Page 94 of Clash of Kingdoms

I need your help.

I looked up to see Beast staring at me. We’re all injured?—

I don’t take you to the sssurface until my hatchlingsss are free. Her eyes turned venomous. Vine will be here sssoon to make good on hisss promissse. Thisss mussst happen now.

I looked at the golden bars of the cage, a cage that was three stories tall. I rose to my feet and approached, seeing snakes that were still enormous, but much smaller than her, curled up in the corner, all piled together. One of them had bloody gashes all over their body.

Sssave my hatchlingsss.

I tested the bars, trying to shake them, but they seemed to be anchored in place. The rest of it was solid rocks and earth. “I wish I had more explosives…” I turned to her. “Have you tried to break through these?”

They’re sssolid gold.

“Aurelias.”

I turned back to my brothers, seeing that Cobra was the one trying to speak to me.

“I’ve got you.” He slowly moved his hand into his pocket and pulled out an explosive.

“Are you insane?” Kingsnake asked. “You’ve just been carrying that around like an idiot?—”

“That guy on the roof threw it. It didn’t go off…so it must be faulty.” He lay still again, as if that information had taken all his effort to relay.

I took it from him and walked away before I opened it. I checked the contents and tightened the vials, rebuilding the explosive from scratch in the hope it was just improperly pieced together.

Beast watched me with hard eyes.

“Let’s try this again.” I carried it to the gold pillars in the center, placing the explosive on the left side of the pillar in the hope it would destroy the one to the right of it as well. “I’m not sure if this will work with solid gold, but we’ll see.”

The snakes all poked their heads up to watch, but they stayed back in their corner.

Hide.

The snakes buried their heads underneath their bodies.

We backed away, and I picked up a rock and chucked it at the explosive.

Fire immediately erupted, a powerful detonation that shook the world around us. Once the flames had dissipated, I assessed the damage. None of the pillars had shattered—but they’d bent. The ones in the middle had both bent outward, increasing the space in between. “They should be able to fit.”

Come.

One by one, the snakes slithered through, going straight to their mother. She dipped her head to kiss each one with her tongue and closed her eyes as she held them close to her face. A tear emerged, streaking down her scales.

I didn’t want to interrupt their moment, but we still had to get the fuck out of there. Beast, we need to go.

She pulled away from her hatchlings. Come. She then angled back toward us and allowed us to walk across her head and down her neck, to get situated on her scales before she pulled away from the platform.

A scream pierced the darkness, making the rocks vibrate.

We mussst hurry.

She traveled down then up again, seeming to take a different path from the one we’d taken there. Instead of going straight to the surface, she slithered down a series of paths, and the farther she moved, the quieter it became.

It was the first time I’d felt relief.

She made her way back to the passage that we’d taken here and allowed us to climb off in the rocky opening. Her hatchlings had followed her.

Kingsnake had Cobra’s arm over his shoulder as he escorted him forward.

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