Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Ryker
Whoever was out there had helped me break out of our cells, but I didn’t trust them. This could all still be part of some game Veni was playing.
When I glanced back at the others, Tucker handed the crier over to Lawrence. His rain ability wouldn’t do us much good down here, but his wind could be beneficial.
He was also the one with the most battle experience, and he’d survived Doomed Valley with me. After me, Tucker was the strongest fighter we had, and I was glad to have him at my back.
Lightning encircled my wrists as I stepped into the hallway, prepared to unleash it on anyone who tried to fuck with us.
No one stood directly in front of me, so I spun to the right, my lightning crackling. I’d prepared to face an army, but only one man was there.
Leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest and one leg lifted to prop his foot against the wall, Samael studied me with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. When my lightning flashed higher, his smirk didn’t falter, but uneasiness flashed through his yellow-brown eyes.
“It took you long enough,” he remarked. “I expected the great Scourge of the Ghouls to be at the door ten minutes ago.”
His words stifled my impulse to unleash my lightning. “You put the keys in my gruel.”
I couldn’t keep my surprise hidden as I stared at the Sheriff of Nottingshire. I’d once considered him a friend, but that friendship ended years before I became the most wanted man in Tempest.
I had no idea what he was doing here or why he’d apparently slipped those keys into my food, but I trusted him as much as I’d trust a starving dragon not to eat me. Samael was more dangerous and unpredictable than that dragon.
“I did.” He unfolded himself from the wall. “Since it took you so long to get free, we have to move. Now.”
I scowled at him. “If you’re so concerned about time, you could have opened the door and helped us.”
“I did help you, Ryker. You have my keys. Plus, it took more time to get down here than I anticipated. Your father’s a demanding prick.”
“No shit.”
“We have to go.”
“Where? And what are you doing here?”
“All questions you’ll have the answers to while we’re moving.
Unless, of course, you’d prefer to return to your cell.
Since I have no desire to be imprisoned or killed, I’m leaving.
You can join me or try to find your own way out of here.
Since I know where they’ve stationed all the guards, you’ll have better luck with me, but it’s your life, so feel free to throw it away if you’d like. ”
I sneered at him as I pondered his words. I didn’t want to put my life in Samael’s hands, but he had a point, and there was a reason he helped us escape.
It could all still be some game he’d planned with the duke, but they had to realize they’d be fools to give me this much freedom. Neither of them was a stupid man.
Yes, Veni loved fucking with my head, and he didn’t care how many of his soldiers died, but he had to realize he’d run the risk of me getting to him if I was free. He wouldn’t take that chance. I scared him, and we both knew it.
I glanced back at Tucker; behind him, Callan and Lawrence huddled in the shadows with the injured man between them. Tucker’s eyes burned with hatred as he studied Samael, but when they shifted to me, I saw the resignation in them.
Neither of us trusted Samael, but he’d given us those keys, and right now, we didn’t have many choices. Samael had to know that if he betrayed us, he’d be the first one I killed.
My jaw clenched, and I kept my lightning at the ready as I strode down the hall toward the Sheriff of Nottingshire. When the others followed me, Samael’s gaze went past me to them.
“We can’t make it out of here with him,” Samael said.
I didn’t have to look back to know he was talking about the crier. “We’re not leaving him behind. They’ll kill him.”
Samael’s expression said he didn’t care. “We have a lot of the palace to travel through, Ryker. Don’t be stupid about this.”
I stopped before the sheriff. Unlike the rest of us, who were covered in filth and blood and reeked of body odor and despair, he was spotless. He’d combed his dirty blond hair neatly away from his face and wore a tailored jacket bearing Nottingshire’s insignia.
At six feet, he was tall and broad through the shoulders, but he had to tip his head back to look up at me. The merciless glint in his eyes said he’d gladly leave the incapacitated man in the middle of the hall and walk away.
Part of me wanted to do the same, but I’d said we’d try to find a place to hide him, and we would. “There must be somewhere we can hide him.”
“You intend to return to this place?” Samael asked.
“I’m going to tear it down.”
Samael shook his head. “That’s not the plan, Ryker.”
When I stepped closer, he backed up a step. “Then what is the plan, Samael?”
“Getting you free to fight another day. There are too many soldiers throughout the palace for you to succeed against them now.”
“And what becomes of you after you free us from the palace?”
“We really need to walk and talk. Follow me or stay here and die, but I’m not sharing in that fate.”
With that, Samael turned on his heel and strode down the hall toward the closed door at the end. When I glanced back at the others, they met my gaze.
“Do you know how to get out of here without being spotted?” Tucker asked.
“No.”
I spent a lot of time in the palace during my years with Leo and knew it well, but I had no idea where the duke stationed his fighters or how to avoid them.
We could leave the dungeon behind, only to walk into a contingent of soldiers.
While I’d fry as many of them as I could, their numbers would overwhelm us, and I refused to return to that cell.
“We’re going to have to trust that dick,” Callan said.
Everything in me rebelled against that idea, but we had no choice; we had to trust the Sheriff of Nottingshire—the man who’d been hunting us for months and who had imprisoned and tortured many amsirah since acquiring his position.
He was everything we were fighting against and our only hope.
Samael stood by the other door, staring expectantly at us. I had no idea why he was doing this, but I would find out. The crying man’s toes dragged the ground as we strode toward where the sheriff stood with his hand on the knob.
When we drew closer, Samael turned away and looked through the door’s window before opening it. We followed him out of the dungeon and into a narrow hallway with a set of stairs leading to the floor above.
No guards were there, but without being able to open a portal, we remained trapped in the palace. It was only a matter of time before we ran into trouble.