Page 90 of Of Nine So Bold

“Are these fuckers insane?” Clay cried, backing up.

Retreating as well, Lars scoffed. “I’m guessing the answer to that is ‘yes.’”

“Now what, Dex?” Niko called.

I looked around fast, searching for a new way out of here—never mind that the Aneirans clearly intended to collapse this entire place on top of our heads, piece by piece.

Fuck, there was nothing. No escape except?—

In a cascade, the tunnel ahead started to fall like an upside-down wave rushing at us.

“Demon!” Gwyneira cried.

I grabbed the princess and ran for the only option I could see.

The cage.

Rocks rained down behind us. Guards cried out, unable to reach the gate before the collapse took them. The giants tumbled through the opening on the heels of my friends, but a few couldn’t move fast enough.

The giants at the rear screamed as the rocks buried them. I could only watch in horror, barely breathing for fear the collapse would take us too.

Symbols flared on the bars, same as they had on the support beams in the mine tunnels. The rumbling stopped.

Shuddering, I stared at the wall of stones that now filled the tunnel beyond the metal bars. Godsdamnthese Aneiran sadists. They’d built the whole mine as a series of endless boxes, any one of which they could send crumbling down.

But now, there were no tunnels left.

In my arms, Gwyneira trembled, her breaths coming quick and shallow. “Is there another way out of here?” she whispered.

I couldn’t bring myself to respond, not when I had a sinking suspicion of what the answer would be.

Gods, where were the humans we’d left on the surface?

Even as I had the thought, I knew the likely answer. Dead.I may not have trusted Valeria and her Aneiran farmers much, but I doubted they would have betrayed usthisbadly.

They must have fallen to the forces trying to kill us, so help probably wasn’t coming from that direction.

Holding Gwyneira close, I scanned the cavern, assessing whatever options remained. My friends were alive. Most of the giants had made it into the cage. The Aneiran guards were gone, crushed by the collapse.

Nothing in me could be sad about the last part, considering they’d wanted to kill us.

“What thefuck?” Clay snarled as he climbed to his feet. Swiping dust from his clothes, he glared around the cavern.

“Ozias,” I called, “are you picking up on any other exits?”

My friend shoved upright. His lips peeled back over his teeth like he was barely restraining a growl. “No.”

Dammit, this made no sense. Why trap us where they couldn’t reach us?

Unless this was their endgame. A final measure that, if they could not contain a rebellion or escape attempt, meant they could send the earth itself to entomb their prisoners.

After all, every giant here was bound away from their magic, and the ground at surface level was laced with a layer of silver and spells so thick, even witches couldn’t penetrate it. Down here, the suppressive effect was reduced, at least—likely because the Aneirans still wanted to force the Erenlians to use their power when the guards chose. But the magic still served as an impenetrable barricade. Even if the giantshadoverthrown the guards, they couldn’t dig through it. The ground was unstableas fuck. Shovels and pickaxes would likely cause a cave-in, if another spell didn’t just crush them before they could try.

Gods, it was sadistic and ingenious as fuck.

And if we didn’t come up with an escape plan, it’d also get us killed.

Grim resolve settled over me. Us, perhaps. But not Gwyneira. If all else failed, we would dig as close to the surface as we could and then she, Casimir, and Ruhl could shift. The ground was poisoned by magic, and gods knew it’d probably hurt the three of them like hell. But I trusted that the vampire king and his wolf would do everything in their power to protect her while they passed through the tiny cracks in the rock and soil to reach the surface.

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