Chapter 69 Devora
Devora
Arowyn strode us straight to the stables on the west side of the property.
The first thing I noticed was the destruction.
Clawmarks were scratched into the floor of the stables, wooden doors were ripped from their hinges, and the earth surrounding the area was torn up, as if something had trampled through.
I crept to the hidden trap door leading down into the Hollow, expecting there to be wards blocking us out, but the door was already blown open.
“I guess the question is whether someone was trying to get in,” Arowyn mused, “or out.”
I wasn’t sure which was worse.
We hurried down the steps, the lack of any wards or defenses particularly unsettling. Rattling chains reached our ears when we made it to the first tunnel. I bit back panic as memories from similar cells crept in.
Arowyn and I snuck silently down the path, taking in the wooden doors lining the hall, with tiny windows allowing a view inside the cells.
Each one had a steel bed with leather cuffs and tables with trays full of sharp weapons and empty syringes.
Several of the doors were already cracked open, and when we peered inside, the cells were empty.
We exchanged a glance. A shiver went down my spine. I had a feeling that wasn’t a good thing.
We came across the first locked door, and I pressed my face to the window. Another empty room. Where were—
A hand slammed against the glass.
I jumped back with a yelp. Fingers slowly slid down the window and were replaced by a gaunt, sallow face, with dark brown hair hanging limply down a thin neck. The girl stared at me with her head low, dull eyes boring into mine.
“Well, she looks friendly,” Arowyn said before disappearing in a faint shimmer. She popped into view on the other side of the door, took the girl's arm, and strode back to me.
The girl—barely a teenager, if I had to guess—staggered backward in alarm.
Sparks flew from her hands as she caught her balance.
She wore a raggedy piece of cloth that hung to her knees, with straps so worn, they hardly held it up on her shoulders.
Wide eyes glanced between the two of us, changing color from gray to orange and back again.
“It’s okay, don’t be frightened.” I held out my arms in a gesture of peace. “We’re here to help get you out.”
“O—out?” she rasped, blinking rapidly. I wondered how long she’d been down here. What torture and experiments she’d been exposed to. Whether she still had family waiting for her.
I nodded and made my tone as gentle as possible. “We’re getting all of you out. Every single one. What’s your name?”
Sparks flew erratically from her hands. “I—I don’t remember.”
My heart clenched uncomfortably. “That’s okay. My name is Devora, and this is Arowyn.” I pointed to Arowyn, and the girl’s eyes followed.
“We’re going to take you far away from this place,” Arowyn said. “You just have to trust us and stay beside me. Do you think you can do that?”
The girl looked at us, then back at her cell, and a shiver racked her body. “Yes,” she finally said. “Yes. Please…please help me.”
“We will, sweet girl. I promise. Come here.” I held out a hand. She took a deep breath, and her sparks slowly subsided. When she placed her hand in mine, her bones were so brittle, I thought I would crush them if I squeezed too tight.
This close, I could see her skin was riddled with scars and puncture wounds. Some looked like little crescent moons. I glanced at her fingernails and saw blood caked beneath them, and sorrow surged through me.
“We’re going to get the others now, okay?” I said. When she nodded, the three of us tiptoed down the tunnel to the next cell.
“Mmm,” the girl suddenly hummed, brow pinching. “Mmm. I think my name starts with an M.”
I rubbed my thumb reassuringly on the back of her hand. “Okay, how about I call you Mae until you remember?”
“Mae,” she said, drawing out the name. She tightened her grip and nodded shyly, dark hair draping over her shoulder.
Arowyn got three more prisoners out of their cells in the span of the next few minutes.
One was a Strider and hawk Shifter hybrid named Theo, who was in his thirties and seemed to have a better understanding of what was happening.
Another was Elynor, a twenty-year-old female Illusionist with a black cloth draped over her eyes and tied behind her head.
She explained that Malek Mortep had blinded her and studied how to get her illusions to work without the power of sight.
Her story made my blood boil and my stomach twist into knots at the same time.
The last one was the youngest yet—an eleven-year-old boy with fox ears and a reptilian-like tail who kept asking us for crackers.
I put my hands on his upper arms, rubbing them up and down.
They all looked so cold. Their skin was paper-thin and pebbled with goosebumps, and the rags they wore did little to protect against the winter chill.
“We’ll get you some crackers and anything else you want as soon as we get the others, okay? ”
His little fox ears wiggled when he nodded, and my heart cracked further.
Now that we had another Strider, we were able to move a little quicker. Theo and Arowyn worked together to whisk others out of their cells and into the hallway, and soon, we’d covered three tunnels and had about a dozen scared but hopeful prisoners trailing behind us.
“How much bigger is this place?” Arowyn hissed at me.
Before I could respond, Elynor appeared at my side. “There’s another tunnel this way”—she pointed to the right, where the path veered up ahead—“and one more beyond that, but it doesn’t have any cells. It just leads to the main laboratory.”
When I glanced at her in surprise, she smirked.
“You’re wondering how I know that, aren’t you?
” She gently touched the cloth covering her eyes.
“Mortep did a lot of tests on me. I never let him figure out they actually worked. I can’t see with my own eyes, but I can see through others.
When he would take me out of my cell and to his lab, I could see everything he saw. I have these tunnels memorized.”
Arowyn crossed her arms. “Why in the world have you been letting me lead, then?”
Elynor chuckled and motioned the rest of us forward. The stone walls looked darker the farther we went. It was mustier and colder, with the soft drip drip drip of water echoing down the path. We collected a couple more prisoners and were about to turn back when Theo threw out a hand to stop us.
“Do you hear that?” he whispered.
Our eyes swept the darkness, and we all held our breaths. I pulled Mae and the youngest boy close, holding them to my side as my shadows trickled protectively along my arms.
I felt a quick, sharp stab of pain on my forearm. When I hissed and looked down, there was a small cut with blood blooming to the surface.
I didn’t have time to dwell on it long before I heard a sound.
Footsteps, distant at first, then loud and thunderous as they pounded against the stone. A low snarl tore down the path. More heavy steps rumbled, menacing growls following in their wake.
Arowyn and I forced the younger children behind us. I stared into the shadowed tunnel, barely able to see a few feet ahead. My shadows swirled around my arms when I held out my hands. They, like me, were waiting. Breathing. Watching.
The footsteps slowed, and the first pair of glowing yellow eyes pierced the darkness.
“Stay back!” I shouted at the kids, molding my shadows into two blades in my hands. I put my right foot forward and braced myself as Thecae had taught me.
Two enormous, fully shifted beasts stepped into the firelight. My eyes landed on the nearest one, and I had to hold back a gasp. It was some sort of canine with two heads, each baring rows of razor-sharp teeth.
It locked eyes with me and let out a growl that sent waves of musty heat rolling over me. Heart hammering, I held my shadow blades up to my face.
The first creature charged.
It flew through the air and collided into my chest. Its hot saliva slid down my neck. I barely managed to erect a shield before its teeth sank into my shadows. The weight of its giant body crushed me, making it hard to breathe.
I tried to strengthen my shadows to force it off me, but it was too strong. When I blocked one head, the other lunged, snapping at my neck. I jerked to the side and felt it grab a mouthful of my hair.
Its jagged tail whipped around and lassoed my wrists together. I stared into its maw of sharp teeth, its black eyes, its flared nostrils. My heart battered against my ribs. I had to get out of this. I couldn’t let it get the children—
Without warning, my body fell.
It felt like I was freefalling as I sank straight into the darkness beneath me, then popped back out from the shadows behind the beast.
“Whoa,” I muttered, steadying myself from a spell of dizziness.
“Whoa,” Arowyn echoed in agreement.
Shadow melting. I grinned. “Oh, I’m so doing that again.”
The creature whirled on me, but this time, I was ready. I formed a sword from my shadows, my smile widening as it hesitated. With a snarl, it swiped a paw at me, and I swung my sword through the air.
It leaped back, its tail so long, it nearly hit Arowyn and the group of prisoners. I taunted it, trying to lure it toward me and away from them.
“Come and get me.” I brandished my shadow sword and stepped backward.
A low growl behind me made me stop in my tracks.
I forgot there were two of them.
“Okay. This is not good,” I muttered as both beasts converged on me from either side.
Out of nowhere, a streak of darkness sailed through the air and landed on the one behind me.
I gasped as the black-and-tan jaguar the size of a horse tore into the two-headed dog’s throat, teeth digging in and ripping.
The beast went still.
The other creature hesitated. The jaguar faced it with blood spraying from her mouth, letting out an earth-shattering roar.
Claws skittered on stone as it tucked its tails and ran the opposite direction.
In the blink of an eye, the jaguar leaned onto its hind legs as its body shortened and limbs withdrew into the familiar form of Tessa.
“I had them right where I wanted them, you know,” I said through gasping breaths.
“Sure you did.” She picked at her tooth with a fingernail and shot me a wink. “Just thought you could use some help.”