Chapter 1 A Tempest of Wrath
Ryker
I cleaned the rest of the gruel from the key I’d discovered hidden within my food and twisted it in my hand. It was too dark to see the small, metal structure but my fingers traced its jagged edges.
Where did it come from? Who put it in my food? Is this a sick game the duke is playing?
That final question caused me to hesitate most. I wouldn’t put it past that asshole to create a new, twisted mind game just to fuck with me.
But even though this probably was a twisted game, I bent over to run my fingers along the chains binding my ankles until I located the keyhole. Since I couldn’t see anything in the pitch-black cell, it took some maneuvering, but I finally got the key in the opening.
It fit perfectly, but that didn’t mean it would turn. Holding my breath, and fully expecting the key to have been magicked into sending a bone breaking jolt of something through me, I twisted it.
The ensuing click was covered by the weeping man in a cell further down the row from me. For the first time, I was glad he’d been crying for hours.
While only Tucker, Callan, and the other two men remained in the dungeon with me, I still worried the opening lock would somehow travel beyond these walls.
But then, if this was another game of Veni’s, the man I no longer considered my father, I was certain the sound had already reached him somehow.
If this was a trick, I’d make him regret giving me the chance to free myself in any way. And Veni knew that.
He wasn’t stupid, no matter how badly he wanted to fuck with me, he wouldn’t take the chance of me escaping. So, what the hell is going on here?
Not knowing the answer to that question wouldn’t stop me. I pulled the key free of the lock and stuck it between my teeth before removing the manacles from my ankles. Careful not to make any sound, I set them on the floor.
I lifted my head to search the shadows for any hint of something other than rodents scurrying through the dungeon, but the darkness remained complete. Which meant, the door at the end of the hall was still shut.
Despite those things, I expected someone to materialize on the other side of those bars, holding a torch, and laughing at me for thinking I could escape this place. Only the scratch of the rat’s claws against stone, sobbing, and my steady breaths sounded. No light appeared.
I shifted my attention back to my bonds. Trying to get the chains off my wrist proved more difficult as maneuvering the key into the hole became a frustrating endeavor.
Biting on my lower lip, I restrained a slew of curses when the key slipped from my fingers and clattered against the floor. I held my breath as I waited to see if it would draw any attention, it didn’t. If someone heard it, they attributed it to my natural movements or something else.
Trying not to make a sound, I rose from my thin cot, and got onto my hands and knees. The chill of the rock seeped through my thin clothing as my fingers skimmed the stone for the key before curling around the metal object.
I resettled on my cot and returned to work. A steady stream of swears ran through my head while I struggled to maneuver the key into the hole. The fucking thing was so damn close and then it slid out again.
Resisting the urge to throw the key, I took a deep breath and resolved to fit it into the hole. None of the duke’s men had returned yet, but they would soon. I had to get these shackles off, or I’d lose this opportunity to escape.
Finally, I managed to twist my hands in such a way that bones cracked and muscles strained as pain flared through my abused wrists, but I slid the key in. I used my teeth to turn it and smiled at the ensuing click.
When I quietly pulled the chains free, I didn’t experience the rush of my powers returning to me like I’d expected…
which meant more than these manacles was keeping them bound.
The suppression of this place most likely went beyond the cell too; this whole dungeon was probably designed to keep us suppressed.
I didn’t have my powers back, but I still held the key. The man’s crying had finally stopped by the time I pulled the key from the lock in the chains.
Without the manacles to clink with my every move, I silently crossed my cage to the front of the cell. Feeling over the bars, it took a little time to locate the keyhole, but my heart hammered as my fingers slid over the small shape.
Stretching my arm outside my cell, I slid the key over the panel until I located the hole again. The key slid easily in but this time, when I turned it, the door didn’t open.
Without thinking, I smashed my hands against the bars before restraining myself. Their metal, rattling, clanging sound reverberated through the dungeon as I fisted my hands and berated myself for being an idiot.
Bashing the bars would only make things worse and might draw someone into the dungeon. That was the last thing I needed.
Stay calm and think this through.
A rush of power hadn’t run through me after removing my chains, but that didn’t mean I was shit out of luck. Since my love for Ellery had deepened, lightning resided within me now and I didn’t have to pull it from the air or earth anymore to unleash it.
Maybe, if I concentrated, I could pull that power forth. I focused on bringing it out from within me like I did when I killed Ivan.
With my eyes closed, I searched deep inside me, but instead of feeling a rush of energy, I experienced the empty hollowness of nothing.
“Fuck,” I bit out through my clenched teeth.
“What is it?” Tucker asked from the next cell.
I didn’t dare tell him what was happening. I couldn’t get his hopes up if I failed to break free.
“This place is a nightmare,” I said.
“I can’t argue with that.”
With care, I shuffled back to my cot and rested my hands on it. I slid them over the lumpy surface until I discovered my abandoned tray of food, lifted it, and sat again.
I placed the tray on my lap and my fingers brushed over the remaining food until I found the gruel. I didn’t bother with the spoon as I plunged my hand into the bowl.
The cool, lumpy mess surged up around my hand and spilled over onto my tray as my fingers brushed something hard. The object scraped the bottom of the bowl when I gripped it.
Smiling grimly, I pulled the small metal piece free and held it before me. Even though I couldn’t see it, I had no doubt it was a second key.
Ellery
Luna opened a portal that emerged in the forest outside the Earl of Oakley’s castle. Since she’d once worked and lived here, she knew the property best.
We stood behind the castle, where the back of the fortress rose high above the land sloping down around it. Ryker, Callan, and I emerged on this backside after escaping the earl’s catastrophic ball… a ball my mother didn’t survive.
I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat at the reminder. Now was not the time to lose myself to sorrow; we had far too much to do for tears to fall.
During our escape, we’d used an unknown section of tunnels that servants created in preparation for the rebellion they’d planned during the earl’s ball. We wouldn’t take that to get back into castle.
By now, the earl’s men had probably discovered the tunnel and closed it off. Even if they hadn’t, we’d have to navigate all the way through the castle to get to the earl’s rooms.
There was no way we wouldn’t be seen if we did that. While we only had three gargoyles with us, they couldn’t move easily through the castle’s halls.
The presence of guards wasn’t as thick outside the castle as I’d anticipated, probably because the duke had commandeered many of them once he claimed the throne for himself. He wasn’t legally the king of Tempest, but he would never let that throne go while he lived.
However, I was sure that after the rebellion and Ivan’s death at Ryker’s hands, the earl still had a fair number of guards inside to protect him. Which meant many of them would have to be destroyed too.
I ignored the small twinge of guilt tugging at my conscience. These men and women had decided their fate when they sided with the aristocrats over the rest of the amsirah. They guarded the monsters who’d trapped us all here, and they’d suffer the consequences.
“Do you see those two windows, right there, with the lights on?” Luna pointed to two windows on the top floor of the castle. Behind the glass, the flicker of lanterns illuminated the space within. “That’s the earl’s room. That whole floor is his, but that’s his bed… bedroom.”
Luna’s voice quivered and her words broke when she uttered the word bedroom. She could be abrasive, callous, and sometimes just rude, but my heart ached for her.
I didn’t want to imagine what she’d endured at the hands of the earl, but I knew what he’d done to her. I’d meet the same fate if one of these aristocrats, and especially the duke, got their hands on me.
My fingers itched to reach out to her and offer some comfort, but I closed them and my nails dug into my palm. Even if I meant it to be a show of support, Luna might perceive it as a sign of sympathy, and that would only irritate her.
“You said he also has sons?” Indon asked.
“Two,” Luna said.
“Where are their rooms?”
“On the floor beneath the earl’s. Their windows are dark already.”
“That could be because they’re not there,” I said.
“We don’t have any way of knowing that until we get inside,” Indon remarked.
I studied the guards patrolling the parapets. “Even if his sons are home, if we move against the castle, the guards will see us and raise the alarm. Since the earl is our main target, we should go for him first.”
“The moons haven’t risen yet,” Indon said. “If we wait until they do, we’ll be more noticeable to the guards. Now, they might not see us at all, or they could mistake us for something else.”
“I don’t think you’ve seen yourself in a mirror lately,” Scarlet scoffed. “No one is mistaking you for anything else.”
My lips twitched toward a smile before it fell away. We had planned to make our move while the moons were still low enough in the sky to not illuminate much.
Our plan was to take out the aristocrats first, before going for the palace and the duke, as there were more of them to get through and they weren’t as heavily guarded.
We wanted to keep the gargoyles a secret for as long as possible, but we’d all split up, and it would be impossible for no one to be spotted before we made it to the duke.
What wouldn’t be impossible was to eradicate the witnesses or at least most of them.
While the main plan was to eliminate the aristocrats and not worry about taking any hostages, it would be good if we could try to keep at least one alive who could open a portal out of Tempest. Our main goal was annihilation of our oppressors though and everyone, in all the groups, knew that.
“From what I’ve seen, there aren’t a lot of guards on the parapets,” Indon said. “We could kill them before entering the castle.”
“You think that the six of us could kill all of them?” Scarlet asked. “If Ellery uses her lightning, or if any of us use our abilities, it will draw their attention.”
“No,” Indon said. “I think just the three of us can.”
I looked over the gargoyles as they stood half in shadow and mostly obscured beneath the trees. They were so still that they could have almost been statues once more.
With their grotesque faces, two-inch-long fangs on the top and bottom and four-inch-long claws, they were as ugly as they were frightening. They had a ten-foot wingspan and towered over all amsirah, including Ianto, who was the tallest man I’d ever seen.
Their bluish gray color blended in with the night so there was a good chance that, without the moons illuminating them, they could fly low to the ground and stay hidden in the shadows. Once they got closer to the castle, they’d blend in with the large rocks of its foundation and its walls.
It could be done, but… “Is it worth the risk?” I inquired.