Page 131 of The Night Prince

Blake presses himself against me, warm and solid, as he reaches for one of the shackles. There’s a click, and my hand falls loose. My legs buckle, and he hooks an arm around my lower hips, careful not to touch my back as he frees my other hand. Gently, he lowers us to our knees. My blood and Alexander’s seeps into our breeches.

He searches my face. He brings his hands to my cheeks and brushes away the tears and blood with the pad of his thumb.

My throat tightens. “You came.”

“Did you truly think I would not?”

The ground trembles, and Blake’s jaw sharpens when a low hiss comes from beneath us.

“There’s...” My throat burns, and every breath opens the wounds in my back. “Night’s prisoner....”

“Yes. If it gets free, we’re all dead. I’m going to get you out of here, but it’s going to hurt.”

I blink back the tears. “I know.”

“Good girl.” He brings his arm around my waist and rises into a crouch. “Okay, hands on my shoulders. That’s it.” I whimper as the movement provokes a deep, burning ache in my back. “Shh, I know.”

A film of water fills my eyes. “Can you feel it?”

“You’re suppressing your emotions, caging your pain. I feel only a little.”

He lifts me to my feet, and when he puts my arm around his shoulders, a low, feral sound scrapes against my throat.

“I know,” he soothes. “It will only last for a short while. I have a sleep tonic in my pocket. I’ll give it to you as soon as we’re clear of the Grey Keep. Come on.”

We start to move. I grip the collar of his shirt tightly, and every time my side bumps into his, I whimper. Every step is torture. My knees are weak, and if his hand was not firm around my hip, I would fall. Men and Wolves blur around us, black cloaks and kilts and chains. Arran is by my brother, pulling him to his feet. Jack and Ryan fight back to back. Claire twists the head of a man who straddles James, and he falls dead at her feet.

There is blood... blood everywhere. Nausea rises inside me.

“Why?” My voice is dry and hoarse, barely audible over the roars and the swishes of steel. I’m not even sure what I’m asking. Why did Alexander torture me? Why am I here? Why did Blake come?

“You know why.” His mouth is close to my ear, and I’m not sure what he means. “Shh. It’s okay. We’re almost there.”

The corridor I was brought through looms ahead. I let myself dare to hope, to water that small flower that raises its head in the darkness. We’re going to escape. We’re going to be free.

I grit my teeth. I grip Blake tighter and straighten my spine. He quickens his step.

The muscles in his shoulders tense beneath my fingers. The torches around the circle flicker, then die, and the amphitheater plunges into darkness. We turn our heads toward the trapdoor. Alexander has crawled to it, his black shirt slick with blood. He pulls a key out of the lock, and meets Blake’s eyes, as Arran—blood spilling from his nose—charges toward him.

“You fool, Alex,” Blake hisses.

Alexander grins and flings open the door. Dots dance before my eyes, and I squeeze them shut. I can’t afford to lose consciousness. Not here. Not now.

I dig my fingers into Blake’s shoulders and make myself look.

An unnatural quiet fills the amphitheater. Chains groan, then scrape along the floor, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. A low hiss vibrates over the walls, and even the men in cloaks shrink from it. A sour scent, like decaying meat, floods my nostrils as a slithering sound fills the gloom.

“Moonlight and darkness. Freedom and chains. Power and destruction.”An unnatural rasp seems to come from everywhere at once, and it reminds me of the voice that came from Kai when he first awoke. “Does he know, do you think?”

Blake hurls me back, and I withhold my scream as a tide of shadow spills out of the trapdoor and rears up, contained only by the ceiling. It winds around the circle, blocking the exits. The darkness moves like mist around a serpentine face and body.It blinks down at us with eyes of onyx.

“You’ve been so naughty.”

Something rattles in the cage inside me and floods my body with ice. Sweat beads on my skin, and my vision begins to fade.

“Oh, I am so hungry. So very hungry.”

The darkness crashes down into the amphitheater like a stormy obsidian wave. Shouts fill the air as men and Wolves scatter, and two males are plucked up as if they’re weightless. A horrible crunch is followed by a squelch as they disappear, screaming, into the maw of the beast. Black blood spatters the ground.

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