Chapter 25
TWENTY-FIVE
Always prioritize your own survival.
RIVEN
I’ve lost control of the prison, and I know exactly who to blame.
As soon as the lights in the arena sputtered out, the magical contract broke. Not on my end, I held up my side of the deal. Barely, but S’lach clearly got tired of waiting for results.
He severed our contract, and now I’m free of it.
I sprint through the corridors, heart pounding. It’s too soon to be relieved; the danger has just begun.
The cages are open, monsters of all shapes and sizes are roaming the halls, and Celine is among them. How did S’lach manage this? I should have suspected he was plotting something. The calculation on his face. The way his rage suddenly cooled.
If he contracted the other veydran, any chance of survival is slim. The monster realm will be torn to pieces, and Celine and I will be devoured in the process.
I should let it happen. Except something is tugging on my chest, yanking me deeper into the labyrinth of halls beneath the arena. An instinct as real as my pulse and as painful as a splinter made of glass.
I run, making turns on reflex alone until I find her. Red hair gleaming in the flickering floor lights, she tiptoes along the edge of the tunnel.
My breath escapes in a puff.
Maybe there’s a chance. I can get her out through the back—A roar shakes the tunnel. My blood runs cold; I’d recognize that sound anywhere.
Crag is after her. Thirty-feet tall and born to track, he’s the monster who hunts the others down. He’s hated Celine since losing a toe during the fight by the portal. If he’s here in this tunnel, then I’ve lost whatever flimsy control I once had over him too.
I’ve lost control of everything. Even myself. Especially myself.
I lunge for Celine, grabbing her arm and narrowly dodging her swinging blade. I cover her mouth with my hand, press my lips to her ear, and whisper, “Be quiet, please. Crag will hear us.”
She relaxes against me for a split second, then stiffens again.
The floor vibrates. Damnation, this deception runs deep. S’lach must have recruited all the veydran to make a mutiny of this magnitude happen.
A wet inhale, loud and raspy, ricochets around the corner.
Godsdammit. If we run, he’ll be on us in a heartbeat.
“Get behind me,” I whisper. “Under my cloak.”
For a second, she doesn’t move. Celine doesn’t trust me. Why should she? Her brow furrows, lips parting as she weighs her options. When she retracts her wings and scoots under my cloak, I can barely contain my sigh of relief.
Reaching back, I slice my hand on her blade and spread the blood all over my other arm. The cut drips on the floor, and I squeeze it several times, spilling as much blood as I can.
Celine braces against my back. “What are you doing?”
“Shh.” I press her against the wall, then drive the heel of my boot into the closest floor light until it flickers and dies. “Don’t move or make a sound. Our lives depend on it.”
Fingers curl around my waist and squeeze, a sign I interpret as agreement. If she wasn’t going to play along, she’d have extracted my spine with her longsword and used it as a garrote to strangle our pursuer.
“Hey,” I shout. “Crag, over here.” His sense of smell and memory are unmatched, but his eyesight is weak. I’m hoping my blood is enough to distract him.
Celine’s fingers flex around the hilt of her sword, which is wedged against the back of my right thigh. It’s the only move she makes, and I’m impressed once again by her nerves of steel.
Crag rounds the corner, and I wave my bloody arm at him, then point down the corridor. “The angel has escaped,” I say gruffly. “She went that way. Bring her to me.”
He tilts his colossal reptilian head, bares his teeth, and inhales deeply.
Beneath my cloak, I make a fist, putting pressure on the cut until more blood drips to the floor. “You follow my orders,” I snarl. “If the angel gets away, this whole trap will be for nothing. Our payday depends on you finding her!”
I’m taking a risk. Pretending I’m part of this scheme and hoping Crag doesn’t know that I’ve been forcibly excised from the command structure. Most veydran wouldn’t dream of including a monster in their plans. I can only hope he’s following orders and doesn’t have the whole picture.
Crag takes a lumbering step toward me and drops his crocodilian head to my level. His snout is bigger than my entire skull. When he sniffs again, my hair blows back, tickling the sides of my neck.
I narrow my eyes, lift my bloody hand, and slap him in the nose with it. “Get out of my way, you idiot. Go find the angel.”
He takes one step back, then two, before stomping down the hall. Low, menacing snarls leave his mouth with every step.
I grab Celine’s hand and drag her in the opposite direction. “Quickly,” I whisper. “He won’t fall for it for long.”
“Where are you taking me?” she mutters, keeping pace with me easily.
“Somewhere safe.”
She yanks her hand free and stops. “That’s not good enough, Riven.”
“Listen.” I face her, my breath fogging visibly in the glow of the floor lights. “Your father orchestrated some kind of coup. I can’t guarantee your safety anymore.”
Celine scoffs. “I’m sorry, is that what you were doing before? Because I hate to break it to you, but I haven’t been safe since I got here.”
“I was magically bound to honor the contract with your father,” I say.
“Of course.” She rolls her eyes. “I hope he paid you well—”
“Will you listen to me for five seconds?” I grab her by the shoulders. “S’lach broke the contract, I felt it dissolve.”
“That’s wonderful for you, but you can’t honestly expect me to forget that you dragged me away from a game of Twister and sent me to die . . . hmm, what was it? About an hour ago.”
I glance at the toes of my boots. “A lot can change in an hour.”
“Then let me go,” Celine says. “Help me get the guys and we’ll do the rest.”
I shake my head. “The other veydran are in on your father’s plot. They’ll be dead by now. I’ll get you to the portal, but if you go back for them, you’ll only be wasting your time.”
Celine lifts the sword and presses the tip to my throat. “I won’t leave them behind. I’ll carry their bodies out of here on my back if I have to.” Anger, pain, and fear are etched in the lines around her mouth, but there’s not a single hint of indecision on her face.
Something twists inside me.
“They don’t deserve you,” I say. “Your loyalty will get you killed.”
She shakes her head. “There are worse things to die for.”
“Fine,” I snap. “I’ll take you to the cabin, but I’m warning you, we may not even make it there. The entire realm is crawling with beasts.”
Celine drops the blade from my throat and smiles grimly. “I’m good in a crisis.”
I shake my head, then keep moving. Screams and growls rend the night as we weave through the corridors. We encounter no one else inside, but when we reach the rope bridge, a sinking sensation consumes me.
Their cell is engulfed in flames.