Page 47 of Blood Beneath the Snow

He didn’t follow me.

The hallways blurred together ina swirl of black and gray, shadows and dark metal. My boots pounded a constant echo against the floor. I tried to keep my breathing steady, but as thoughts ran through my mind, it turned more ragged.

Anger built in my stomach, pounding to the beating of my heart. Sweat collected on my brow despite the frigid cold, and I reached a hand to wipe it out of my eyes. I took another left.

Better than I expected.The Hellbringer’s comment, made with no sarcasm or jest, only pure logic, made me seethe.

When I turned too fast, my foot caught on a corner and I flew forward, the heels of my hands landing roughly on the metal floor. The lantern clattered to the ground and rolled away from me.

The anger heated to boiling in me and I screamed.

The sound wrenched itself from me. I had no control over it; it bounced off every wall, containing every ounce of what I felt.

You are in a prison with a madman and no one is coming for you.

Father had brought me to the front lines in the hopes I’d be killed. We hadn’t even made it there before I was taken. Every day, I was one step closer to my demise, but the cruelest part of being with the Hellbringer was never knowing when it was coming.

Any plans the Kryllian Queen had for me would end in my death. To keep me alive would be a child’s mistake.

No one is coming for you.

Finally, the echo of my scream faded into silence, and I clenched my jaw until pain radiated through my face. I looked up at where the light of the lantern flowed to the top of the ceiling. In front of me, the hallway extended into darkness so thick, it could have been a dead end. The place was a maze, impossible to navigate. And I was only on the bottom floor—I’d ignored the ascending stairs I’d passed while I ran.

“What are you doing?”

I wasn’t surprised to hear the Hellbringer behind me, but when the grinding voice softened slightly through its distortion, I stiffened.

Sympathy from a monster?

“Trying to get away from you.” I didn’t turn to face him, but the lantern caught his shadow and threw it against the wall. I could see my own shadow, reflecting where I sat on my knees, shaking from the cold burrowing deep into my bones. He towered over me.

Something inside of me broke; I couldn’t define it, but I felt every ounce of will leave me. I had been wandering the endless hallways for what must have been an hour. I was no closer to escape.

You are in a prison with a madman and no one is coming for you.

“All of the exits in this prison have been sealed entirely,” the Hellbringer said. “Doors that used to open have been welded shut. The locks on the few doors with functioning mechanisms are impossible to pick. I’ve seen to it myself.”

I stared at the ground, unmoving.

“The only way in or out is for my soldier to take us. This location is hidden from all but her.”

Frode would look. So would Jac. If they could get away from Father for long enough to search. But if what my captor said was true—and I suspected it was—then they would have no success.

I took the shaking part of me and forced it back into the pit of my stomach. Pushed the image of Frode’s and Freja’s faces far into the recesses of my mind. “It doesn’t matter,” I whispered. “It wouldn’t make a difference anyway.”

There was a long beat of silence, broken only by the crackling of the lantern’s fire.

“Go away,” I said. It would be better to die of starvation in the darkness.

His lantern was held outstretched as he stared at me. There was nothing behind the eyes of the mask.

What did he see when he looked at me? A broken princess, desperate to free her people and impossibly far from achieving that goal?

Did he pity me?

I was too numb to care.

He didn’t speak. When I looked up again, I was alone.

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