Page 5 of Unbelievable Faith
Chapter 3
“Let me out!Let me out! Let! Me! Out!” Luna banged on the door until her fists bled but nobody acknowledgedher.
On the other side, she could hear Maddox cursing and spouting orders. She thought Terrance spoke but it was too low for her to make out what he said. Sasha was still hissing about killing her and her entire family and Luna vowed that if she escaped this room, if she escaped this situation, that she would kill that bitch right along with Maddox. Pretty soon though, the sound of wolves howling, crying and fighting drowned out the voices until she couldn’t hear anything but the fighting that was goingon.
It sounded bloody. Painful. Dangerous. Deadly. And she had no idea who waswinning.
She didn’t even know who was fighting or why. All she knew was that whoever was out there, they were her only hope. They’d stalled the mating ceremony and if they could beat Maddox, she just might get out of this basement with some shred of herself still intact. She might be able to save hersisters.
Nova, her heart ached and her stomach roiled. Had Nova really known the Moirae would be coming to retaliate so quickly and lied? Or had the future changed after she saw them coming in three days? Did it matter? Maddox believed Nova had known and lied to him and he would make her pay for it if he made it out of this fightalive.
Luna forced her weak and bleeding body down the stairs when she realized there was no clawing her way through the door. For once, Maddox hadn’t chained her with silver. She could move around the basement and look for ways out. The longer she was unchained, the stronger she would get too. She would start to heal, eventually. If she gave herself time to rest, time to recover, she would start to feel better, but she didn’t have time. She forced herself on, her feet dragging and her head spinning from the blood loss and lack ofnutrition.
She was injured. She was weak. But she wasn’t aquitter.
She stumbled on the bottom step, fell to her knees and cried out as she collapsed to the hard, concrete floor. Her forehead banged into the floor so hard she saw stars and when she raised her hand she winced at the gash she foundthere.
Tears welled in her eyes again but she wiped them away along with the blood. She couldn’t mope and cry and feel sorry for herself. Her sisters were counting on her. This was the first time she’d been free in this basement since Maddox tossed her down here. It was her first opportunity to look around and try to find a way out and she wouldn’t waste it. Shecouldn’t.
It took every ounce of her strength to pull herself up and get moving. She stumbled and knocked over a shelf of junk but managed to steady herself before she fell again. She leaned against the wall, inching herself towards the one window in the entire room. It was high up and would be hard to reach but it was her only hope ofescape.
The stool that Maddox sometimes used as a chair when he came to taunt and threaten her was in her path and she collapsed against it, using it to hold herself up. Deep breath and then another and she forced herself on, pushing it beneath the ray of light from the small window. She wasn’t sure she could get through the thing it was so small and she had no idea what she would do if she did. She wasn’t strong enough to run but maybe she could get far enough away someone would find her, someone that wasn’t allied with Maddox. Maybe for the first time in what felt like forever, she would getlucky.
Luna swayed on her feet, worried more and more that she wasn’t healing as she forced herself on. She’d known she was weak from the silver. Maddox had kept her from shifting on the full moon last night. Her wolf should have been pushing forward now, making her stronger, wanting out, but there was nothing there. No sign of her at all. Luna couldn’t let what that might mean detour her though so she pushedon.
She climbed unsteadily onto the stool and used the window ledge to hold herself up. Closer to the window she could hear the wolves fighting again. They were louder here, as if they were on this side of the house. She questioned the wisdom of trying to escape when more of Maddox’s friends could be outside but she knew she had totry.
She used her hands, gripping in the dark, trying to find the lip with the lock. It wasn’t barred in silver but of course it wasn’t. Maddox had never intended for her to be free to move around down here. After some fumbling her shaking hands found the seam and her bottom liptrembled.
The window was paintedshut.
Luna let out a pitiful moan and scraped at the hardened edges. She needed her claws but her wolf didn’t rise to give her any assistance. Her human hands were battered and bruised from her fall and blood still trickled down her arm and soaked her fingers making them wet and slick. She used her nails, trying to pry the lock up and when her fingernails broke she screamed and jerked back out ofinstinct.
She lost her balance and the stool tilted precariously. Luna scrambled to right herself but it was useless. She was going down and she knew it. Her body twisted, trying to find a way out of the sudden drop but the floor came up too fast and she slammed into the concrete on herside.
Her head cracked against the floor again and she moaned as she closed her eyes. It was no use. Tears streamed down her cheeks again. She shivered and shook as her stomach wrenched. The pain was so intense she thought she might vomit. Her shoulder radiated pain throughout her body from the fall. Her bicep was still bleeding from the slash. Her head was spinning and she couldn’t find the strength to pull herself upagain.
She wanted to. She knew she needed to get up. But she just…couldn’t.
It was over, she realized as she curled in on herself. She had to stop. She couldn’t fight anymore. She didn’t have any fight left in her. Her body was malnourished. There was something wrong with her wolf. She needed to rest and give herself a chance to heal or else she risked neverhealing.
Luna closed her eyes and focused on her breathing. She couldn’t die here. Not on the concrete floor of this awful basement. There were people out there looking for her. She had to believe that. She just had to keep herself alive long enough for them to findher.
They were coming. Sasha had said so. Theywere…
Luna’s world went dark. Soundless. Dim at the edges. She was losing consciousness and she didn’t bother fighting it. Her eyes rolled back and she let the world slip away from her. Only, an instant before she was engulfed in the nothingness a sharp growl cut into the silence, startling her into opening her eyesagain.
The door at the top of the stairs jerked open so hard it smashed into the wall with a splintering sound and Luna’s heart all but stopped. He was back. It had gone quiet because he won. She shrank backwards into the shadows, shrinking as small as she could, knowing there was no way she could fight him rightnow.
She listened as heavy boots came down the stairs. The cadence of the steps was familiar. It was so familiar. And yet, somewhere in the back of her frightened and woozy mind, she recognized that something wasdifferent.
The steps were… slower. Was he hurt? She could only hope. But she didn’t smell his blood. Then again, she couldn’t smell much of anything aside from her own blood right now. She’d lost so much of it, further proof of her weakness. She felt covered in it and her brain sloshed as she tried to keep her head up, keep her eyes on the spot where he would have to step out of theshadows.
Maybe her blood was like a mask and she could hide underneathit.
She almost giggled, almost, but she wasn’t sure she knew how anymore. What she did know was that the loss of blood was affecting her in horrible ways. Her limbs were going numb and her brain was clearly slowing down if she thought anything in her world warranted laughter these days. Had she hit her head when she fell? She couldn’tremember.
Footsteps approached. Oh God… Luna bit her tongue to keep back a scream. Reality came rushing back in just thatfast.
