Chapter 35
Briony is waiting for me outside. I must look as shocked as I feel, because she takes one glance at me and grabs my hands. “Alana, what happened?”
I can’t speak, just shake my head at her and start running in the direction of the dungeons.
When we reach them, Briony taps on the door. She is holding her breath, but releases it when she sees the guard who answers.
“Roan,” she says. “Yarrow told you?”
“Yes, he told me.” Roan ushers us inside. “Let’s hurry.”
As the fae in the cells begin to stir, Roan rushes to the door and unbolts it. “What’s happening?” snaps Maura, dragging herself to her feet.
I run over and grab the bars. “It’s happening. We’re getting you out.”
I expect there to be a flurry of movement, but no one moves an inch. They just stare at me.
Yanking open the door, Roan steps inside and begins unlocking the chains from around everyone’s necks. When he reaches Maura, she flinches.
“We have to hurry.” I gesture for them to start filing out, but they seem too stunned. It is Raine who speaks up.
“I don’t want to die,” she says, resting her hand on her belly. “I have too much to live for, Alana. I’m not risking it.”
The air is practically trembling with fear. I can feel it even with my gates up. So, I do the only thing I can think of... Perhaps it’s wrong. Perhaps it’s breaking some kind of unwritten rule or breaking a barrier that shouldn’t be broken. But I can’t afford to stop and think about it. There isn’t time.
I close my eyes and lower the gates in my mind. Immediately, their fear crashes over me like a tidal wave, threatening to pull me under. But instead of crumbling, I let it wash through me, absorbing it into my very being.
Then, just as I did before, I reach out with my powers, imagining their fear as a tangible thing, a dark, heavy mass that I can grab hold of and pull away. I focus on each person in turn, visualising their fear as a separate entity, and with a deep breath, I begin to draw it out of them.
It’s not like before, when I took away their pain. This is different, more intense, more personal. I feel like I’m reaching into their very souls, touching something sacred and private. But I don’t stop. I can’t stop. Not now.
As I work, I feel the atmosphere in the room begin to shift. The air grows lighter, the tension easing. I open my eyes and see the fae starting to stir, their expressions changing from terror to confusion to tentative hope.
“What did you do?” whispers Briony, her eyes wide.
“I took away their fear,” I reply, my voice shaking slightly. “I had to. It was the only way.”
I wobble a little, but Briony catches me and wraps her arm around my waist until I am steady.
Maura steps forward, her gaze locked on mine. “You shouldn’t have done that,” she says, but there’s no anger in her voice, only a sort of resigned understanding. “But thank you.”
I nod, swallowing hard. “We have to go. Now.”
This time, there’s no hesitation. The fae move quickly and, as they finally start to file out of the cells, I turn to Briony. “Shouldn’t Finn be here? He said he was going to meet me here...”
Briony looks towards the locked door. Roan rushes to the corner of the dark, cavernous space that Eldrion uses as his dungeon. He starts to move things aside. I step sideways so I can see what he’s doing. They look like empty sacks. He’s tossing them behind him, forming another pile, then he says, “Can someone help? I need to move him.”
Pen steps forward. “What do you need?” But then his eyes widen and a wave of nausea washes over him. I slam my gates up, but too late. It washes over me too, and I clutch my throat as I bite it back down.
“We need to move him.” Roan looks up. He’s holding onto a pair of ankles. Rawk’s ankles.
“Rawk...” I knew he was dead. But seeing him. Like this... Grey, and sunken, and rotting from the inside out... I turn away and clench my fist, bringing it to my mouth to try to hold in the vomit swirling in my gut.
“There’s no time for squeamishness. We have to move him. Now,” Roan barks.
Visibly trying not to faint, Pen takes hold of Rawk’s arms and helps Roan drag him out of the way. Beneath him lies a thick piece of cloth, which Roan moves to one side to reveal a trapdoor. Just like the one in the kitchen.
Roan pulls it open. “This is it,” he says. Then he looks at Briony. “Finn is certain tonight is the night?”
“You saw what she did.” Briony nods in my direction. “We won’t have a better chance to be free, Roan.”
With a firm nod, Roan stands back. “Then, let’s go,” he says.
Pen goes first, then Raine. He helps her down onto the ladder and I hear him keeping check on her the entire way down. When they reach the bottom, Roan throws a box of matches down and tells them to find the lanterns. “Get them lit,” he calls.
Standing aside with Maura, Briony, and me, he allows all the other Leafborne to climb down into the hatch before asking which one of us wants to go first.
“Maura . . .” I take her arm.
She flinches involuntarily, then meets my eyes and sighs. “This is you?” she says. “You did this. You’re getting us out?”
“Not just me. There’s more...” I stop because Roan is shaking his head at me.
“Not now,” he says. “There really isn’t time, Alana.”
I squeeze Maura’s forearm. “Later, we’ll talk later. But for now... we have to go.”
I help her down onto the ladder, then wait for Briony. Roan stands back and gestures for me to go ahead of him. I hesitate, then say, “Thank you,” and clamber down.
When I reach the bottom, Roan isn’t far behind. The lamps are lit, and we are gathered in the damp silence of the tunnels. Explaining quickly, I tell the others that the Shadowkind are helping us escape and that Briony and Roan will be leading the way out of the citadel.
“We’re really getting out?” whispers one of the young fae.
“We’re really getting out,” I tell her. Then I turn to Briony. She rubs her hands together and nods at me. A shudder runs through her entire body.
“Do you need me to take away your fears, too?” I ask her quietly. “This is a big moment. I can make it easier for you.”
But Briony simply smiles at me. “I have waited too long for this,” she says. “I want to feel every last bit of it. Good and bad.”
I take her hands and grasp them tightly. “All right, then just know this... I am grateful for you, Briony. It has been a long time since I’ve had a true friend. And I know I wouldn’t have survived the last few weeks without you.”
For a moment, I think Briony’s going to say something. Her mouth opens, then closes. She inhales deeply. But then she steels herself and says, “All right. No more talk. It’s time. This way.”
As we start to move through the tunnels, the weight of what we’re doing settles in the crevices between my muscles and makes my body ache. The air is heavy with the scent of damp earth, and the sound of our footsteps echoes off the walls. The Leafborne huddle close together, their faces a mix of fear and hope.
Roan and Briony lead the way, their steps sure and steady. They’ve been planning this for so long. Two hundred years. I cannot even imagine the weight of what this means to them.
We walk for what feels like hours, the tunnels twisting and turning, taking us deeper and deeper beneath the citadel. With each step, I anticipate hearing the thunder of guards behind us. But there is nothing. Just silence.
As we round another corner, however, Pen holds up a hand, signalling for us to stop. He tilts his head, listening intently. “Do you hear that?” he whispers.
I strain my ears, trying to pick out any sound over the pounding of my own heart. At first, there’s nothing. But then, faint and distant, I hear it. The sound I dreaded...
“Alana Leafborne...” My name drifts on a breeze that whips through the tunnels. “You cannot escape me.”
“He’s coming,” Roan says, his voice tight with tension. “Eldrion knows we’re gone.”
A ripple of fear passes through the group, and I feel it like a physical thing, pressing down on my chest. I want to reach out, to take it away from them again, but I’m so tired. I don’t know if I have the strength.
“What do we do?” Raine asks, moving closer to Pen.
Roan and Briony exchange a glance. “We keep moving,” Briony says finally. “We’re close to the exit. If we can just make it a little farther...”
She doesn’t finish the sentence, but she doesn’t need to. We all know what’s at stake. If Eldrion catches us now, there will be no mercy. No second chances.
“Alana Leafborne!” Eldrion is closer now, and his voice brings the images back. The ones I was trying to forget.
“GO!” I yell for Briony and Roan to keep running. “Don’t stop. I’ll catch up. It’s me he wants, and I’m the only one with magic.”
“You won’t find the way,” Briony yells.
“They all exit somewhere, right?”
Briony hesitates, then nods.
“Then I’ll find you. Now, go!”