Page 83 of The Lands Defying
I’m ready.
He starts his descent, gripping my hand to pull me behind him before he lets go when I’m close to his back. My palm hits the damp stone as stale water hits my senses, and I try to get my breathing under control in the tight space.
It’s like it’s getting worse. Like I can feel the dread we are about to enter.
I hear cursing from the others behind me, knowing the larger Elites will feel cramped.
“Rhea, light,” Darius says in front of me, and I raise my other hand, letting a small ball of power form so we have a subtle glow.
Earth and stone surround us as we go further down in the dark, down to Gods knows where. I grip the back of Darius’s armor once more. The feeling of being suffocated creeping in, but it’s not as bad now, letting my will to see if my pack is down here keep the worst at bay.
“We’re here,”Josh whispers behind me.
“I know,”I reply through the link, unable to speak aloud right now.
The scream comes again, and my stomach rolls when I realize it’s female.
Light appears at what seems to be the end of the steps, and I have no idea how deep we have gone down. When we reach the bottom, Darius pauses in the narrow stairway, tilts his head to listen for a moment, and then he opens the door.
I grip my blade, ready for anything as I leave the ball of magic on my hand in case I need it, hoping I can at least do something accurate with it.
But the room is empty as we all shuffle in.
There is evidence that many are here, though. There are tables, food and more bedrolls than the other room. Weapons are in stacks in one corner while another large table holds papers and scrolls recklessly stacked all over it.
Darius and I go over to it, quickly scanning them to see notes and numbers, vials and orders for more ingredients.
Ingredients that are familiar.
Darius and I share a look.
A single door at the back of the room calls all of our attention, and we move slowly as one. No one says a word as we make for the wooden door, briefly glancing at the items in the room again while remaining silent.
Darius grips the handle, looking back at us one more time, making sure we’re ready, before he pulls it open slowly.
My heart beats wildly within my chest as the scent of blood follows with sweat and mildew, and something else I can’t place. I breathe out through my nose and in through my mouth as I put my mask back in place, not wanting to take the scent in.
Darius moves forward and we follow, then pause. We’ve entered a long, narrow room, balls of light hanging from the dark ceiling, casting their glow on the stone rows on either side of the room. Rows that have bars.
I move forward cautiously, Darius at my back as I lift my hand to cast some light inside one of the cells. I clear my throat quietly when I spot the unmoving body within.
Gods.
This is worse than Darius’s father’s basement.
Taking a breath, I look at the female’s belly that’s swollen and bulging, like it was about to burst. Her sides have claw-like marks on them, deep and oozing with blood that is still very much fresh. She doesn’t twitch, her chest still and her head is turned away from us. Her hair matted and cast over her face.
What in the Gods did this to her.
Darius’s chest rumbles angrily as my stomach drops, thinking about the last cage we saw, thinking of what may have happened in my own.
I move to the next one, my hands shaking as I see another female. This time, she is on her back, legs wide open. All that is left between her thighs is a gruesome hole. She also has claw marks on the inside of her thighs, her breasts, and shoulders. Her dead eyes look up to the ceiling, her face blank.
Tears prick my eyes at the sickening scene, my brain taking it all in but then not at all.
“Fuck,” I hear Josh whisper, and see him looking in another cell across from me, his eyes full of pain.
Colten gags while Hudson rubs his back, drawing the younger male into his chest as Taylor’s fists clench at his sides.
