My lightning could stop them from escaping. It was faster than anything else and just as lethal as the gargoyles, but if I focused on the ones at the end, the combatants closest to us would have a chance to attack before we flooded the cave with our fighters.
We could take them out, but I didn’t want anyone on our side getting hurt or killed.
This is a war, Ellery. Amsirah are going to die, and some of them will be yours. You can’t let that stop you from making a move.
Taking a deep breath, I resigned myself to the fact that a lot of blood would stain my hands and soul after this night.
I gestured for Ianto and Luna to follow me back a few feet. We clustered together with those who could get closest to us.
“I’ll take out the guards at the end of the dungeon before they can run. You’ll have to focus on the others,” I told them.
“What if there’s more down there that we can’t see?” Luna whispered.
“That’s a chance we’ll have to take,” I said.
She nodded her agreement, as did all the others. Returning to the boulder, I waited for the others to settle around me and draw their weapons.
Fifty cells lined the hall, twenty-five on each side of the passage. Children probably filled all of them, but I saw no sign of the kids.
The possibility this could be a trap and those cells were all empty flitted across my mind again, but we’d come this far and couldn’t turn back now. There was no way the duke could have anticipated our plan… I hoped.
I drew on the lightning inside me, letting it build into a powerful, pulsating thing within me. It was desperate to unleash its vengeance on the enemy at the end of the cave.
When it was nearly too powerful to keep hidden, I rose a little and released my lightning on those gathered at the far end of the tunnel. It erupted from my fingers in separate bolts that sizzled down the tunnel, electrified the air, and pierced the unsuspecting guards.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Ryker
My pull to Ellery grew stronger as we made our way through the passage to the dungeons. This section of passage was larger than some of the others we’d traversed, probably because soldiers moved through here to get in and out of the dungeon.
With every step I took, my heart hammered with excitement and apprehension. She was close, but that didn’t mean I’d get to her in time. There could be countless soldiers between us. She was closer than she’d been in days, yet she’d never seemed further.
Fuck. How did she get here?
But then I answered my own question. Ellery had a way of pulling off the impossible.
“Slow down,” Samael muttered.
I couldn’t slow down with Ellery ahead. Spurred on by that knowledge, I ignored Samael’s warning as I rushed down the descending tunnel while footsteps sounded from ahead.
Those steps rebounded off the walls, along with their frantic, labored breathing. I couldn’t tell how many were coming, but they’d be here soon.
As they neared, I planted my feet and waited to see who rounded the corner. Behind me, the others stopped too.
After a few more seconds, two guards emerged from around a curve in the passage. Their nostrils flared as they sprinted heedlessly toward us.
They were so frantic that they didn’t notice me until they were only a few feet away. When they spotted me, they skidded to a halt.
One of them raised his sword, but I threw up my hands to unleash my lightning on them. It tore through their chests and left a gaping, smoking hole where their hearts used to be.
Thrown back from the impact, their bodies hit the ground and tumbled a few feet away before coming to a stop near the wall. Sprinting forward, I leapt over their bodies and sprinted down the passage.
If they were fleeing, then Ellery was on the attack, and I had to help her. Behind me, the footsteps of the others faded as I raced through the tunnel. The light at my fingertips and the torches barely illuminated enough of the space for me not to run into a wall.
Keeping my senses honed ahead of me, I managed to avoid hitting anything, and I didn’t hear anyone else approaching. I rounded a bend and abruptly halted before crashing into something that looked like a wall but had to be a door… without a handle.
I fumbled over the cool stones in search of the one to open it. Frustration growing, I had the urge to bash my hands against the stones but restrained myself.
