Page 55 of Faerie Magic

But there was nothing but blackness. Emptiness.

I moved onto my stomach and reached my free hand down, swaying it back and forth and around in circles a few times.

“I can’t feel anything,” I said, looking up at a few faces who were also looking over the edge. “Nicole, help me for a second.”

She came and stood next to me, ready for instructions. “Hold me under my arms, I’m gonna drop my legs down.”

“What if something’s down there?” she asked, the hesitation clear in her voice.

I scoffed. “What? The big bad wolf?”

She snorted and took her place behind me, holding me firmly underneath my arms. I hopped on my butt toward the opening. I could fit through the hole with my whole body if I wanted to, which was good to know. Instead, at the moment, I swung one leg down. Moving it the same way that I had my arm—back and forth and around a few times.

Again, I hit nothing.

“Whatever is below us, the bottom isn’t close enough for me to reach.”

Nicole helped me to my feet and I brushed at my dress, turning once more to face the others in the cell.

“I’ll try,” the tall man who’d helped move the stone said.

He steadied himself on the edge and reached his own leg down. I was tall, but the guy had a least a full foot on me.

He shook his head. “You’re right. Nothing.”

I bit my lip as we stood around the opening in our cell.

“It’s useless if no one can see,” a woman spoke up who had been close enough to our efforts to see that we hadn’t gotten anywhere now that the pit was open.

“We can’t blindly trust that it’s safe,” another chimed in.

Nicole rubbed at her temples. “It’s pitch dark and there’s no way of knowing what’s waiting down there,” She turned to make eye contact with me. “Not monsters, but magic. Traps—it’s the castle dungeon, who knows if they prepped for people escaping.”

“These cells haven’t been used in at least fifty years,” a voice called out from the back. “Not that I recall since being here.”

More murmurs of dissent and frustration spread through the crowd.

I turned and looked down over the gaping hole in the ground, moving my head at all different angles like somehow the limited and mostly nonexistent light would magically hit differently and I’d be able to get a clear picture of what was in store down there.

“You can’t possibly be thinking of doing something so stupid,” Nicole said, turning her back to the rest of the cell and trying to talk to me as privately as possible. “You’ve got a broken wrist, Cora. You could get hurt even more.”

Her voice was raised enough so that a few people standing around agreed with Nicole.

“You’re already injured? There’s no way it’s safe.”

A few additional murmurs agreeing with Nicole weren’t enough to deter me though.

I thought about Noah’s visit. His concern and the fact that he couldn’t comprehend what was happening. He hadn’t returned to help me, meaning I couldn’t count on him and just wait.

We knew Gabe himself had already been taken and questioned. Whatever was happening in the castle wasn’t much better than being locked in the cell down here. If we had any chance of getting out or finding some truth to understand what was happening to the Unseelie, we needed someone to try to escape through that hole.

I put a small smile on my face, attempting as best I could to look like I was acknowledging my fellow inmates’ concerns. “You all have valid points and everything you are saying is true. I certainly can’t ask any of you to attack this blindly.”

I took a deep breath and ignored the daggers Nicole’s heated gaze was throwing my way.

“I’m going to do it. If I make it and find a way out, I’ll come back to let you know that it’s safe for you to jump, too.”

A few scoffs and groans let me know that most people either didn’t think I was going to make it or assumed I was an idiot. There were very few encouraging faces from those close by.

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