Page 10 of Never Tamed
The tips of my fingers brush against a rusted iron handle recessed into the boards. Wrapping my hand around it, I pull.
The door refuses to budge. The seams hold firm and metal groans slightly. I pull harder until my veins bulge and finally theold wood gives way with a crack and a pop. Cold air spills up from the shadows beyond.
Decay colors the air and the closet reeks of old bodily fluids and organs. Sick shit went on in this place. My mind conjures images of prisoners of the past, tortured and held captive in the suffocating space until they spilled their secrets.
And in those shadows, I see Noble.
Relief floods me.
“Christ. You gave us the scare of our lives, asshole.”
The sound of my voice snaps him out of half consciousness.
Noble’s head lifts weakly, one eye swollen shut. “You took your fucking time.” His voice is a croak and pain spirals through the bond.
“You can thank me later,” I mutter, already climbing into the closet. “You look like shit.”
“I feel worse. Not as bad as my pride though.”
He’s barely conscious, barely breathing, but he’s alive. It’s the only thing that matters.
There’s hardly enough room for both of us in the space and they’ve got him chained with silver.
Crouched beside him, I do a once-over, hiding my grimace. They’ve bruised his ribs and busted his lip good. Blood mats his coppery curls.
His shirt’s torn open, slashes across his chest. Bite marks. I see red.
Andras’s men did this, fucking monsters.
They didn’t even lock the silver, just draped it over him as punishment, the material slowly burning him black.
I tug the edge of the chain and toss it away with a clatter. My fingertips are already smoking.
“Can you walk?” I ask, looping his arm around my neck.
He swallows over a cry when I drag him to his feet.
“With your help,” he grits out. “My one leg is broken.” As I move us, Noble hisses in pain. “What did I miss?”
Too much.
I look at him, the words stalling on my tongue. Do I have time to explain the ambush we ran headfirst into? Or to find out how much Noble already knows? The bond shimmers between us. Ren connects us both.
When our eyes meet, a deep worry swims in his.
He already knows what I have to say.
“What happened?” His voice hardens.
I stall, swallowing compulsively, both of us feeling the connection to her growing weaker by the second. It’s a flicker of a flame in a windstorm and a chill breaks out over my forearms.
We cut toward the door, Noble hobbling with his weight on me.
“She’s badly hurt. Torin has her,” I grind out.
“And Dax?”
The tip of his good foot catches on something and sends his weight skewing to the side. I haul him up, half carrying him away from the hidden space. When we breach the open air of the hallway, a low rumble starts again.
