I couldn’t see them, but the clang of the door and the loss of light told me they were gone. The dungeon was so dark I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. A bellow lodged in my chest and rebounded through my head, but I didn’t release it.
Ellery. The word was a whisper of hope and yearning inside my head.
He couldn’t get his hands on her. She couldn’t come to this place of misery and death; the stench of excrement, blood, and despair were things she should never encounter or endure.
And what the duke would do to her…. I bowed my head as I tried not to think about it. Such imaginings would only drive me mad in this place, and I required my sanity now more than ever.
From somewhere in the shadows, claws scratched stone, and a rat squeaked as the rodents emerged from their holes.Fuck.
“Ryker?” Tucker inquired.
“Yeah?”
“How are you holding up?”
“Still sane; how about you?”
“Same.”
“How do we get out of this?” Callan asked.
I strode toward the bars. I hadn’t tested them yet because I refused to give the duke the satisfaction of seeing them blast me onto my ass.
Taking a deep breath, I braced myself for a jolt that would send me flying, but unlike the ophidians’ cell, my fingers curled around the bars and stayed there. While my lightning and other weathers remained repressed by my chains, my strength wasn’t.
Gripping the bars, I ignored the twinge from my missing finger as I planted my feet and put everything I had into pulling the bars apart. But while I yanked and tore at them as I tried to rip them apart, they didn’t budge.
They weren’t ensorcelled to send us flying when we touched them, but a spell was cast over them to make them impenetrable. Gritting my teeth, my muscles strained, and my back bowed as I planted my feet against the bars to try again.
Despite the cool air of the dungeon, sweat beaded my forehead and slid down my back. My arms strained, and the muscles in my neck stood out as I labored to free myself.
I pictured the duke making his way toward Ellery, and a fresh surge of adrenaline swelled through me, but it was impossible. No matter how much I strained, the bars didn’t budge.
Admitting defeat, my feet hit the ground again, and I stepped away from the bars. I fought back the sense of helplessness trying to overwhelm me.
There had to be another way out, and I would find it. I was trapped, but far from defeated.
“Can we get out?” Callan asked.
“No,” I replied.
I continued to grip the bars as one of the other prisoners started sobbing. I didn’t bother telling them that this was only the beginning of our hell.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
Ellery
On the backof one horse, I rode without a saddle as I held the leads of two others and raced them toward the open portal. Time was swiftly running out, I felt the clock ticking toward the end, and it was going faster and faster as the moons rose higher in the sky.
Ryker would never reveal where we were, but they’d taken others with them. It was only a matter of time before one of them broke. I couldn’t imagine what the duke and the others were doing to them.
I plunged into the open portal with the livestock. We thundered through the blackness before emerging on the other side.
Once there, I released one of the horses and pulled back on the reins of the animal I rode, drawing him to a halt. I slid easily off its back and landed on the ground.
“What’s left?” Scarlet asked as she ran forward to take the other horse from me.
“Two cows, some chickens, and Xanthus.” I had no idea how I was going to get Xanthus through the portal. The only one he listened to was Ryker, but I would figure it out. “Ianto was getting the cows, and some of the others were gathering the chickens. I have to return to help them.”
