Now that the idea had taken hold, it was growing in urgency. I’d seen the way the forest creatures swooped down on the guards invading their woods… and I’d witnessed the dog turning its back on me.
The forest was making its message clear; it wouldn’t aid us. I didn’t know if that meant it would attack us too, but it certainly wouldn’t help us. It would kill anyone who tried to set it on fire again, and that was it… unless I carried out its wishes.
And we couldn’t have the woods turning on us. We needed the shelter the forest provided, and wouldn’t survive its creatures coming afterus. It hadn’t done so yet, and because of that, I suspected it wouldn’t, but I couldn’t risk it.
“I have to go,” I whispered.
I pulled away from Scarlet and hugged her before slipping into the shadows. I didn’t look back as I ran away from the newly forming encampment.
I stopped beside Xanthus, who stared at me for a moment. “I’m going to get him back,” I vowed.
The horse’s soulful brown eyes studied me before he stepped away. My heart ached for him, but nothing would ease his sorrow until Ryker returned and he could be free of this place.
I ran up the hill and past the guards who stood in the shadows without any light to illuminate their surroundings. Light would reveal exactly where they were while hiding anything coming at them.
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
Ryker
I eventually retreatedto the small cot against the wall in my cell. With caution, I shuffled through the darkness until my leg connected with the bed barely large enough to fit me.
When they first put me in here, I’d spotted the bucket against the back wall for piss and shit, but I’d wait until the bitter end before using it. I’d had enough of that degradation in the ophidians’ dungeon.
Despite the shitty accommodations, it was nicer here than my cell in Doomed Valley. However, I couldn’t deny my entire being was far more wired here than it ever was there.
I’d wielded lightning since I was a child, but I felt electrified in a way I never had before… and it was from the terror thrumming through me. That terror had nothing to do with my current surroundings and everything to do withEllery.
I’d vowed to protect her, and now she was out there without me while Veni was hunting her. She was the most powerful being in the realm and could easily strike the duke down, but cockroaches were never that easy to kill.
FUCK!
I hated being trapped here, helpless and unaware of what was happening beyond these bars. I gritted my teeth against the impulse to bellow out my frustration and charge at the bars, but neither action would do anything for me. If someone heard me, they’d gladly report it to the duke.
I bent my head as I flexed my hands. The movement caused the healing skin over my missing finger to flex and pull. I welcomed the pain, though it did little to ease the tension coiled within me.
I brushed across the gap of my missing finger. The bleeding had stopped, and new skin had already formed.
I missed the appendage and the ring I’d forged to bind me to Ellery, but while both were gone,sheremained a part of me. I couldn’t sense her anymore, either because of the chains or from being buried beneath tons of stone and dirt.
Her lightning still moved within me. It was a bright, powerful presence that offered strength and a little comfort in this forsaken place. I dug within myself to feel more in the hope she’d sense me pulling, even if I couldn’t unleash it.
By now, she had to know what had happened. I hoped the duke’s arrival wasn’t what sprung it on her.
I shifted as anger and apprehension boiled to the surface once more. Cryton had been a sulky bitch after he lost his dagger, but he would have gone to her.
The poltergeists liked Ellery; they knew our capture would put her and the others at risk. If anything, he would have told Farley, and Farley would have made sure to tell her.
When the door creaked open down the hall and a small influx of light pierced the gloom, I stiffened as I braced myself for the duke’s return… possibly with Ellery. But there was no way I could prepare myself for what he’d do if he caught her.
I had no doubt he’d rape her right in front of me, and if that happened, I’d go insane with rage. The idea of watching him doing such a thing to her, and not being able to do anything, already had me teetering on the edge of madness.
She’s too strong for him to catch her. Now that she’s free to wield her powers, he won’t be able to take her.
I told myself this, but I hadn’t seen my attack coming either. If she didn’t have any warning, it didn’t matter how strong she was, she might not fend them all off.
FUCK!
Take it easy. You don’t know what’s happening yet.
