AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Isla let out a heavy breath. “I’m very finished. Let’s go.”
* * *
The opening of the stone-carved path may as well have been the widened maw of a beast. Isla stood frozen at the cusp, her heart in her throat as she stared down into its dimness. The staff member, Jace, she’d learned, continued for a few steps before he realized she wasn’t following.
He turned, his eyes questioning. “Your Majesty?”
Isla swallowed.
She was a warrior. She’d faced death countless times and survived, and had beaten beasts bigger than these immovable tunnel walls. But tight spaces, darkness, and the unknown—maybe she still hadn’t quite recovered from what had happened beneath the arena. It felt like a boulder pressed down onto her chest, and for a few breaths, she struggled to sip down air.
She should’ve taken a knife. Jace could’ve easily been lying. He could’ve been working for the witch—it wasn’t like it hadn’t happened before. She’d never met him prior, and how easy would it have been to snag a staff uniform and play the part to lure her into a trap?
Isla clenched and unclenched her fists, scanning him quickly for any jewelry or bobbles that could’ve been ridden with an enchantment. Nothing.
“Are you down here?”She threw the words out, battling through muck and that pounding in her skull. And perhaps it had been in her head, but she swore she felt a tug. A pull down the stairs.
Isla breathed, closing her eyes for a moment and digging deep. She acknowledged her fear, embraced it, and peered down into the darkness again.
Down they went.
Isla wouldn’t let Jace at her back as they descended the stairs to old staffing quarters beneath the Western Hall. The underground network must’ve also connected to the kitchens that catered to the balls and galas because it smelled divine. Autumn spices and the roast of a harvest.
When they came upon an old door that seemed to be crafted of worn iron, Isla paused and subtly stepped to the side, inviting for Jace to open it while the risk of him pushing her in and trapping her here lingered in the back of her mind. The heavy entrance opened with a groan, and Isla leaned forward to peek inside, her nose twitching at the pungent stench of antiseptic. It wasn’t a grand space, reminding her more of a safe room than living quarters, but she barely took in what lay inside. All she could focus on was a bare, muscular back and its familiar tattoos. Kai was hunched, head hung, until he met her gaze in the smeared mirror in front of him before turning roughly.
Isla hadn’t realized she was moving until she stumbled, eyes blinking wide at the blood-soaked bandages over his chest.
Though his features were tight with pain, a smile slid across his mouth as his eyes drew over her body. “Wow.”
Isla’s incredulous gaze snapped between his eyes and his wound. Once. Twice.
“What the hell happened?” She rushed forward just as Kai gripped the vanity to support himself and reached across his chest. Isla immediately went to work on the poorly dressed injury, delicately pulling back the bandages to find the cuts still gaping, still leaking blood, though slowly. “How long ago did you get this?”
Kai cleared his throat, his nose twitching in pain as he shifted his shoulder. “A few hours ago.”
“A fewhours?”
A barrage of questions ran through her head, but they could wait. He wasn’t healing properly.
“Thank you, Jace,” Kai said as a form of dismissal.
But Isla called, “Wait!” She kept one hand braced against Kai as she counted off her fingers. “I need thread, a needle, a candle, some matches, boiling water, and the strongest alcohol you can find. Please be discreet.”
Jace bowed dutifully. “Yes, Your Majesty.”
When he left, closing the door behind him, Isla felt her muscles tighten. This room was so small and smelled so much of blood. Just as the tunnels had when she beheld Renoir’s dead body.
Breathe.
She felt the brush of a hand on her hip, and she turned to meet Kai’s pained eyes full of concern and comfortfor her. Likeshewas the one with holes in her chest.
Isla willed her fingers to be steady as she peeled the bandages away. “What. The hell. Happened?”
“I—fuck.” Kai let out a ragged breath as she exposed the wounds and apologized, pressing lightly on the unmarred skin around them. Three deep slashes from his collarbones to his mid-torso.
From claws.
“I found a tunnel,” he confessed, and Isla’s fingers froze. She lifted her gaze again, harsh and imploring. “And there were bak in that tunnel. I killed all three, but one landed a good blow on me. I spent too long in my shift, used too much energy. My wolf is knocked out. Any healing, too.”
