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But if they’d been left behind, we could help them now.
Rush and Kas kept up with me as I took the stairs down into the dungeons two and three at a time, my pale blue skirts flying as I ran through the halls to check the cells. Cell door after cell door was still locked up tight with their prisoners inside, and hope began to rise in my chest that we might finally free Grand-mère.
But a scream of rage tore from my throat as we rounded the corner and found the door of her cell standing wide open.
Empty.
“Maybe she escaped,” Kas whispered, hesitating to reach an arm out to comfort me.
“Her bindings would be there,” I snapped, gesturing to the bare floor. I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up. Merden needed her for something - she would never leave her behind on accident.
That meant Grand-mère was out there in the caravan somewhere, trapped in her iron corset and braces. She wouldn’t even be able to fight back if a gobbelin attacked her. Her magic was as bound as her hands.
In the deepest part of my heart, I feared I would never see Grand-mère again, unless it was through the mist.
“The slaves,” Rush hissed, yanking me away from the empty cell and my morbid thoughts.
In the next part of the dungeon, there was a mass of guards herding dozens of hooded figures up the back stairs. Several of the guards even carried limp bodies thrown over their shoulders - the greedy nobles were even taking the unconscious slaves.
Fear was palpable in the air, and the whimpers and cries of the blood slaves brought my rage from simmering on the surface to boiling over.
Kas didn’t even pause to see what he was up against, barreling into the guards and yanking the slaves from their arms one by one, fighting viciously as he went. I felt the pulse of Rush’s glamor magic as he made himself invisible and charged up the stairs to help my thief, but I kept going straight.
Hidden behind the group of guards and slaves, I’d spotted a flash of familiar white-blond hair beneath a hood being led in the opposite direction as all the other slaves.
My gut told me it was Cade, and I wasn’t going to miss this chance.
There were too many vampires in the way, though. I couldn’t just flash them all with ice magic, risking hitting my men or one of the slaves.
By the time I’d shoved my way through the crowd of guards and slaves, ripping off half my stupid fancy skirt in the process, I’d lost Cade.
It was like a maze down in the dungeons, and my stomach turned as I tried not to focus on how much this space had grown since I’d lived here as a child.
Merden was making a career out of torturing her own people
The hallway ahead was empty, but it hadn’t been a few seconds ago.
Spreading my senses like I’d practiced often enough in the labyrinth, I hurried through the twisting halls and empty cells, looking everywhere for Cade. Finally, I caught the edge of a footstep.
Rounding the next corner, I found an exit to the side gardens still open a few inches, as though whoever had used it was in too much of a hurry to latch it properly. I flew through the opening, and ahead of me, running into the night, was a trio of guards.
One of them led Cade, and my heart beat with joy when I realized another had Jax. The third guard was apparently watching for danger, and I grinned wickedly into the night.
Danger was coming for him - this was the moment I’d been waiting for.
Pulling up the ice magic spell I’d learned in the labyrinth, I formed a thick dagger of ice in my palm and launched it at the solo guard.
It hit him square in the chest, and he toppled down into the muddy, trampled snow with a groan.
The other two guards gave shouts of surprise as they pushed Cade and Jax between them, rotating around the slaves as they peered into the dark gardens to find the threat.
Running on silent feet, I leaped into the air and landed right on one’s chest, knocking him easily to the ground. I tore out his throat with one slash of my fangs before hissing up at the other one.
He had jabbed my side with a short sword. I was bleeding and even more pissed off.
Cade crumpled to the ground before me as the guard let go of him, and Jax was cowering in a ball in the snow. Neither of them looked like they’d been walking much on their own - confusion and fear twisted across both of their faces.
Snarling, I leaped up and went for the second guard, my hands around his throat as I kicked the sword from his meaty hand. Grabbing a knife from my belt, I stabbed it straight down into his temple, and he dropped like a rock, ripping at the rest of my skirts as we fell together.
