14. The Girl with Stormy Eyes #2
Stone cut into my feet as I scrambled to get away, the cavern coming into view despite the shadows cloaking them as I ran.
I dared a second to look around, searching for any means of escaping.
The cave was large, with tunnels carved into the surrounding stone, but I saw no signs of an exit.
A whimper reached my ears, and I twisted around to see the creature stumble away from the bars before running its paw over its face repeatedly, as if to wipe the pain away.
The guards laughed on the other side as it shook its head and continued to rub its eyes.
There was no time to worry about the poor creature, who was likely as much a prisoner as I was.
I had to get away, had to find a way to outsmart it and survive.
The creature cried out, the sound rattling me to the bones, and I didn’t waste time looking back before I ran, eyes darting to each tunnel.
Would they be dead ends? Or would they lead me to safety?
Perhaps I could get out of its reach if I climbed.
The pads of the creature’s paws slammed into the stone floor behind me, and I gasped. I ran for the stone wall and leaped to grab hold of a rock jutting from the wall.
Faster!
I cried out as I pulled myself up, my heart racing as I climbed higher and higher. My eyes dropped to the creature as it leaped and swatted at me. Its strike connected with my ankle, and I screamed as my foot slipped from the stone ledge.
The beast within me roared as I hit the ground.
Get up!
The creature stumbled back as if startled, and I shot to my feet to run.
I didn’t get far, my feet slamming into something hard on the ground, and I crashed onto the floor.
Air flooded my lungs in short bursts as I twisted around before it left me entirely, the distant torchlight reflecting in the unseeing eyes of a child staring back at me.
I recognized him. He had been one of the children who’d been taken, had been carried in the arms of one of Rhyas’ companions, Santor.
Fates spare me.
Was this what my fate would be? Would I die here?
No, little one. You will not die. You will survive.
The creature ran for me, and I scrambled back as it hissed, teeth bared. It struck, its claws slashing down in a smooth arch, and searing pain carved a path over my right eye. I cried out, my hand rising to my face as I rolled away and ducked into the nearest tunnel.
The sound that peeled from the monster’s throat could only be described as pure, frustrated fury, and it left me all the more desperate to get away.
I couldn’t let it catch me, couldn’t let it do to me what it did to the child who hadn’t stood a chance.
My hands clambered over the stone as I crawled into the tunnel in a blind path to wherever it led.
Don’t look back!
Sounds of scraping claws reached my ears, and I twisted back despite the beast’s warning. I gasped as the creature forced its way into the tunnel, its body crammed too tightly, its claws tearing into the rock as it fought to get to me.
My vision blurred, my right eye burning as blood pooled within it.
Sobs broke from my lips as I crawled, farther and farther, the tunnel growing tighter until I barely fit before I stuck my head through the exit.
I struggled, my body going nowhere. No. It was too tight, and my heart skipped a beat as the creature grew closer.
The stone cut into my shoulders as I forced my way through the tiny opening, biting back a cry as my skin was cut and split.
I spilled onto the stone floor as the creature’s paw shot through the opening, claws grazing my ankle before I could scramble away.
Its cries and hisses echoed through the chamber as it swatted at the air before me, unable to get through, unable to get to me.
“Excellent work,” Arden’s voice startled me, and I twisted around to find him standing with several guards. Hands grabbed me before I could do anything, and I fought against their hold as they hauled me to my feet and guided me toward him.
His golden eyes trailed over me, and my skin crawled at the odd look of pride within them.
It was nothing like the pride Father showed when I did good, though—it was more like greed, a hunger for something of value.
He reached out and I pulled back, but the guards held me in place as his hand grasped my left shoulder.
“You will serve me well,” he whispered before blinding pain shot out from where our skin met, agony like a wildfire snaking down my left arm.
The beast cried out within me, my voice somehow drowned out by the sound of its own pain as what felt like chains encircled it, tethering it—me—to Arden.
My body recoiled on its own, fighting to escape the pain, and just when I thought I couldn’t take anymore, he released me.
I slumped in their hold, head lolling forward, saliva dripping from my lips to pool on the stone below.
The guards dropped me, and I collapsed, my body too weak to support itself.
Tears rolled down my cheeks, and my eyes trailed over my arm, covered by the now-shredded coat the boy had gifted me, to the exposed skin of my wrist, where inscriptions in the old language inked my skin… the same as those that marked Rhyas’.
Arden stared down at me, a sickening smile spreading across his face. “You are mine.”