Hold on, she begged her sister. We’re coming.
Nika felt Madoc’s hand slide into hers, heard his thoughts whispering to her that he was here with Tynan.
She grabbed tight onto his hand, opened the knowledge she’d stolen from Gilda, and sucked in a huge column of power.
The world twisted and shimmered and then everything went black.
Chapter 23
Blood rolled down Iain’s forehead as he shoved his sword through the heart of the nearest demon.
He and the other Theronai with him had taken up a strategic position inside one of the tunnels, where they couldn’t be easily flanked. He glanced behind him as often as he could, hoping that the tunnel didn’t offer any more access points for Synestryn to sneak up on their backs.
Even though he’d taken a hit, he didn’t feel the effects of any poison running through his system, so he was counting his blessings. The wound was already starting to close, though the blood stinging his eyes was becoming a dangerous problem.
The crowd of demons thinned, and the few remaining turned tail and ran.
He looked at Liam and the others. “You all stay here and hold the exit. I’m going to take them out.”
Liam nodded.
“I’m going with you,” said Nicholas.
Iain turned, refusing to waste time arguing with the man. He could do as he pleased. They hurried off after the Synestryn.
They’d just cleared a curve in the corridor when Iain heard the first cry for help. Human. Female. Scared as hell.
There had been a time when that cry would have affected him, but now all he experienced was cold calculation.
Pretend you have honor. That was what he told the men he’d brought into the Band of the Barren. It was a code he was determined to live by, himself.
A man with a soul would have been horrified by that sound, so Iain played along. “What the hell was that?”
“Let’s find out,” said Nicholas.
Both men had done enough tunnel fighting to know better than to run. It was too easy to set traps along these narrow paths, and a man going too fast had no time to avoid them. Instead, they moved along as fast as caution would allow.
The cry came again, only this time there was more than one voice. “Over here!” jumbled up with, “Help us.” On top of that was the sobbing of what sounded like a child.
Rage surged inside Iain. He had to clench his jaw to keep from bellowing at the walls.
The tunnel widened out into a narrow room, and along one wall was a line of metal cages. Inside those cages were three women and two children.
“Please,” said one of the women at the far end of the room. “Get us out of here.”
Iain turned to Nicholas and barked, “Watch my back.”
“Don’t take long,” said Nicholas. “I got a feeling company will be coming soon.”
Iain went to the first cage, where a dirty woman clung to the bars. Her tangled hair fell to her waist. She wore a long, shapeless dress covered in stains. Dirt smudged her skin, making her pale gray eyes stand out in startling contrast. She wasn’t crying. Her expression was flat. “There are keys on the wall behind you.”
Nicholas grabbed them and tossed them to Iain. He moved to unlock her cage, but she stopped him. Her voice was quiet, but her command was unmistakable. “Free the children and the others first.”
Iain didn’t waste time fighting her. She was right to give the order, so he did as she asked, freeing the others before coming back to her cell.
She hadn’t moved. The others were huddled together around Nicholas, crying and clinging to one another. There wasn’t a sign of a single tear or fear or relief in this woman’s eyes.
He unlocked her cell and offered his hand to help her step through the small door. The second her slender hand hit his, Iain’s head began to buzz. The rage constantly boiling inside him fell away, quieting the incessant screaming of his dead soul. Until now, he hadn’t realized how much chaos had tormented his mind—how much of his pain had come from carrying around the dead, hollow thing inside him.
Both parts of his luceria lurched away from his skin for a moment, as if reaching for her. The sudden urge to sweep her up in his arms and run away where no one could find them pounded inside his skull. He wanted to keep her, to hide her away from the world, tucked away where only he could touch her.
She jerked her hand away, her gray eyes flaring wide. She backed up into the cage until she pressed herself against the wall. For the first time, emotion showed on her face, and that fear shimmering inside her made Iain want to rip away the bars with his bare hands.
“Stay away,” she ordered him. He had no idea where she got such an air of command, but he found himself obeying before he even bothered to question why he should.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he told her.
“That’s what they all say.”
“Company’s coming,” said Nicholas over the heads of the women and children hovering near him. “Time to go.”
Fighting with so many innocents nearby could get really messy, really fast. Iain wasn’t going to watch these people be slaughtered just because one woman got spooked.
“Are you coming on your own, or am I making you?” he asked her.
She glanced at the group by Nicholas, straightened her thin shoulders, and moved forward. Iain offered her his hand again. She ignored it and moved past him without touching him in any way.
Iain had to fight down anger at her treatment of him. He’d saved her life and she shunned him? What kind of way was that to act? Even he knew better.
Whatever. She was out and he had a job to do. The dry sound of claws on stone combined with the wet sounds of salivating demons was getting closer by the second.