Page 44 of Ransomed to the World
“What do you mean?” Edgar cocked his head, his muscles tense, as if he expected Annora to be taken away at any moment.
Willa smirked, her green eyes sparkling. “While my main devotion might be fire, I picked up a few things on the streets before I entered the university.”
She didn’t stay anything, just lifted her hands and ran them up over her face and over her hair. Static crackled in the air as magic stirred.
Standing directly across from Annora was a taller, curvier version of herself. It was like looking in a mirror. Willa’s blue hair was now a mahogany brown and reached past her shoulders. Her green eyes morphed to nearly black, but there was a spark of mischief that flickered in their depths.
Willa smiled and winked. “I’ll leave in the morning with Loulou and the wolves. The hedge witches should recognize you, but it’s doubtful they have any idea what your men look like.”
“No, absolutely not.” Annora dug her nails into her palms to keep the panic creeping up her spine at bay. “It’s too dangerous.”
Willa shook her head, her hair flying, the spell fading with the movement. “The spell lasts only a few hours. Those few hours could be the lead you need to escape.”
Annora opened her mouth when Loulou grabbed her arm. “If we can’t go with you, then youwilllet us do this for you. We can move faster than the witches, keep just ahead of them. By the time they discover the ruse, you’ll be gone. They’ll forget about us when they realize you’re not with us.”
“She’s right.” Camden cupped the back of her neck, the toxins in his touch tingling at the contact. Despite her immunity, he was trying to soothe her, and she bit back her objections. This wasn’t just about her—it was about keeping her men safe too.
Annora sighed, and Loulou and Willa shared a grin so wicked, she almost felt sorry for anyone who went after them. As they huddled together to plot, Annora turned to see Edgar watching her carefully.
She asked the question that had been at the tip of her tongue since learning they were being hunted. “Why do we need to go through the tunnels? Wouldn’t it just be easier to portal us where we want to go?”
He tugged her close, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “The distance is too great to travel with a large group, not to mention that going through solid rock is a risk. Traveling through the tunnels is our best course of action.”
Shit.
Fucking tunnels.
Dark particles nipped at her skin, worry churning in her stomach. Nothing like being trapped under a gazillion pounds of pure rock with no escape if she freaked out again and raised the dead or summoned more reapers.
Chapter Twelve
It seemed like hours since they’d entered the tunnels, but it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes. The trolls gave them two torches to help navigate the underground passageway, but the flames barely penetrated the darkness.
Annora was in the middle of the pack. Mason took the lead, Xander next, leaving Logan to walk by her side, ever alert, while the other two guys remained behind her. Smoke lingered in the tunnels, but much less dense than expected. It dried out her eyes but didn’t irritate her throat, thank goodness.
Shadows danced along the walls from the flames, until she’d swear the beetles and spiders that had escaped into the afterworld were zipping between worlds, scuttling along the wall, before diving back into the rock, the darkness swallowing them whole. Lights flickered a second later, showing only a smooth surface.
As her control wavered, the phantom realm bled into the real world. She clenched and unclenched her fists, her nails digging into her palms, the pain steadying her.
She wasn’t losing her mind.
And to prove it, Prem darted past her feet, nipping and munching on the bugs on both sides of the veil, absolutely having the time of his life, the little freak.
As if sensing her watching, he gave her a fierce little grin, his dark eyes gleaming, then zipped away to do battle when a beetle skittered in front of him, and she lost sight of him.
The deeper they went, the more the passageway narrowed, until they were walking single file. There were dozens of offshoots in the tunnels, guaranteed to trap the unwary. The air thickened and the walls closed in on her until her skin became clammy.
Memories of the years she lived trapped underground, screaming herself hoarse, desperate to be heard, rose in her mind. Her fists ached from the remembered pain of beating them against the walls until her bones broke, not even chipping the granite for all her effort. Trying to dig herself out, clawing at stones and dirt, snapping nails and fingers when panic took root.
Her uncle was dead.
He wasn’t coming back.
No one could hurt her, keep her prisoner until her mind finally broke, or make her willing to do anything to escape her cage.
Needing a distraction, knowing she was minutes away from losing her shit, Annora inched forward until she was practically smashed up against Xander’s back, the warmth of his nearness pushing back the terrors. “How do you know where you’re going?”
Mason turned at her panicked tone, his face softening, and he spoke in a soothing rumble. “There are markings that show the way every time the tunnels branch out.”
