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Chapter Forty-Nine
Aika
My mind dances from one thought to the next as the guards drag me down the winding stone steps to the dungeons.
What have I done?
It felt like the right thing to do at the moment. Anything else would have put me at risk of facing Damian or Mother and the brutal wrath she would have undoubtedly brought down on me.
But now…
Every limping step sends my heartbeat racing. Every breath sounds loudly in my ears. Panic is crawling its way up from inside of me and threatening to do me in.
My eyes dart from one guard to the next, wondering how much time it would take to incapacitate them all. I count down the seconds it will take to reach the dungeon floor and start to control my breathing. I need to focus and have a clear plan of attack if I’m going to make this work.
When we reach the bottom step and round the corner just in front of the well-worn entrance of the dungeon, I fight back. It’s unexpected, considering that I demanded to be arrested.
So, it takes them a moment to realize what’s happening.
The guard to my left goes to his knees in the narrow hallway when I turn on him and quickly strike his chin with the heel of my palm as hard as I can. Another guard approaches from behind, and I throw my elbow into his neck.
He falls back toward the wall, wheezing as the next one makes his move.
This guy hunches down low as if he’s going to tackle me to the ground. When he comes running at me, I throw my cuffs behind his head, using his own momentum against him when I ram his neck toward my knee.
The sound of his nose breaking echoes in the hall, and I ignore the stabbing pain and crunching of glass at my feet.
For a moment, I think I can do this, I’ve taken half of them out easily, I can take the rest out, too. And where I go from there... I’ll figure it out later. Right now, all I know is that I need to get out of this dungeon.
I raise my fists, ready to attack the next guard, when two arms wrap around me in a bruising hold. I thrash my head backward, but all I’m hitting is his chest. The grip around me tightens, as if I’m being strangled by a coiled, hungry snake, but I keep fighting.
My feet kick out toward one of the others approaching, but it’s useless. He stays far enough out of reach that I can’t make contact.
Tosser.
When my line of vision starts to blur, I know I’ve been bested. The dread I felt before only triples.
Finally, it’s Lawrence’s fuzzy face I see in front of me. He’s boldly standing close, as if he’s daring me to hit him. My foot twitches, every instinct telling me he’s just as much of a threat as the others, but I don’t lash out.
Lawrence doesn’t order the guard to stand down or ease up. He just waves toward the large metal door ahead.
My body seizes on the way through. This can’t be it. A part of me wants to keep fighting, to use whatever I have in me to get out of here, but then I hear Remy’s voice, less taunting than it was in real life.
You have to know when to fold, Gemma.
Every ounce of me wants to rebel at the mere notion of giving up, but my body has other plans. I take a wheezing breath as the echo of his words deflates whatever fight was left in me.
Everything goes black, and I faintly register the squeal of rusty hinges. The next thing I know, I’m being thrown into a cell. The snake uncoils around my lungs just before I land hard on the ground.
I can’t stop coughing and wheezing long enough to hear what Lawrence is telling the guard.
All I can see is the metal key twisting in the lock, sealing my fate.
* * *
It’s scarcely beenan hour since the guards left, but it feels as if it’s been much longer.
The small mattress in the corner is littered with pests, and my skin is already itching with their bites. Between that and the damp chill wafting in from the small, barred window, it would have been nice if my clothes had stayed intact.
