Page 80 of Veradel
But there’s no time to shake my nerves, because Vivian, Merrick, and Soren bound back mere seconds later, carrying more weapons and torches than should be physically possible. Everyone grabs a knife or pitchfork or ax and straps them to their backs and limbs, even though I have a feeling our best assets will be our teeth and claws. I myself take a familiar belt filled with knives in sheaths. This way, we’ll be prepared for anything.
All too soon, Lucan’s using a match to light the torch in Soren’s hand.
Flame flickers against the night, ripping light into shadow. Lucan takes the torch, hauls in a deep breath, and turns to look at me with a questioning gaze as he holds the fire a breath away from the wooden door, the antivenom slowly dissolving more and more of the stone around it. I doubt it’ll dissolve the entire Wall, but this is enough for now.
I nod. “Burn. It.Down.”
Lucan doesn’t need to be told twice. He presses the torch against the door, and we all watch as the flame catches the wood. Black spreads across the surface, and smoke begins to waft out in tendrils, until finally, Lucan can’t hold back anymore.
He kicks the door inward, and it comes crashing down in a pile of splinters and ash.
A breath of cold air blows out at us from the tunnel within, making the torchlight stutter. We all stare at the opening for a second. Then everyone else backs up, and I feel the shift in the air as they change forms.
When I turn around, twelve werewolves stand in a semi-circle around me, their weapons strapped to their forearms and hind legs, all of them so large that I know the catacombs will be a tight squeeze for each of them.
It's okay. I’m used to having to squeeze into tight places,Soren’s voice fills my head, and the others groan before Lucan throws up his mental block until it’s just him and me.
Whenever you’re ready, little nightmare.
His monstrous form pads up next to me, amber slits observing me from his towering height. Even after everything we’ve gone through, the sight of the Monster in the flesh still shoots exhilaration up and down my body.
The Guardians have no idea the wrath they are about to face. From himorme.
In answer, I throw up my head and do my best impression of a howl at the moon.
The others catch on, splitting the air with their own howls, and I smile knowing that the Guardians have heard this before. They have no way of knowing that tonight, it’s different. These aren’t howls of desperation, of rage, or of agony, but of eagerness. Excitement.
Joy, judging by the pealing ring of Lucan’s, loudest of all.
Then he springs forward, into the tunnel and the darkness beyond.
My limbs have never felt so free, bounding down the catacombs with Saskia on my heel.
I can feel her presence right behind me, even more than I can hear the other dozens of thundering paws of my pack. Something about her energy feels like static electricity, causing every hair on my werewolf body to bristle with anticipation—as if she’s the one I should be running toward.
The dichotomy of having her by my side as we approach an inevitable war and the primal need to scoop her up and protect her from every horror in this world is thrilling in two very different ways.
She’s in her element, free, wild. Her exhilaration palpable against my back. I would never deny her this moment or become a Monster that hides her away from the world. But that doesn’t mean I won’t do everything in my power to keep her safe, because Iwillbecome a Monster the second anyone threatens or harms her in any way, no questions asked.
My heart swells, basking in the fact that I’ll be whatever she needs me to be. That she can just beherself, a privilege she’s never been granted.
But I keep my eyes forward, my vision cutting through the darkness and taking in every damned dust particle that swirls in the tunnels we zigzag through.
Left, Saskia murmurs to me when we come to a fork, but I already know. I spent months sketching out these tunnels from the outside, and now I know the way to the center by heart.
To think that right above our heads are all the people I’ve always dreamed of saving…
To think that at any second, one of the Guardians could zip around any corner…
It’s only when we come to a cavernous opening, several archways circling the area as fresh torchlight flickers in brackets around us, that I skid to a halt, the others stopping in a crowd around me to listen for any signs of life. Or death.
A steadydrip, drip, dripof water leaks from the ceiling, plopping into puddles of shimmering, red-tinged water on the ground. By the sudden alarm bells ringing in Saskia’s head, I can tell that she smells blood. And frankly, so do I.
The scent of death, like metallic rot, permeates these very walls.
That tunnel right there. Silently, Saskia points toward the gaping mouth of an opening directly across from us.That one leads to the dungeons of the Blood Moon Palace.
Every cell in my body screams at me to follow that direction, to invade immediately, but I can’t shake an equally loud feeling that we need to stay basked in shadows for a moment longer. There are no cameras down here, but it’s like the tunnels themselves are watching our every move.
