Page 32 of Ruthless Monsters

“Looks like your bird friend came through for us,” the stranger says to my mates, and the deep timbre of his voice has goosebumps rising on my skin.

“Coming through!”Shade shouts in my head, and my attention is pulled from the male as a black blur flies past him, diving straight for me.

Beforeshe reaches me, Shade extends her wings wider, slowing her descent until she lands on my shoulder. She tilts her head to the side, observing my naked mates.“Looks like I missed out on one hell of a party,”she teases, and I grin, reaching up to stroke her feathers.

“I missed you,”I tell her with a smile.

“I’m serious, Blake,”she replies.“I fully expect you to explain this.”

I chuckle, but I find myself staring again at the stranger in the doorway again. “This way,” he orders, indicating with his head to the tunnel beyond, and as my mates start to move, I go with them.

Chapter

Thirteen

~ Princess Blake ~

There’s a large group of rebels and prisoners already in the tunnel, and it’s chaos as we step over the bodies of fallen guards. My mates and I grab the guard’s discarded weapons, and my males stay close to me as we make our way through the prison, and past empty cells that reek of urine and mold.

“Looks like you’ve been busy,”I say to Shade as we pass a guard that’s lying in a pool of blood, his head severed from his body.“Why didn’t you warn me you were almost here?”

“I thought you were still with the king in The Haven,”Shade replies.“I didn’t want you to risk using magic around him.”

I nod.“Well, you obviously found the rebels.”

At the front of our group the rebels lead the way, charging at any guards who cross our path. It takes a group of around ten cuffed rebels to take on a single centaur guard, but somehow, we keep moving, making our way through the tunnels.

A few paces in front of us, one of the female prisoners falls, crying out as her knees buckle, but the male with the blue eyes scoops her up, barely missing a step. She wraps her thin arms around his neck, and I note the scars visible on the male’s back through the tears in his ripped clothing. I’m still struggling to believe this male is Celzar’s brother, and the image of him on that battlefield haunts me.

He walks faster, picking up his pace. “We need to move quicker!” he shouts to the group. “The other rebels won’t be able to distract the remaining guards for long. Reinforcements will arrive soon.”

No one argues, and everyone matches his speed, surging onward through the prison.

“Blake, look out!”Shade squawks as two guards come from a tunnel on my left, shouting obscenities as they gallop toward us. I brace, ready to fight, but then my mates are there. I’m guessing it’s due to their pent-up rage from being imprisoned, but I’ve never seen them so angry. They work together, cutting down one guard in a matter of minutes, and quite literally leaving him in pieces, while a group of prisoners and rebels take down the other one.

There’s more shouting from the prison mines, but we avoid the guards, navigating to an exit the rebels have opened up and slipping into the tunnels adjoining the prison. It takes a while for all of us to make it out of the gap, but then we’re scurrying down a series of winding tunnels that grow darker. The light dims as we turn down one tunnel then another, and soon we’re walking in complete darkness. My vision adjusts, allowing me to see the edges of the tunnel walls and the path ahead, and everything is silent except for the shuffling of feet, and the sounds of panicked breathing.

“Soooo, are you going to explain why you’re all naked yet?”Shade asks, sitting relaxed as she remains perched on my shoulder.

“I’m not naked, I have a robe,”I protest.

“Yeah, a robe and hooker hair,”she teases.“Did you have to play out King Celzar’s weird fetishes as punishment?”

“What? No. Faking the bonding ritual was my idea.”

“Faking the bonding ritual?”Shade squawks.

“It was the only way to get King Celzar to bring me to Dante and the others,”I explain.“I knew if I told him about the power increase that comes with bonding, he wouldn’t be able to resist letting me bond with them.”

“Hold up. So, you just turned up to the prison looking all bangable, and the king watched you get freaky? I’m guessing you didn’t actually…”she trails off.

I grin in the darkness.“No, we didn’t bond. I still have the cuff on, remember? I couldn’t risk the king getting control of that kind of power.”I go on to tell her about King Celzar’s confessions and of what happened with the witches.

She whistles in my head.“Well that is…”

“I know,”I reply.“So fucked up.”

“You can say that again,”she says.“Well, in any case, I guess it’s lucky we turned up when we did.”

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