Page 189 of Cherish

The Crone shrieks, her rage echoing through the empty corridor, bouncing off the metal walls and ceilings, wrapping itself around us as she realizes what’s about to happen. She throws her arms out, her own bright-gold power blasting in all directions as she tries to stop what we’re so desperate to bring to fruition.

But it’s too little, too late.

A scream builds in Remy’s throat as he pulls one final blast of Heather’s power inside himself—and releases every single particle of magic in him with a primal scream that makes the hairs on my arm stand up. And then the world around us goes completely silent…

Except for the clink, clink, clink, of cell doors opening one after another.

104

Here Today,

Crone Tomorrow

As soon as the doors open, the entire prison starts to roll and shake, the strain of metal shrieking in the distance skating along my spine as I realize Remy is doing it—he’s leveling this entire place—with us still inside.

“You won’t rid yourself of me this easily,” the Crone snarls. “My hunters and I will come for you.” And then—like every god I freaking know—she disappears.

I whirl around to check on my friends and realize that they are, slowly, coming out of the nightmare they’ve been locked in since the Crone activated the Chamber.

“What’s going on?” Hudson asks as he climbs to his feet. He looks pale but okay, and that’s what matters. “Are you all right?”

“We’re bringing down the prison,” I answer.

His eyes go wide. “The entire prison?”

“You have a problem with that?” I raise my brows.

“Fuck no, I don’t. Let’s do it.” He reaches down and pulls a still-shaky Jaxon to his feet.

“What the fuck was that?” Jaxon demands, wiping a trembling hand down his face.

“The nightmare your brother and I had to live through for days the last time we were here,” Flint answers as he helps Eden stand.

Jaxon swears again, reaching out a hand to brace himself on the nearest wall, but Hudson herds us toward the door. “We need to get out of here, now.”

“Can you portal us out?” I ask Remy as a part of our cell’s ceiling caves in.

He shakes his head, finally pulling a shaky palm from the prison. “I’m too weak.”

“I’ve got us,” Macy says, though she’s looking pretty scared herself.

“What about everybody else?” I ask, as more and more people go running down the corridor past our cell. “They won’t all get out before the prison caves in.”

“Jaxon and I will take care of it,” Hudson answers. “But we need to go now.”

“Already ahead of you,” Macy calls over her shoulder as she spins open a portal.

“You okay, Remy?” Hudson asks the wizard, who’s looking a little lost as he gazes around the cell that was his home for so long.

“Yeah,” Remy answers. “Let’s get out of here so we can make sure everyone else gets out, too. They’ve been prisoners of a broken system for far too long.”

Hudson nods, then walks over to the edge of the wall where Remy had carved his little baby manticore into the metal so many years ago. And then, using his vampire strength, he rips the tiny picture from the wall and hands it to Remy.

“Let’s go!” Jaxon shouts as another part of the ceiling crashes down.

We dive for the portal, and we end up tumbling onto the ground in the cemetery we’d escaped into our first time leaving this hellhole.

I scramble to my feet, checking to see if anyone besides us has made it out. But there’s no one around. “Hudson—”

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