Page 66 of Wolf Queen Ruin
“The Wolf Queen awaits.”I searched in my pack for my headlamp and switched it on as I settled it in place.“Ready?”
Damien nodded and moved to take the lead, positioning himself in front of me with unmistakable protectiveness.
“I’ll go first,” he said in a tone that brooked no argument.
“Why go to all the trouble to repel vampires on the way here but require their blood at the crypt entrance?”I asked as we began our descent, trying to focus on the mission rather than the lingering imprints of memories that weren’t mine.
“A test of worthiness,” he replied, his voice echoing in the narrow passage.“Eliminate the weak or uncommitted and see who persists.”
“To lure them to their deaths?”I pressed.
His shoulders tensed, and when he looked back at me over his shoulder, his eyes gleamed with an inhuman light in the darkness.
“The strong survive,” he said, as if quoting something ancient.“The Wolf Queen does not suffer the presence of weakness.”
As we descended deeper into the shadow-filled passage, the stone steps became increasingly worn and uneven as they began to curve.The blue glow from behind us faded, leaving only my headlamp to illuminate our way.The ancient corridor twisted downward in a spiral, the air growing thicker with each step.
“Watch your footing,” I said, noting the centuries of moisture had left the stones slick with a fine layer of moss.“And don’t touch anything that looks suspicious.”
“Defined as?”Damien asked, his voice echoing in the confined space.
“Anything, really.Anything too perfectly placed, anything that looks deliberately positioned.These types of entrances are almost always—“
My warning came too late.Damien’s shoulder brushed against what appeared to be an innocuous strand of thick cobweb.There was a soft click, barely audible even in the silence.Gears turned from somewhere unseen.
I froze.“Don’t.Move.”
Damien, a few steps in front of me, stopped dead.
I held my breath, almost sucked into the belief that nothing would happen because nothing did.
Almost.
Just as the step beneath Damien’s feet gave way, I shouted, “Never mind!Move!”
His vampire reflexes saved him from plummeting into whatever waited below.He caught the edge of the intact step, his body dangling over a pitch-black void that had opened beneath him.Even with his enhanced strength, though, the crumbling edge threatened to give way under his grip.
Half a second later, it did give way.
And Damien plummeted into the darkness below.
Chapter twenty
Damien
Iwasfalling.
For a being who had called darkness home for centuries, who had navigated the shadows with ease, there was something uniquely terrifying about plummeting into an abyss without control.
Time warped, stretching seconds into eternities.My mind fragmented into shards of memory and sensation.
Not my memories.Hers.
A hospital room.Luna’s beautiful face contorted with pain, sweat-slicked hair plastered to her forehead as she bore down and screamed, a primal sound that contained both agony and determination.Then a different cry filled the room—thin and reedy.A tiny red face, eyes screwed shut, mouth open in outrage at being thrust into the cold, bright world.Luna’s eyes filled with tears as she reached for her daughter, whispering, “Hello, Aria.I’ve waited so long to meet you.”
The memory shifted, dissolved, reformed.
Luna stood proud despite the tears streaming down her face.A tall man with Luna’s eyes addressed her, his voice cold.“You have broken our most sacred law.You have mated with a rival pack alpha and produced a child that weakens our lineage.”Luna’s voice shook but held steady when she said, “She is my daughter.She has shifter blood.”The man shook his head.“The council has decided.You are banished, stripped of pack protection.”
