Chapter 41
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
M y feet thud against the floor as I sprint down the corridor. With every step, the sounds of dragon shifters barking orders to the captured humans grow fainter. The dress whips around my legs as I skid around the next corner.
I jump, throwing an arm out to catch myself on the wall as I nearly trip over the body lying slumped against the wall. Scrambling upright again, I stare at the male dragon shifter in silver armor. His gray eyes are still wide with shock, but they’re staring unseeing at the wall opposite him. There is a red smear down the wall that ends behind him where he sits, leaning against the wall. As if someone shoved a sword through his chest and he just slid down the wall when his knees buckled.
Skirting around his outstretched legs, I take off down the corridor again.
Faelight gems shine in the ceiling, providing the only light since there are no windows in here. But they are bright enough that I can see the next two guards long before I reach them. They are lying on their stomachs, straight across the floor of the corridor. Pools of blood spread out around their heads. But since I can’t see the front of their bodies, I don’t know what wounds they died from.
My pulse thrums in my ears as I leap over the two corpses and sprint towards the next corner. Panic streaks through my body like lightning. I need to make it to the Red Hand, and then both of us need to make it back out into that corridor with windows again so that we can climb out, before Lavendera and the others realize that I went this way. This is the only path out from the treasury. If they come hunting us here, we will be trapped with no way out.
Grabbing the edge of the wall, I swing myself around the next corner. My heart leaps.
Two more bodies lie slumped in the corridor before me. Blood stains the ice floor and their silver armor red. One of them has had his throat slit in the Red Hand’s signature move. But the other looks to have put up more of a fight, because his entire chest has been cut open in one long slash.
I swallow down a flash of bile at the sight of the intestines that spill out of his stomach.
Pushing myself hard, I race towards the next corner.
There are supposed to be three corridors and eight guards between the secret door and the treasury. Those two guards make five dead in total. And this is the third corridor. Which means that when I round the corner up ahead, I will reach the treasury. And the remaining three guards.
With every step, the noise of a struggle becomes louder.
My heart jerks.
Please let there still be time. Goddess above, please let there still be enough time to get back out again.
We got lucky that Draven was forced to deal with the stubborn leader of the Brown Dragon Clan. But the moment he comes back and finds out what has happened, he’s going to fly straight here. And the Red Hand might be skilled, but he has nothing on Draven.
At the end of the day, Hector is still just a human, even behind his larger-than-life persona of the Red Hand. And Draven is… Draven. Powerful, skilled, ruthless Draven with his massive wings and his storm magic and his skills with a sword. If he were to catch us, I don’t think even I would be able to convince him to let Hector go. Not after all of the pain and humiliation he has suffered because of his failure to capture him.
Cold hands wrap around my heart, squeezing hard, as I imagine the look of utter betrayal on Draven’s face when he finds out what I have done. What I tried to do. And what I was willing to leave him to be punished for.
Using every smidgen of willpower I have, I shove those thoughts to the back of my mind. I can’t think about that right now. I have to get us out of here. Right now. Before it’s too late.
I skid around the final corner, practically crashing into the ice wall on the opposite side.
And screech to a halt in the middle of a battle.
One dragon shifter in silver armor is already lying dead on the floor. The other two are fighting furiously against a tall and muscular man in a dark gray cloak and clothes. And on his face is that signature red devil’s mask that I saw in the drawing.
Relief crashes over me.
The Red Hand.
Hector.
He’s still alive.
Steel clangs as one of the guards slams his sword towards Hector’s neck while the other swings at him from the other side. Hector yanks up a pair of long daggers, blocking both strikes simultaneously. With a flick of his left wrist, he slides the sword off his blade and rams his dagger into the side of the guard’s neck.
A gasp rips from his throat, but it comes out like more of a wet gurgle, as he drops his sword and reaches for his throat. But Hector must have punctured his carotid artery, because blood gushes out of the wound and spills between his fingers in a torrent of red.
The other guard tries to leap back, but Hector was already moving.
Not even looking at the dying guard, he whips around and rams his other dagger straight into the remaining dragon shifter’s heart. I stare in shock. The amount of force it must have taken to pierce dragon scale armor like that is insane.
It has been less than five seconds since I skidded around the corner, but the insane level of fighting skills that the Red Hand has just displayed is incredible. No wonder Draven has been so obsessed with capturing him. He is going to be a real asset to the resistance I’m planning to rebuild. If I can get him out before Draven gets here, that is.
“Hector!” I call as I shove myself away from the wall that I crashed into when I flew around the corner.
Hector whips towards me, and then jerks back in shock.
I wince, realizing that I probably shouldn’t have yelled his real name like that. But everyone in here is already dead, so there is no one left to hear it.
As if on cue, the two guards he just killed hit the floor with a thud. Blood quickly spreads across the pale floor around them.
“It’s a trap,” I continue as I hurry towards him, speaking so fast that I’m almost tripping over the words. “The Icehearts knew we were coming. Everyone else has already been captured. We need to get out. Now.”
I can’t see his face because of the mask, but a jolt of shock goes through his entire body, and he whips his head in the direction of the secret door three corridors away.
“We need to—” I begin.
“MAN DOWN!” a male voice bellows so loudly that it echoes down the halls all the way to us. “They’re heading for the treasury!”
Panic crackles up my spine with the force of a lightning bolt, and for a moment, I can’t make my brain work.
They have seen the dead bodies.
They know we’re here.
They are coming.
“We’re trapped,” I blurt out.
Goddess above, there is no other way out of here. We are trapped in here. And they are coming.
My mind spins out of control as those thoughts clang through me like death knells.
Then one single breath of clarity pushes through the screaming panic.
Whirling back towards Hector, I stab a hand towards the open door to the treasury. Glowing golden reflections, as if light is shining down on mountains of gold, spill out of the gap in the door.
“Hide!” I snap at the Red Hand while bending down to snatch up a sword from one of the dead guards. “I’ll pretend that it was me who did it. Once they take me away, run back to the window and get the hell out of here.”
Spinning around, I face the corridor again and adjust the sword in my hand.
The sound of pounding boots echoes from around the corner, beating in tune with my hammering pulse.
A gloved hand grabs my shoulder and yanks me back around. I blink, coming face to face with the Red Hand, who is shaking his head furiously.
“Stop trying to be a hero!” I snarl at him, panic and frustration thrashing inside me like a storm. “This is the only way! Draven won’t let them kill me. But he will kill you . He has been hunting you day and night for months! You are the face of the rebellion. I’m not. They need you. We all need you.” Raising the sword, I stab it in the direction of the treasury again. “So hide in there and let me take the damn fall for this!”
“The midway guards are down as well!” someone yells from the corridor right before this one. “They have reached the treasury.”
Boots pound against the floor as they race towards us.
I try to spin towards them, but Hector grabs my arm and yanks me back to face him again.
“Stop being so fucking stubborn!” he snaps as he reaches up and yanks his mask off.
I jerk back in shock.
And then the world just… stops.
Because it’s not Hector who stares back at me from underneath the mask.
It’s Draven Ryat.