Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
Emilie
I washed my hands with a rag and some water from the busted pipe, but it did little good. There was so much blood; it was impossible to get rid of it. Ladon was in even worse shape. His shirt was drenched with it. I didn’t know a body contained so much blood.
Cyrus was the cleanest of us all, having avoided most of the questioning. He crossed his arms while Ladon wiped the blood from his face.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Ladon said.
“Like what?” Cyrus replied.
“Like I’ve committed some unforgivable sin.”
“You skinned that man alive,” he said, his voice full of repulsion.
“And I got the answer I needed.”
Jade spoke up before they could continue. “Aren’t you two a little old to be bickering like this? Cyrus, get over it. You’re sensitive, we get it, but it had to be done.”
“I’m not sensitive,” he mumbled under his breath.
I almost smiled. Cyrus was an honorable king, and I could understand why he hadn’t enjoyed watching Ladon mutilate Luther.
But I had. I wanted to rip that bloody shirt off him in a way that made me question my sanity.
“Fine. You did what you had to do.” Cyrus turned away. “We should get moving.”
We all agreed. The commotion in the underground had settled, but we could still hear a few lingering voices.
I wasn’t sure why anyone would still be hanging around—perhaps they were hoping to steal from the gambling tables.
Whatever they were up to, we didn’t need to draw any more attention to ourselves.
Getting out of this place covered in blood would be suspicious enough.
“All right,” Ladon said. “I don’t think I’m going to get any more of this out.” He looked down at his shirt, which was stained a deep shade of red.
“Stay behind me,” Cyrus said. “I can lead the way and hide you from view.”
We took his word for it, letting him head out of the room and down the stairs. No one noticed us at first; they were too busy searching through the bodies.
Bodies.
Reyna’s comrade wasn’t the only dead body lying on the floor. There were dozens. Either vigilantes had taken advantage of the commotion or people had been trampled to death as they rushed toward the exit.
I tried to remind myself that none of these people were innocent. They weren’t our targets, but they all had vices worthy of damnation. It didn’t bring me any joy to see them killed, though.
What did bring me a sigh of relief was the sight of a clear path to the stairs. It would take less than ten seconds for us to sprint across if we needed to.
Cyrus started walking toward the exit. We followed him around the pit where the trio of adults had been fucking for the audience. I shuddered and pushed the thought from my mind, but I didn’t get much of a break before the image was forced in front of me again.
As we rounded the corner, I spotted a woman curled in a ball with a slash across her neck.
“Stop,” I said softly.
“What are you doing?” Cyrus asked.
I bent down and ripped a jacket from another lifeless body, then tossed it over the woman’s naked body before returning to my place in line.
Ladon’s eyes met mine.
“I couldn’t leave her like that.”
He nodded. “I know.”
We were halfway up the stairs when a voice rang out from above. “All of you, get out! Enough!”
Leaning around Cyrus, I tried to find the owner of the commanding voice. I quickly whipped back into line when I noticed a proper uniform, flanked on either side by a dozen more. Word must’ve reached King Vincent, and he had sent his guards to break up the disruption.
Cyrus looked back, appraising all of us covered in blood, before he carried on.
Once we reached the top of the steps, the primary guard stopped us. “Spread out,” he demanded.
I looked down at the blood all over my hands and clothing. They’d take one look at us and arrest us on the spot.
Cyrus didn’t move aside, but he raised his hands slowly in surrender. “I am King Cyrus, a guest of King Marsden. We have immunity.”
“Show me.”
Slowly, Cyrus reached into his pocket and produced what looked like a coin. He handed it to the guard, who flipped it over once, then twice, before handing it back to Cyrus.
“You’re free to go.”
I filled my lungs with air, not realizing that I’d stopped breathing during the exchange. We practically sprinted toward the exit after receiving clearance.
Night had fallen outside, but the moon illuminated the market, and we fled to the north end.
Luther’s instructions had been clear enough—along the shoreline, at the bottom of the tallest cliff, lay a cave entrance that was only visible during low tide. If his description was accurate, we had less than an hour to find it and get inside before the water began to surge back in.
We took the quickest, most direct path to the water’s edge, and from there, it wasn’t hard to spot the cliff we needed.
“What if it’s a trap?” Cyrus asked.
No one responded because the answer was unsettling—we would drown and die. I swallowed the lump in my throat; we couldn’t let fear stop us now.
“I don’t believe it is,” I said.
“The real concern is how many are inside,” Ladon added.
Luther had finally succumbed to his injuries before Ladon could extract that particular piece of information.
For all we knew, we could be about to battle an entire army, though I doubted Reyna had that many supporters left.
She likely couldn’t afford many hired hands either, especially if she already wasn’t paying her bounty hunters back in Murvort. Purchased loyalty was easily broken.
We made our way down to the beach and approached the cliff; its bottom was surrounded by rocks and trapped water pools. Carefully, we climbed across, searching for the hidden entrance Luther had described.
“There,” Jade said, jumping down from a jagged boulder. She landed in a puddle of water that was only a couple inches deep, then trudged forward, bending in half to enter the narrow opening at the base of the cliff.
We followed her.
Inside, Cyrus raised his palm, and a ball of fire appeared, casting the cave in an orange glow. It wasn’t large, but it was spacious enough for us all to fit comfortably. There was only one opening to continue moving forward, so Cyrus led the way, followed by Jade, me, and Ladon at the end.
Almost immediately, the tunnel took a turn upward. There were steep, rough ledges that we needed to climb. Ladon moved to the front of the line and helped by forging footholds and grips for us to use.
We’d been climbing for all of ten minutes when I heard water trickling below.
“Do you hear that?” I asked.
Jade looked down, searching around me for the source of the noise. Cyrus’s flame was just bright enough that I could see her squinting before her eyes went wide. “I think the tide is rising. We need to keep climbing.”
I looked down again, trying to see the bottom of the tunnel, but it was too dark.
Then Cyrus’s flame reflected off the surface below. Waves were rushing in at an alarming rate.
“Go,” I cried.
Our group moved as rapidly as they could. Ladon’s craftsmanship became sloppy as he worked with half as much time to form ledges worthy of climbing. We didn’t need perfection, though. We only needed efficiency.
The water approached, filling the tunnel below us faster than we could climb. I didn’t dare look down, knowing it would only cause panic. The water level couldn’t continue rising at this pace. The pressure would eventually be stifled by gravity. We just had to make it past that point.
Cold water lapped around my ankles, and I shuddered. “Oh, gods.”
Ladon glanced back. “Fuck.”
“Keep going!” I shouted. I could see in his eyes the desire to be my savior, but there was nothing he could do except press on.
He abandoned his efforts to make our climb easier. Speed became our only focus, and we were running out of time.
“I see an opening ahead,” he finally called out.
I didn’t have time to thank the gods. The water was already at my calves, and I was moving as quickly as I could.
It’s going to be okay, I told myself.
The water made my climb extra challenging. My feet slipped without Ladon’s proper footholds, and every push upward took twice as much effort. Sweat dripped down my temples despite the cold water soaking through my boots.
“We’re almost there,” Ladon said, and I tried to calm the terror taking over my mind. I couldn’t see ahead of him and had no idea how far we truly were from safety, but water was starting to overcome me. I didn’t know how much longer I could stay ahead of it.
Suddenly, Ladon disappeared from view. He must’ve reached the top of our climb and rolled onto a platform of sorts. Sure enough, Cyrus disappeared shortly after him.
The water was up to my hips now, but I could see the end of the tunnel. I just needed to climb a few more steps…
My boot slipped, and I lost hold of the wall, dropping into the frigid water. It took a second to reemerge, coughing and spitting out the water that had poured into my mouth and nostrils. I gasped for breath.
“Emilie!” Ladon yelled.
I blinked away the water and reached for the wall, but my fingers found nothing but wet, slippery rock. There was nothing to grip.
My back bumped into the opposite side of the tunnel as the surge tossed me about. It knocked the air out of me, and I swallowed more water as I tried to refill my lungs.
I was losing the battle against the tide.
Just when I was certain that the tumultuous water would overcome me, a hand wrapped firmly around my wrist and pulled me up. I rolled onto dry ground, coming to a stop on my back. I turned to my side and spat up water, wiping the remaining drops from my eyes. Finally, I could see again.
It wasn’t Ladon that had pulled me up, as I had suspected, but Jade. She smiled but said, “Get up. The water is still rising.”
I jumped to my feet, and before I could properly take in my surroundings, I was running toward a mountain of rocks leading to the next tunnel. I stumbled up them, but it didn’t take long to reach the top.
I turned around, expecting to see water flooding this cavern too, but a gentle wave spilled over the ledge we’d climbed over and gradually came to a stop.
I collapsed to the ground with an unsteady chuckle.
Ladon appeared above me, staring like I had lost my mind. And maybe I had. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” I was wet and still full of adrenaline, but I could breathe perfectly fine and had no lingering injuries. My back might bruise from the hit I took, but I would survive.
He held his hand out and helped me to my feet.
“Are we good to keep moving?” Jade asked.
We all nodded.
“Thank you, by the way,” I added.
She smiled. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not like I could let you drown. I’m not that terrible.”
By now, I didn’t think she was terrible at all. Just misunderstood and a little slow to open up to people.
The path ahead was much easier to travel than the tunnel before it.
We no longer had to climb vertically, and the caves opened up rather than closing in on us.
At some point, the walls expanded so far that I couldn’t even see them anymore, which led to an unsettling feeling.
The space was vast and unknown, and it felt as though someone or something was lurking in the shadows.
It would’ve been easy to get lost in the expansive cavern if it weren’t for the pattern etched into the ground, leading us deeper inside the cliff.
The air was freezing cold, and my breath puffed in a cloud in front of me. My wet pants turned rigid and uncomfortable against my skin. I moved closer to Cyrus and his flame so I wouldn’t freeze to death.
After what felt like hours, we finally came to the end of the infinite cavern. A large archway opened up, but none of us were prepared for what awaited in the next chamber.
We walked right into the heart of it all—Reyna’s hideout.