Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
SAMARA
Ipaced my cell like a caged animal, kicking at the grimy straw and feathers beneath my feet.
White feathers stuck to the bottom of my boots, clinging to me like all the bad decisions that had led to this moment.
The dungeon’s holding cells were even worse than I remembered from my childhood explorations—dark, damp, and reeking of despair and bodily fluids.
How had I ended up here? One minute I’d been sitting at the head of the council table, trying to warn everyone about the vacant threat, and the next, Edmund had everyone voting to throw me in the dungeon for crimes I hadn’t even committed.
I gripped the bars until my knuckles turned white, glaring at the iron door that led to the more permanent cells down the long corridor. Beyond that lay another door that connected to the servants’ quarters, and beyond that... freedom. So close, yet unreachable.
I kicked at a large clump of feathers, sending them swirling into the air. “What kind of bird did they even keep down here?”
In the cell across from mine, Amari rattled his bars, testing their strength for the fifth time since we’d been thrown in here. The enchanted cuffs on his wrists glowed faintly in the dim light, suppressing his abilities. Even with his impressive strength, the bars didn’t budge.
“Save your energy.” I sank onto the floor, exhaustion finally catching up with me. “The entire dungeon is warded against magic and strength. My father made sure of it.”
Amari’s dark eyes met mine, his expression grim but determined. “There’s always a weakness.”
I shook my head, running my fingers through my hair, now loose and tangled. The secret passage mocked me with its proximity. What good was a secret passage when I couldn’t even get out of this cell?
My gaze drifted to Val’s prone form in the cell next to Amari’s. He hadn’t stirred since they’d tossed him in. Blood matted his dark hair where Edmund had struck him, and even in unconsciousness, his face was tense with pain.
“He’s been out too long.” Worry gnawed at my insides, unwelcome but persistent. “Head wounds on vampires usually heal quickly.”
Amari paused his efforts to study Val. “The cuffs must slow healing.”
I stood again, unable to keep still. Anger and frustration bubbled in my veins like poison, demanding release. I grabbed the bars and shook them, knowing it was futile but needing to do something that wasn’t just waiting to die.
“I should have seen this coming.” This hadn’t been spontaneous. Someone had planned this and carefully maneuvered the pieces into place. But why? Was a woman on the council really that much of a threat?
“Nico will find help.” If he hadn’t been caught by the lion shifter.
A soft groan from Val’s cell pulled my attention. He shifted slightly, one hand moving to his head.
“Val?” I pressed my face against the bars, straining to see him better.
His eyes fluttered open, disoriented at first, then sharpening with recognition as he took in our surroundings. He pushed himself into a seated position, wincing.
“What have I missed?” He touched the wound on his head.
“Nothing yet.” I gestured to our grim surroundings. “Just the comfortable accommodations courtesy of Edmund.”
Val’s gaze traveled around the dungeon before settling on me, something unreadable flickering in their depths. “Are you hurt?”
The genuine concern in his voice made my chest tighten. After everything we’d been through, he still worried about me first.
I glanced at the feather-strewn floor of my cell. “No. Just my pride and possibly my future.”
Now what? Even if Nico came to our rescue, we had targets on our backs. It was possible that Val’s family could help, but one family against ten other powerful families wasn’t exactly good odds.
Amari sat on the floor of his cell and brought his knees to his chest. “I can’t change into a gargoyle.”
Val cursed under his breath.
If Amari couldn’t change into his gargoyle form, then what would happen to him?
I started pacing in the cell again, kicking at the feathers on the floor. What the hell had gone on in this place? I bent down and picked up one of the white feathers that had a silvery tint to it.
There was a sense of wrongness in holding something so pure in my hand. I spun it between my fingers, letting the faint light in the room play on the silvery hints running through it. It was beautiful, and I knew it wasn’t from Inferna.
Suddenly, I was being pulled, and then there was a pop in my ears. My feet hit something hard as if I’d jumped from a wall, and I was blinded by the brightest light I’d ever seen.
Loud sounds invaded my ears, and I frantically looked around me, wondering where the hell I was.
A large carriage stopped abruptly in front of me, making a screeching noise like a really pissed-off hell serpent. The loud, shrill noise that came from it made me nearly jump out of my skin.
“Move out of the fucking street, you crazy bitch!”
I scrambled out of the way until I stepped up onto a different surface where there were people walking. The same guy who had just yelled at me did it again as he moved forward in his carriage. “Next time, I’ll run your ass over!”
More carriages moved along what I assumed was the road. I slowly turned around in a circle, my eyes wide and my heart in my throat. There was a large sign in the distance on the side of a hill that read ‘Hollywood.’
I grabbed a woman’s arm as she walked past me. “Please, where am I?”
She shrugged my hand away and sneered at me. “Are you high?” She had dark glasses covering her eyes and was clutching the strap of a bag on her shoulder while holding something against her ear. She was wearing so many colors that my vision swam.
My feet were glued to their spot as she walked off down the path, glaring back at me.
I needed to get back to Val and Amari.
I held up the feather I still had in my hand. It was the only explanation for how I’d arrived in this weird location that was brighter than a thousand moons.
I brought it closer to my face and gasped.
Blood.
It had to be angel blood. My brother had returned to Inferna with angels to rescue Lucifer and his daughter.
Was this Lucifer’s feather? How had it even worked?
They said that Lilith was draining Lucifer of his blood to open the magical barrier between Earth and Inferna.
Holy shit. I was on Earth.
My entire body shook, and I leaned against the odd metal box to the side of me. It reeked, but I needed to steady myself.
This was Earth?
It was so loud and bright, and it smelled horrible. I wanted to go back to Inferna.
I touched my finger to the dried blood on the feather, hoping it would work the way I thought it did.
I stumbled as my body was pulled again. My ears popped, and I practically fell on my ass, the metal box no longer lending me support.
“Samara!” Val’s voice brought me back to reality.
I was outside my cell now, approximately the same distance as I’d walked off the road on Earth. If dried blood held this much power, I didn’t even want to know what blood fresh from the vein could do.
I rushed to the stone steps leading out of the dungeon and snagged the keys hanging on a hook by the door, careful not to let any of them clink together. I went to Amari’s cell first and unlocked the door and his cuffs before doing the same for Val.
“I need a shirt.” I quickly went to the cell I had been in and unlocked it. “Quickly. We don’t have a lot of time.”
I used my foot to gather the feathers.
“What are you doing?” Amari stopped outside the door of the cell. “We need to get out of here before they come back.”
“Give me your shirt.” I held out my hand.
Amari didn’t move quickly enough, so I grabbed the hem of his shirt and started lifting it. He tried to bat my hands away. “What do you need my shirt for?”
“No questions now. Give me your damn shirt.”
He relented, and I lifted it off his head. I ripped it at the bottom so I could tie a few knots and went back into the cell. I carefully scooped the feathers up off the floor.
“Are we going to talk about what happened?” Val sounded confused. “You just vanished and then were in the middle of the room. Can you teleport now and bypass the magical constraints down here?”
I finished tying off the shirt, making a bag I could sling over my arm. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
I rolled my eyes at Amari and gingerly held a feather with more blood than the other one I’d had.
“Well, you can stay here, or you can make your way through the tunnel. I don’t want to take the chance that they might know about it and have guards at the other end or track our scents.
I don’t know how many people know about it. ”
“What tunnel?” Val narrowed his eyes at the feather. “Is that a fucking angel feather?”
I ignored his question about the tunnel; I’d already said too much about it. “Hold on to my arms. I’m hoping this gets us out of here the same way I got out of the cell. I’m pretty sure it will work.”
My idea was to stand in the same spot I’d reappeared so that we’d land on the walkway I’d been on.
Then we would head straight forward in the direction I was facing.
I knew how long the passageway was out to the forest, and if we walked a little longer than necessary, we would end up a safe distance from the castle and the village that was frequently swarming with guards.
At least, I hoped that was what would happen.
“Samara, if that’s angel blood, we are not going to—” Val stopped, his head turning. “Someone’s coming.”
They grabbed onto my arms, and whatever protest Val had disappeared. I pinched the feather where the dried blood was, and the same sensation came over me, but I was ready for it. When we landed on the sidewalk, I was facing a building.
This time, instead of a deranged carriage driver yelling at me, gasps came from the two men holding onto my arms.
“What the—” Amari went silent, freezing in place.
Before I could react to Amari turning to stone, Val let out a shriek that was so unlike him my heart dropped. “I’m burning!” His face was a mask of pain, and his skin was turning red.
I yanked him toward the building in front of us. There was a glass door, and I pushed it open, a bell ringing as we entered.
Val panted, bending at the waist and putting his hands on his knees. He gasped for air as smoke began rolling off him like he was on fire.
I looked back at the door, hoping Amari had moved, but a man and woman were standing near him, eyeing him curiously.
Shit. This was bad.
I rushed out the door, ignoring the two people, and tugged on his stone arm. He was heavy as fuck, but I managed to drag him closer to the door and out of the path.
Amari instantly regained mobility and rushed into the shop on his own.
The man who had been watching clapped. “Whoa! Give that man an Academy Award!”
A what?
I let the door shut behind me and leaned against it, trying to catch my breath. I had no reaction to being on Earth and assumed they wouldn’t either. What if the shop hadn’t been right in front of us?
I shuddered at the thought of Val exploding into flames or Amari being hit by a carriage.
A woman made her way toward us. “You can’t smoke in here.” She appeared to be about my age and was dressed in a long dress that swirled with color.
I glanced around the large room we were in. It was some kind of shop, and nearly everything was colorful. Was everyone on Earth powerful, or were they witches?
“Val, are you okay?” Amari put his hand on Val’s back, but he shook it off.
“Don’t. Touch. Me.” Val’s voice was pained, and his teeth were clenched. His hands were still on his knees, and wisps of smoke continued coming off him, but he wasn’t screaming or panting anymore.
“Ma’am.”
Amari stepped in front of me and Val to stop the woman from gawking at Val and getting closer.
She backed up several steps. “I will call the police if you three don’t leave immediately.”
Val took a deep inhale. Before we could stop him, he lunged at the woman and grabbed her by the arms. She let out a small screech but then stopped and stared into his eyes.
“You will not call the police. You will close your shop and go home.” His voice was calm and deadly. It made goosebumps spread across my skin.
He let her go and then collapsed onto the floor as if that had taken all his energy. Amari crouched down next to him.
“Don’t let me bite her,” Val muttered to Amari.
Did he mean me or the woman?
The woman went to the back of the shop without another word and returned with a bag in her hands. She didn’t spare us another glance as she flipped the red sign on the window, shut the door, and locked it. Outside, she brought down a metal door that looked like the bars of a cell.
I rushed to where Amari and Val were on the ground. “What the hell happened?”
“What the hell happened? You brought us here is what the hell happened! Where the fuck are we?” Amari was pissed and sounded like he was two seconds away from shifting. His muscles pulsated under his skin, and his torso was still bare because I had taken his shirt.
Val coughed into his fist and groaned. “Earth. We’re on fucking Earth.”