Page 72 of Forged By Heart and Claws
Briar’s arms stayed crossed. “So what?”
A heavyclangof metal on stone split the air.
Skkrrraaang!
An axe blade struck the wall. My entire body snapped alert.
The guards were coming, and Briar and I couldn’t fight them alone.
CHAPTER 16
Vad
Dread weighed on me as the sharp scrape of metal against stone grew louder. This had to be Colm’s doing, using a brutal tradition from the past. He wanted the prisoners to hear the instrument of their execution coming. Let it scream down the hall like a promise.Feck.
Briar turned toward me with her shoulders squared and determination tightening the corners of her eyes. But beneath her calm exterior, her pulse thrummed wildly in the hollow of her throat.If they kill her, we have no chance of learning what she knows.
I bared my teeth. “Kaylen, swear?—”
“Yes! I swear it!” Her voice cracked through the slits in the stone door, ragged and raw. “On my life and my name, I’ll help you burn them down. Just get me out!”
Her desperation wasn’t what convinced me. It was the sound of that blade dragging closer to us, grinding against the wall like bone against a whetstone.
My claws closed around the iron key still tucked in the torn edge of my surcoat. The scent of blood clung to it. Metal rasped as I shoved it into the lock.
Click.
The tumbler fell.
Footsteps neared the bend in the corridor—slow and deliberate, something dragging behind them.
Skkrrraaang.
Each scrape sent a jolt down my spine, and I couldn’t wait to get my revenge on Colm and everyone involved with him.
I threw the door wide. The hinges groaned, but the shriek of the approaching blade swallowed the sound whole.
Kaylen stumbled out, blinking in the dim torchlight. Her sky-blue gown hung in ragged strips, plastered with filth and sweat. Her hair hung limp and greasy, and her face was a mess of bruises, one eye nearly swollen shut.
Briar grabbed her wrist, hard enough to make her flinch. “Move,” Briar snapped.
Don’t put your back to her, I warned.
Briar huffed.Don’t worry, I won’t. I wouldn’t trust this woman as far as Elara could throw her.
The axe grated closer, echoing through the corridor like a death summons.
“Don’t slow us down,” I snarled, shoving the cell door shut. My claws curled around Kaylen’s wrist, forcing her into place on my left before I caught Briar’s hand with my right. Briar’s steady pulse thudded against my palm. I glanced back at Kaylen and warned, “If I have to choose between you and Briar, you lose every time.”
Kaylen didn’t argue. That was the first smart thing she’d ever done. Well, second after she’d agreed to cooperate.
Skkrrraaang.
The executioner was almost upon us.
We ran.
The corridor tightened around us as if the dungeon itself wanted to keep us inside, and torches streaked past like dyingstars. Sweat slicked the back of my neck as I choked on the putrid air.
