Page 61 of Trapped By Claws
I smacked his shoulder and glared at him. "Don't you dare come up with any more plans in which you die to save me. You said everyone always abandons you. Well, I'm not. So stop trying to abandon me. We finally found each other. I learn I'm your mate, and you expect me to just accept you're going to die? No!"
His eyes widened. His mouth trembled between a smile and a frown. "Mena?—"
Tagger suddenly bolted back, screeching and squeaking. His hackles were raised as he stomped his feet.
Corvin's eyes went hard. He lunged at the door and raked his claws down the runic carvings along the panels. Light flared up, and something heavy ground into place. He'd barely gotten it done when the whole cavern shook.
We were out of time.
ESCAPE
Igripped Corvin's hand, my heart hammering against my ribcage harder than our attackers beat on the door. "The portal in the temple is our only chance. The only chance for both of us now."
His mouth twisted. A look akin to guilt flashed in his eyes and I wondered if he blamed himself for not getting me out of here sooner.
Another heavy thud struck the door as Lishen bellowed for Corvin to open the door.
"All right," Corvin said, his voice tight. He ran to the water entrance door, traced his claw over the runes a second time, and stepped back as the door glowed. The thuds weakened, as if the door had thickened.
"Corvin, open this door, or your suffering will increase a hundredfold!" Lishen snarled.
"A very painful death awaits me if any of you catch me," Corvin called back. "I have no reason to cooperate. Let the so-called hunt start here!" He then dragged one of the cupboards in front of the door.
As he did, I dug out some oilcloth and wrapped it around Mama's little book. What else would we need? I shoved thewrapped book into my pocket and gathered up the other reagents.
"Send word to the king of the traitor's acts," Lishen bellowed, loud enough for everyone to hear. "You will suffer, Corvin."
"I thought that was a given," Corvin jeered back. He braced his hands against a second cupboard as he shoved it forward, his expression far grimmer than his tone. "There will be no more harvesting my blood, marrow, or strength." He motioned for me to remain silent.
Did he really think he could fool them into believing I wasn't here?
Well, I wasn't going to fight him on that. I'd won on the most important point. We were going to escape together.
More curses followed as Lishen and his fae attacked.
As much as I hated it, I took some of the oily, salted fish along with two waterskins. I then took the daggers off Blue Ridges' corpse. Half of my wooden spoon remained embedded in his shoulder. My stomach twisted. Guess that was the end of my spoon.
I picked up the one part that remained on the floor and wrapped it as well before sticking it in the bag.
Tagger ran between Corvin and me as Corvin stacked and shoved cupboards and wood against the water way entrance. He stooped over Blue Ridges' body and signaled for me to get to the cave exit.
The heavy thuds continued, low and pounding as the snarls and curses intensified.
We'd also need something for a distraction. I ran to the stove and seized the heavy pot of stew. Corvin put something in his pocket as he studied me quizzically. "We can't eat stew on the run."
"No, but we can make it harder for them to tell where we're going," I said.
His eyes brightened, and he smiled. "You really are my clever girl."
As prepared as we could possibly be, we ran out into the darkness of the cave, pale-blue orbs in hand. Once through, Corvin traced his claw in the runic shapes along the iron band. Light flared, and the door seemed to tighten against the wall.
"I've poured every ounce of the magic reserved in the runes into holding these doors shut," he said in a hushed voice as he turned back to me. "If they aren't through in four hours, the runes will fail then. But they'll still have to get through everything else."
"Which passage are we taking?" I asked, holding the large pot of stew by the handles.
He gestured toward the narrowest one as he set aside the pale-blue orbs. Then he grabbed hold of the nearest boulder and dragged it to the door.
As he blocked the door, I ran into the openings of the other passages and spilled out the stew in generous quantities. I didn't put it in all of them. Only three. Enough that it looked as if we had started running, had a little accident, got confused, and ran back. To avoid leaving behind evidence, I tossed the stewpot into one of the pits. It clattered and banged its way down.
