37. Into the Castle – Elias #2
I fought the urge to shoot Darius a look over my shoulder and kept my gaze trained on the center of the guard’s shoulder blades before me.
I did allow myself to perk up at his words.
“I would not mind seeing this other seelie female,” I replied, my teeth grinding as I held back my rage.
“Perhaps we can take ours in the cell next to hers. She can watch us defile another of her kin.”
The words felt bitter, each syllable like musky stones on my tongue.
The guard laughed, leading us deeper. At the steps' end, he grabbed a torch and continued down a narrow passage.
Our footsteps echoed, the air reeked of decay, and the torch's warmth couldn't fend off the deep cold beneath the castle.
Rosemary's isolation chipped at my heart.
She'd lose all sense of time here, the silence driving her mad. And if they tortured her…
They turned down another corridor, the only light forward was the one the guard in front of me carried.
No light. No sound. Nothing but the suffocating silence so far below everything she loved.
My rage boiled within my blood, my gaze fixed squarely on the center of the guard’s back before me as I envisioned all the ways I could kill him.
Another light approached from around a twist ahead.
Peering over the shoulder of the leading guard, I watched as the man who had brought Rosemary her tray approached us, a frown tugging at his thick lips as his gaze fell over us.
He paused, his fingers fisting around his hips as he blocked our path forward, glaring at the guard in front of me for answers.
“What’s this?” He jutted his chin in our direction.
The guard in front of me jerked his thumb over his shoulder, glancing back at us with glittering glee behind his dark eyes as he licked his lips.
“They found another seelie wench and say we can have our way with her once they’ve finished with her.
They wanted somewhere dark and deep, away from her natural world, to enact their punishment from her flesh. ”
I stifled the shiver that struggled up my spine as I watched his greedy gaze lazily take in Briar’s curves. Without drawing attention toward us, I dug my elbow into Darrius’s side to keep him from lurching into an attack. A muscle ticked along my brother’s jaw, and his body tensed but stilled.
“This has not been approved by the queen,” the guard barring our path replied. He leaned slightly, eyeing Briar between us as if to decide if she was worth the hassle of going against his queen’s wishes. “I do not see one of the queen’s tokens.”
I lifted a hand as I heaved a sigh. I didn’t know what tokens he spoke of, but we needed to move this along if we were going to rescue Rosemary before the armies above finished their battles.
“I tire of this,” I said, inching forward as I stared down into the dark corridor behind the guard.
My fingers tightened around Briar’s wrist, yanking her flush to my side.
“The other seelie bitch is at the end of these hallways, correct?”
The guard held up his hand, his palm connecting with my chest and stopping me from going farther. “You can’t just go down there without protection.” He patted the pocket of his trousers, indicating his own token tucked safely away. “Without that token, you lack that protection.”
Briar whimpered, and Darrius yanked her from my side. I didn’t miss the disapproving glint that flashed within his narrowed gaze as he asked, “From what do we need protection?”
The guard glanced between us, and for a moment, I thought he picked up on the disagreement between me and Darrius, but he just gave his head a slight shake, as if he were amused with our fighting over the seelie woman within our clutches.
“The queen left an echo with her prisoner. It can’t get close enough to feed on her, but she’s been trapped in its nightmares since she was captured.
” He looked at each of us for a long moment, shrugged, then walked past us.
“You know what, even without a token coin, be my guest. The echo will deal with you.”
He paused long enough to look down his crooked nose at the guards who’d led us down here.
“If the queen found out how far you’ve made it into her dungeons without her approval, it would be our heads.
” He lowered his voice until only a harsh whisper remained, “In fact, you better hope that echo deals with your insolence. If the queen asks, I’ll throw you under the wagon wheels at my earliest chance. ”
His footsteps echoed through the long, twisting corridors, but I waited until the darkness swallowed him before I sent my brother a knowing wink.
We needed to make sure the retreating guard couldn’t hear us before we acted.
The two guards who remained on either side of us chuckled nervously before they continued toward the twist ahead.
We followed, but the tension thickened within the air until I could no longer stand it.
Every muscle in my body coiled, ready for me to release the wrath I’d barely contained this entire time.
My hand snapped up, my fingers curling around the closest guard’s neck in a blur of motion.
I dug my fingernails into his flesh, my knuckles whitening from the force of my grip as I squeezed until a soft pop throbbed beneath my fingers.
Briar gasped at my side as the guard fell, motionless at my feet.
By the time I swiveled to take in the other guard, his body was already collapsing to the stone ground in an unconscious heap.
Darrius brushed his palms together with his attention already focused back onto Briar.
I stepped over the guard at my feet and spat on the ground next to his head. “I wanted to make you suffer more for the vile thoughts about Rosemary inside your head, but I simply do not have the time for that.”
Darrius’s blade scraped free of its scabbard, slicing through the silence as he followed me.
My boot scraped the stones, and an eerie click, click, click made me swallow back the fear rising inside me.
I furrowed my brow, bracing my mind against the beast lurking around the corridor's bend.
I sensed the tendrils of its monstrous reach, trying to drag my psyche into its nightmarish domain.
I gritted my teeth against its icy magic, feeling my brother and Briar steeling themselves behind me.
I glanced back, my gaze meeting theirs briefly to confirm their readiness for what awaited us.
Darrius nodded while Briar blinked and took the twisted dagger he handed her.
Exhaling slowly, I gripped my sword tighter and retrieved my dagger from my boot.
Without further delay, I turned the corner into the dim corridor.
Nothing.
Where I expected the echo to lie in wait was only another darkened stairwell down.
It had been so long since Darrius and I had played in these tunnels that I’d forgotten this place even existed.
The hole. The deepest, dankest part of our dungeons.
These cells down here hadn’t been used in ages.
Of course, our mother would make use of them for the seelie royals.
As I neared the stairwell, a chilling cold enveloped me, raising goosebumps on my arms and neck.
I peered into the darkness; the nearest torches flickered over just the top three steps, leaving the rest in deep shadow.
A steady drip tapped out a relentless rhythm.
I tuned it out, knowing how torturous it would be to a fae's sensitive ears.
She was down there. I could almost feel her presence.
Click, click, click.
Rosemary wasn’t alone down there though.
I took the stairs one at a time, careful not to make a single sound.
Twice more, I felt the reach of the echo as it tried to enter my mind.
If it couldn’t distract me by throwing me into nightmarish visions, then I posed a greater threat against it — we both knew that.
Unfortunately, we also knew that the closer I came to it, the stronger its power would become.
Not even I could counter its touch if its shadowy existence brushed against mine.
My brother’s fingers closed around my shoulder and his voice whispered into my ear in a hushed tone that I barely heard. “It already knows that we’re here, brother. I will follow your lead, but I advise you to rush.”
He was right.
Again, the echo reached for my mind.
Relentless. Desperate.
And about to be dead.