Page 78 of The Wolf

Without waiting for Scarlet’s admission or approval, Pru took the trigger out of her hand and pressed the button. Scarlet stared at the group around her, aghast.

No one was supposed to get hurt.

She couldn’t let Brine die. Not least because he wasn’t working with her stepmother. Regardless of what he was doing, he wasn’t part of this. She had to save him. If that meant saving her stepmother, too, then—

“Go without me,” she said, bolting toward Brine.

“Scarlet, come back!” Pru cried after her, but it was too late.

She had mere seconds before the first charge was set to blow the explosives. Twenty seconds, tops, to get out of the mines. Could she make it?

She’d have to.

When she turned the corner and spied Brine in conversation with Lady Arwen and Bright, Scarlet’s vision tunneled until all she could see were the eyes of her husband.

“Out!” she yelled, waving her hands above her head, desperate for them to understand the gravity of the situation. “This place is set to blow! Get out!”

Brine’s eyes narrowed at her. “Scarlet, what—?”

“Get out!” she screamed, grabbing his arm and dragging him back with her. She could only hope that his uncle and her stepmother were following close behind.

That was when the first explosion went off. A deep rumble shook the ground, vibrating up Scarlet’s legs and sending her teeth chattering in her skull. She couldn’t hear anything but ringing. Salt filled her nose, pulverized rock.

The second charge went off. The third.

They were going to die.

Above them, increasingly larger quantities of rubble pounded down on top of them. If they didn’t get out soon, they would be buried alive.

Just as Scarlet thought daggers were piercing her lungs, she saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and then tripped over her feet in her desperation for fresh air and freedom. Brine’s strong arms wrapped around her and carried her the rest of the way.

Several minutes passed before Scarlet became truly cognizant of what was going on. She was lying on the grass outside the mine, Brine collapsed beside her with his hand on her forehead. All around them was chaos. The entrance to the cave had collapsed. The entire system seemed as if it had sunk deep into the ground.

Scarlet’s vision was red, but she sat up and darted her head to and fro, looking for her friends. Mourne and Gus were nowhere to be seen. But Pru and Jaq…

Several wolves had them in their grasp, their claws digging into her friends’ arms until they bled. Scarlet opened her mouth, a moment away from screaming for them. But Pru shook her head. So did Jaq.

Scarlet’s blood ran cold. Her friends being caught was not something she had planned. In truth, she hadn’t wanted to think about them failing.

Now they were doomed.

Beside her, Brine was asking if she was okay, for her to lie back down. Scarlet knew what she had to do. Her friends would die for this, and not swiftly or painlessly. Though she was shaking, Scarlet got to her feet and fled to the manor before anyone could stop her. When she got to her workroom an hour later, she hauled out drawers and boxes and tossed their contents to the floor, knowing what she was looking for. She had only been working on it a few weeks ago, after all.

And then she saw it. The sleeping, numbing poison that she had only just perfected. It would numb the pain of anyone who inhaled it quickly. It would send them into a euphoric state before they fell asleep.

Her friends would feel nothing of their deaths.

When Scarlet rushed back outside, her friends had been dragged to a central plinth in the main courtyard in front of the manor. All around her was pandemonium, shouts and jeers and yells for the two traitors who had attempted to destroy them all.

Scarlet’s stepmother took her hand when she saw her, a look of genuine affection and appreciation on her face for once. “I know it took courage to save us at the expense of your friends,” she said, stroking Scarlet’s face fondly, “but it appears I’ve trained you better than I ever thought. You saved us, so you get the first blow. I’m sure it will be satisfying, given how your friends betrayed you.”

Scarlet’s stomach bottomed out. If it wasn’t for the fact her friends were relying on her, she would have vomited all over the stones in denial. But she shook some composure into herself and ignored Brine when he reached over for her as she walked onto the plinth with heavy steps.

She couldn’t do this.

When she came face-to-face with Pru, glorious, beautiful Pru, who had been friends with Scarlet from the very first day that she’d been brought here, Scarlet wavered.

“Do it,” her friend whispered, her eyes glistening with tears but unafraid. Beside her, Jaq held a similar expression on his face. Resolute. Right from the very start they had known what they were getting into when they agreed to help her—no,demandedto help her.

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