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Hackles rising, Thad called for Sorcha’s sight to help him see and shoved his father off. “Fine.” Even his whisper lingered as he pushed past with a rough shoulder and went on his way, the prickle of his father’s golden gaze following him all the way.
Unfortunately, the grumpy arsehole was wrong.
He’d already been awake for too long, but they walked for at least an hour through the pitch, sinking and sinking into the earth and rock. Stars above, it might’ve been days. There was something different about it from the other caves he’d visited with Mag and Lyriat. A weight he couldn’t shake. His legs were jelly and he was ready to eat his own arm by the time he spotted an orange glow in the distance and his father pulled him up short.
“Now,” Caius whispered, “we have to be ready for—”
A scream rent the heavy stillness. Thad didn’t think, didn’t hesitate. He sprinted towards the sound with Da right on his heels. At the end, a jagged, gaping arch like the mouth of a great dragon came into focus, fiery light shining from within. Chills rattled down his spine when he heard the countless groans, the stench hitting the back of his throat, gagging him. Even Sorcha started thrashing within.
—No, Thaddeus. Get yourself away from this place. Now—
Instead of listening, he blew straight through, skidding to a halt when his head caught up to his eyes and rooted him to the spot.
—Let me run free! You can’t be here. You can’t!—
Creatures from every realm were chained to the walls of a mighty cavern, floor to soaring ceiling.
Hanging from rocky protrusions above, dangling dozens of feet from the ground. Writhing in the dirt, tethered to spiked boulders jutting up from below. A Fae wept, nailed to a slab beside a limp Sorcerit. A Rider beat his head into the stone and a Wolflord strained against her shackles. A Demon wailed, their horns hacked away. Some cursed their existence with bitter lips. Others stared vacantly into far away, middle spaces. They promised revenge. Begged for mercy. Shivered with cold while yet more flinched away from torch flames, burning so close that half their bodies had been charred.
Suffering, each and every fucking one.
—Please. You have to get out, Thaddeus!—
“What in the starry fuck…?” his father breathed, face stricken.
Thad’s heart set a furious pace, hammering with disgust and disbelief in equal measure. “There’s no way Vann did this.” He swallowed a rise of bile, searching for any other answer. “He…he would never. Right, Da? Fuck. We have to help them.”
Racing towards the nearest creature, Thad bent to grip the razored ropes around his wasted ankles, uncaring for his own hands as he—
“No.”
Weeping, fucking shite. Thad knew that voice.
A cracking sob. “No, no, no!”
Head whipping up, he found her dangling from a thick chain, dark eyes fixed on him as her tears streamed. Nyri. Sisters save him.
They found her.
Thad was in front of her in an instant, skimming her protruding bones to check for injuries. “Oh, lass. Shhh. It’s alright, sweetheart. I’ve got you. I’ll get you down.”
“You have to run, Thaddeus,” she wheezed. “Run.”
“Are you mad?” He wrapped an arm around her body, lifting her higher to give the chains some slack. “Not until I—”
A hand landed on his shoulder and Thad startled, that grip squeezing hard enough to bruise bone.
“Put her down.”
“Why would I—”
Caius wrenched him back with a snarl, a wild look twisting his face that did strange things to his eyes. “Nyriadne is off limits. No one touches her but me.”
“What?!”
His father threw him to the ground and turned back to Nyri, crooning nonsense as he smoothed her furious brow. Laughing when she spit in his face.
What in the fuck…?
