Page 82 of Black Wing and Shadows
“We need to call it a night and find a place to camp,” Lili said.
I knew that was what we had to do, but I didn’t want to do that. I will kill every fucking person for this. If she didn’t live, I wouldn’t either.
“I know…”
We found a clearing where we all rested for several hours until the sun started to rise. I dozed off a couple of times. Sleep would not happen for me. My mind wandered too much to settle into sleep. Every snapped twig in the woods left me jerking my head. My head throbbed in pain.
****
We scoured the underbrush, followed broken twigs and bent grass, until the trails tangled into one another. We searched the ground, while the dragons flew overhead. The sun burned overhead. Sweat stung the cut on my ribs, soaking my shirt. Every time I reached for our bond and found nothing, it got harder to breathe.
By midafternoon, tempers frayed. Eli cursed the useless trails. Alex snapped at him, and Lili shoved between them before it came to blows. My own patience was gone—I could feel myself one second from ripping into all of them.
A glint of iron caught my eye between the trees—ventilation grates set into the side of a rocky hill.
“That’s not a hunter’s camp,” I said. “Too well hidden.”
“Dungeon entrance,” Alex said, drawing his short blade. “There’s an old supply hold under these woods. Mostly abandoned, but… if someone wanted to disappear with her, this is the place.”
We approached on foot, crouched low. The fall air was cold enough to fog my breath, but underneath was something else—damp air rising from below, laced with the acrid tang of torch smoke.
Eli found the entrance, a half-collapsed stone arch swallowed in ivy, a rusted iron gate hanging open on freshly oiled hinges. The entrance was a jagged mouth of stone and iron. Two guards sat outside around a low fire, dice scattered on a barrel.
Lili motioned, silent. Her dagger flew, burying in one man’s throat. He gurgled, hands scrabbling, before slumping forward. Alex stepped from the shadows, blade punching into the other’s gut. Both fell without a sound.
The arch glowed faintly with wards. Alex pressed his palm against the stone, fire crackling under his skin. The wards cracked and bled light before shattering.
The dungeon was a foul rush of damp air and old blood.
Inside, the passage sloped downward, and outside light faded quick. We moved in silence, boots crunching on loose stone. Faint echoes drifted up from the depths—footsteps, low voices. At the bottom, the smell of stagnant water and old stone pressed close. Across the corridor, behind thick iron bars, was a narrow cell.
The dungeon stank of stagnant water and fear. My boots splashed through puddles as we rounded the corner. That was when I saw her: slumped in chains, head down, unmoving. Something inside me went cold.
The first guard stepped forward. I didn’t slow down. My blade punched into his chest, steel grinding bone, before I yanked it free. He dropped without a sound. Lili was on the next, dagger flashing under his ribs. Eli’s sword caught another across the throat—a clean, wet slice that left him gurgling.
A shout came from behind the cell block, and three more males charged. Alex cut down the lead before his sword cleared its scabbard. I slammed my shoulder into the next, driving him into the wall hard enough to crack stone before plunging my knife into his gut. The third lunged at Eli, only to take Lili’s blade to the back of the neck.
Three more came from the top, and another two came from down the hall. Lili and I pressed our backs against each other. I felt her power between icy rage. My body calling it, wanting it, needing it. I put up a block, no one could see that, not here, not now.
The four of them came at us rapidly, swords swinging. Alex threw out flames, incinerating two of them in seconds. Lili was summoning the standing water, throwing ice throughout. Our bodies still in contact, calling her power, a little bit steeped in turning my blade icy. I swung endlessly, slicing the male’s head clean off his shoulders. I quickly tossedthe icy sword, hoping no one saw. I put distance between us, looking all around.
Thirteen. That was all of them. None left breathing.
I shoved the last body aside and stepped into Auri’s cell. Her wrists were raw and bleeding from the shackles, her face pale and still. I cut the chains in one brutal swing, catching her before she hit the stone.
“She’s breathing,” I managed, though my voice was tight. “We’re getting her out—now.”
No one argued. We left the bodies where they fell, blood seeping through the cracks. The stairs were slick with it on our way out.
Outside, dragons waited, wings shifting restlessly. I lifted Auri into my arms—her weight frighteningly limp—and vaulted onto Veyra’s back, uncertain if she’d survive the ride but unwilling to wait.
“Let’s go!” I shouted, and the world dropped away as we shot skyward, leaving the dead and their stinking pit behind.
The cold air lashed my face. Lili leaned forward over the pommel, wind tangling her hair, but my focus was on the silent weight in my arms. Auri’s head rested on my shoulder, her hair whipping in the wind. She was so pale—too pale—and I watched for every shallow, irregular breath.
Ahead, Korven’s grey scales glinted in the sun as Alex rode, with Eli and Oliver just above. We kept a tight formation. By now, the campus would be locked down. They’d know the moment we arrived.
Lili’s voice cut through the wind. “We’re pushing her as fast as she’ll go!”
