s no room to turn around, and just leaning up against Wolf slows me down as we squeeze through the narrow passage. It feels like crawling standing up. The rock presses in from all sides, dust and pebbles clattering loose with every blast rattling through the mountain.

“Fucking Fang,” he mutters after a particularly gut-wrenching crash and the answering rumble of what feels like theentiremountain above us. “We stopped fighting for three days, not a week.”

It’s only been three days since I was captured?

I jerk up to look at Wolf, and his jaw clenches. “She’s… making up for lost time. Let’s just say she wasn’t pleased at the order to stop the fighting while I was in the castle, looking for you.”

“Order from… who?” I gasp at a fresh wave of pain, and it’s all I can do to swallow it down.

The incline beneath us shifts, but Wolf doesn’t answer. Slowly, the tunnel begins to climb, and light slivers up ahead.

Relief is so sweet, I can almost taste it. It’s not enough todrown out the pain or the soul-racking grief and the rage, but it’s there.

Cash lets out a breath. Almost like he can’t quite believe we made it either.

Up ahead, light brightens in a blinding flash. A crack splits the air, and I smell rain—lashing and fierce and cold as ice, smacking the rocks and the dirt. The tunnel opens up into a hole we have to duck under, and Cash pushes back the thick shield of rowan boughs growing just outside the hole, concealing this place from prying eyes.

The mountain of Castle Mount slopes down into a craggy hill, wrapped with the thick tangles of stubborn mist that have haunted this place for years, but I’ve never seen it this bad. My skin tingles. Looking out over the sea, I notice strange chunks hewn from the rock face dozens of feet above us that might be the windows in the baths Aoife showed me once.