Page 9 of Unleashed

Wrapping her hands around the blood-slicked bars, she locked her elbows and pulled on her hips. Fear and exertion combined to build dangerous pressure in her chest.

Come on!

Something heavy brushed against her leg.

It seemed to be the motivation her body had needed; her lower half finally slid free, and Nina fell forward, hitting the floor hard. She lay there for a moment, panting, before she slowly shifted to her knees and turned toward the cell to sweep her gaze over the gruesome scene within.

The shrieker was dead. Its blood was smeared across the floor and glistened in splatters on the rockfur’s hide. That could’ve beenher. If the shrieker hadn’t fallen with her to distract the rockfur, it would’ve been Nina’s lifeless body in that cell, intestines spilled amidst the bones and filth as the rockfur gorged itself.

Rockfur don’t eat meat.

That realization was like a slap to the face. Nina fell onto her rear and hurriedly backpedaled on her hands and feet, desperate to put as much space between herself and the monstrous beast as possible. Her back struck something solid. Stone scraped against stone as the heavy object behind her teetered.

A shrieker released a piercing call to her right. Nina instinctively jerked away, slamming into the off-balance object again, this time near its base, as she swung her gaze toward the sound. Another cage, this one holding a large, pale-scaled shrieker that was clawing at the bars.

The object she’d bumped into toppled over her, striking her between the shoulder blades. She winced as several small, heavy items fell into her lap from atop the cylinder before it rolled off her shoulder and crashed on the floor to her right. With ice in her blood and fire in her gut, she looked down.

Three misshapen stones lay in her lap, their edges smooth and rounded though none were exactly circular. She scooped them up and rubbed her thumb over one, inadvertently smearing blood from the cuts on her palms over the surface. The dark brown stones were run through with tiny fissures, like the rings inside trees, through which warm red light glowed.

They looked like…

No, that couldn’t be right.

Are these heartstones?

New sounds broke over the clamor of the rockfur and shrieker — metal scraping against stone and the hum of unseen, ancient machinery. Nina looked up.

It was her first glimpse of the entire chamber. The smooth floor outside the cells was embedded with stones in spiraling mosaic patterns, and the walls were a mixture of expert stonework and natural surfaces, not unlike the bathhouse in Bahmet. Three large cages were arranged around the central pedestal she’d knocked over — the rockfur straight ahead, the shrieker to the right, and another beast, a powerfully built predator with sharp quills protruding from its head, neck, and shoulders, to the left. The area was illuminated by light stones set into alcoves on the walls.

Her heart stopped; the scraping sound was that of the bars of all three cages sinking into the floor.

Nina’s hands tightened around the stones as she whipped her gaze around, searching for an exit and finding nothing. She was as trapped as these beasts had been.

My dagger!

The thoughts of all three beasts assailed her. Hunger, rage, pain…Stones?

She shifted her gaze past the rockfur to see her dagger amidst the bones on the floor of its cell. Her bag was just outside those bars; the knife inside it was smaller, but it was potentially within reach, and a small blade was better than none.

As though it can protect me from three ferocious beasts.

But shehadto try. She wouldn’t give up without a fight.

Nina leaned forward. Something big struck her from the side, sending the heartstones skittering across the floor and knocking her onto her back. She cried out and squeezed her eyes shut against the impact.

A heavy weight settled atop her as two huge paws forced her shoulders to the floor. Nina opened her eyes to find the quilled beast hunched over her. It released a low growl and dipped its head, bared teeth inches from her face. Its nostrils flared with its heavy breaths.

“Stop,” she said, voice wobbling. Tears filled her eyes and fell down the sides of her face, blinding her. Her entire being shook with fear.

The creature opened its mouth and let loose a deafening roar. Its claws dug into her shoulders, piercing her skin; the pain afforded her a flash of clarity.

“I saidstop!” she yelled, blasting the command outward in a psychic wave.

Her mind slammed into the beast’s, pushing past the powerful instincts to brush against an intelligent mind beneath. Its thoughts pulsed rapidly through her awareness for an instant.

—kill the Creator take the stone take my freedom find my people—

The quilled beast flinched backward and snapped its mouth shut, its amber eyes meeting hers. Something softened infinitesimally in the beast’s gaze.

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