Page 8 of Song of Night

My breath leaves my lungs in a rush as I lurch forward. I catch myself on the bars, fingers grasping them desperately to keep from falling. The last thing I need is to injure myself down here. I have no idea when Kieran or any of the other Animus are going to check on me again. And I’m not sure they’d care even if they did find me wounded. I manage to keep myself from hitting the floor, and in the process, as my body weight hits the bars, they shift underneath me and more pebbles fall onto my head.

I straighten quickly, getting my feet beneath me. Heart racing, I grab the bars again and pull. They’re definitely out of place, I can move them several inches. The rocks I’d tripped over must have come loose from around them.

In the dark, I try to get a better look at how much of the ceiling has fallen, but I can’t see that far. No matter… I take in a deep breath and aim a kick at the loose bars. They shift another few inches, and more bits of ceiling fall around me. Hopefully I don’t cause this whole place to crash down, but within the glimmer of possible escape, I can’t bring myself to care.

I take a couple steps back and come at the bars again, another kick but with a running start. This time the bars move a few more inches forward. I land in a crouch, keeping myself from hitting the ground just barely. Then I stand, carefully feeling along the bars to see how much of a gap I’d made. There may be enough room, just by a breath, for me to squeeze out.

I step into the triangle-shaped space I’d made, pressing my body into the narrow V between the bars. One arm and one leg stretch through to the outside of the cell. Then I begin to shimmy my upper body through the gap. I suck in my breath, wincing as the metal pinches my chest, pressing into the bruises the guards gave me. For a moment, I don’t think I’m going to fit. My heart pounds, my chest crushed so tightly between the metal that for a moment I can’t even draw breath.

And then I am through.

I am free.

Sucking in a lungful of air, I move slowly down the passage toward the exit, mindful of the possibility of more fallen rocks. I’m located in the most subterranean level of the prison cells, with no other prisoners. But I know that as I travel toward the surface there will be others, and there will be guards. Without my magic, I’m nearly defenseless.

Nearly.

When I reach the end of the passage and climb the steps to the next level, I’m greeted with the flicker of torchlight. Not much, but enough. A quick glance down the row of cells before me shows that this level, too, is empty. I quicken my steps to the nearest torch and blow out the flame, then lift the metal holder from the wall. It is heavy and will make a fine club. I’d rather have my daggers, but those had been taken from me.

Weapon in hand, I jog down the passage until I reach the next set of steps. I slow to a walk and creep up and around the corner carefully. There are more torches lit on this cell block, and after a moment for my eyes to adjust, I see that the cells are mostly full. There’s also a guard at the opposite end of the passage.

I’d lived for so long with the ability to bend shadows that I’d taken it for granted. Before, this would have been an easy task. Now, I have to make it down a corridor fifty paces in length without any of my cell mates calling for our captors.

Or just run like hell and use the element of surprise to my advantage.

Taking a deep breath and murmuring a prayer to the dark goddess, who clearly had a hand in my escape, I step around the corner and sprint for the guard at the end.

Cries ring out on either side of me, but the guard doesn’t have much time to prepare before I leap for him, swinging my makeshift club in an arc that knocks him unconscious. I don’t stop. I dash up the stairs as fast as I can, because there’s one more level before I reach the surface, and the noise below has no doubt alerted the last of the guards.

I may not have my magic, but I have a storm of fury, betrayal, and anguish pent up inside of me. The next sixty seconds passes in a blur of fragmented images. The flicker of torches. The open mouths and rattling throats of the other prisoners as they scream. The surprised expressions of the three guards as I charge them. The glimmer of moonlight coming down the stone steps from the courtyard above.

And then there are three bodies lying at my feet.

Not dead, but bleeding and not moving anytime soon.

I cast them only a moment’s glance. The last bit of nostalgia in my heart had been beaten out by the guards when they brought me here. My feet carry me the last few steps out into the open air above.

When I step out of the arched stone doorway, I come face-to-face with Kieran.

He doesn’t wear the expression I’m expecting. It’s not one of anger, but one of panic. “The earthquake,” he says. “I thought you were…”

His words fall off, and then his jaw tightens as he sees the bloody piece of metal in my hands. But even if just for that fleeting moment, in his eyes I’d seen the answer to one of the questions that’s been haunting me.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Kieran,” I say softly. “I didn’t then, and I don’t now.”

“You hurt me?” He laughs, and his inner dragon surges to the surface, his golden eyes glowing in the darkness.

The part of him that cares for me is gone again. I don’t hesitate—I swing the torch and hurl it at his face. It rotates twice in the air before colliding with his cheekbone. Kieran flies backward, and I am running before he even hits the ground. I know that I’m not going to make it far. But I’m not going to stand here and let him have me. Maybe, if he’s angry enough, he’ll kill me and get it over with. All I know is that I’m not going back beneath the earth for the rest of my days.

It's not the dragon behind me, however, that I have to worry about.

I hear the beating of wings just a moment before a shadow falls across me from above, and then I’m lifted from the ground and carried off into the sky.

Chapter Six

ASHER

It’s all I can do not to drain the blood from everyone at the table. Their souls would be better, but without my magic I can’t summon them.

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