“Kill me if you want, but don’t put on the face of your enemy.”
I touch his cheek and he flinches, turning away. “Clinton, it’s me.” I stroke his chest, feeling the bumpy, raw scabs that have recently healed over. He fights me but the energy burns between us—like it always has. He may think it’s magic or the Morrigan fucking with his head but I push on, lifting on my toes and whispering in his ear. With every word his shoulders loosen, and he turns his face in my direction.
“Morgan?” His voice is a whisper—a hope.
“Yeah. It’s me. We’ve got to get out of here.”
I unlock his chains and thankfully he’s stronger than Sam, able to move a bit faster, but I don’t know how long it will last. What’s happening with Dylan upstairs? Where are we even going to go? And Bunny? He said he would guard the door, but I sure as hell don’t trust him.
“Damien’s over there,” he says, pointing toward a small window. It’s dark outside but faint moonlight filters in the glassless, barred windows.
It doesn’t take as long to find him. His body is lit by the moon. He’s asleep on the floor but wakes seconds before I reach him. Dark rage fills his eyes but it shifts immediately when he sees me. “Babe?”
“Yeah.”
“You came.”
“Of course I came,” I say, relieved I don’t have to convince him it’s really me. He moves slowly, but he too can move. Blood clots at the edge of his swollen, bruised mouth and I touch his head, feeling unfamiliar stubble from the weeks of growth. I nearly burst into tears when I see him. I’m just so happy to have him and the others back.
Or almost back.
“Bunny,” Clinton says, his words slurring. “He…”
“I know.”
“I don’t know what happened. Why?”
“Me either,” I say, walking back to the front of the cell and stooping to pick up Sam. I touch his hair, his face. He’s weak and so skinny. Damien bears some of the weight. “But we’ll figure it out.”
Bunny is gone when we reach the front of the cell, but I hear voices and touch my sword, thinking I don’t have anything left to put into a fight. I just want to get my men to safety. A shadow turns the corner and I muster the strength, lifting the blade before me and keeping the Guardians behind me.
Bunny rounds the corner and Clinton grunts and tenses when he sees him, but I hold up my hand. “I don’t know where Bunny stands, but at the moment he’s all we’ve got.”
“He can’t be trusted.”
“I know,” I stare him down. “I know what he did. But he saved me upstairs and we don’t have much choice.”
Bunny does nothing but gape at the Raven Guard, nearly shrinking at the sight of facing the men he betrayed.
“Who were you talking to?” I ask, keeping myself between him and Clinton. Before he can answer, I spot the smaller figure behind him. The form is familiar, slight, as though it’s nothing more than a wisp. She steps into the faint light and I see it’s the servant from my rooms.
Footsteps rumble overhead. Not Dylan. No, a group, probably the rest of Casteel’s soldiers now that they realize the carnage in the hallway outside my room. I don’t want to be here when they find the fallen men down here.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” I say, fighting back the panic. I know I don’t have the energy to fight much longer.
The girl steps forward, stepping between me and Bunny. “I can help.”
“How?” The footsteps are closer, I hear Sam shudder behind me. He’s fading fast.
“Come,” she says. “Follow me.”
It’s not like we have a choice. The soldiers’ angry voices echo at the bottom of the stairwell, discovering the body of their men. The girl walks in the opposite direction, toward the stone wall. I think maybe she’s crazy, traumatized from gods know how long of living as a slave of the Morrigan. But a foot from the wall she turns, facing the side wall, and touches a stone. There’s movement, the sound of stone grating on stone, and a small, narrow passage becomes visible.
I sigh, knowing that it’s a risk. It’s all one risk after the other. But it’s for a bigger goal--stopping the Morrigan--and I can’t do it without my Guardians, and there’s no way any of us will survive another altercation. Dylan isn’t going to save us, even if he’s still alive.
I nod at the girl and make a decision that could either save or kill us, and climb into the passage.
*
The tunnel is long and incredibly dark. I blindly follow the sound of the girl walking in front of me, and listen to the labored breaths of my guardians coming from behind. The smell goes from musty to damp as we travel and the floor slants, taking us deeper and deeper beneath the castle. Just when I think we’re going to have to stop and rest, the girl calls for us to stop. A hand grips my shoulder. I’m not sure which one of my guardians it is, but I feel the instant surge of power between us, helping him heal just a little bit.
I hear a series of knocks, light tapping on what sounds like a wooden door. Light seeps through a crack, then a long shaft down the tunnel, bathing us all in a yellow glow. I can’t see what’s on the other side, but it has to be better than where we are.
Bunny and I help the Guardians toward the exit, blinking as we acclimate to the light and the strange, humid warmth wafting our way. The girl waits for me and smiles as I pass. “You’ll be safe down here and can stay as long as you need to recuperate.”
“Down here” is a cavernous world beneath the surface, an entire community built into the ground. From the looks of it, a thriving community. For the first time since I passed through the gates, I feel safe.
“Thank you,” I say, squeezing her hand.
With a glance behind me, she says, “Your men need help. Follow me.”
Chapter 32
Morgan
“What is this place?” I ask Nevis. The slave finally agreed to tell me her name after she got my guardians safely to the medics. “Why are you helping us?”
We’re standing outside a small cave dug into the black-brown earth. A swarm of men and women sprang into action the instant we appeared, following Nevis’ directions to clean up and look over the wounds. I’d pushed to enter with them, but she held up her hand and told me to let them do their work. Bunny stood to the side, awkward and silent—too many questions surround him.
“My people built this community many centuries ago—when the goddess first went mad. When her heart was broken and she declared war on all people, there were few survivors. She scorched the land, turning it into nothing but barren ash and bone. The only place to survive was underground, in the caverns beneath the castle that had been in existence since the beginning of time.”
“Does she know this place is here?”