My breath catches in my throat at the thought, a sob welling up within me. But I push the tears back down where they belong. Later, I can cry.
Later, I can do a lot of things.
For now, I need to get off this altar or whatever the hell it is. I need to escape and I need to figure out what’s happening to Jaxon. Everything else can wait.
The rope gives—thankyouthankyouthankyou—and I manage to wiggle my foot out without sacrificing too many layers of skin.
The moment I’m free, I jump off the table…and nearly fall flat on the ground. Now that I’m standing, I realize just how woozy I still am. I thought the adrenaline would burn through the drugs lingering in my system, but they must be really strong drugs. Or I must not have been lying on that table as long as I thought I was…
Still, I take a deep breath and focus. Try to see through the dizziness to figure out where I am…and how to get the hell out of here before crazy, crazy Lia finds her way back.
Another scream rends the air, and I freeze—then run. I don’t even know where I’m running to, but I figure if I make my way along the walls, I’ll find a door eventually. And if I’m lucky, it’ll be on the early side of eventually.
But I’ve barely taken a step before a roar follows the scream, this one deep and powerful and completely animalistic. For a second, just a second, I think it might be Jaxon, and a new rush of terror slams through me.
Then logic reasserts itself—I’ve heard Jaxon sound a lot of different ways, but never like that. Never like an animal with no human qualities at all.
There’s another roar, followed by the sound of something slamming into the wall. Another scream, some growls, something breaking, something hitting the wall again.
Lia’s obviously in a fight, and I should take the opportunity to find a way out and run like hell. Except what if I’m wrong? What if the person making those growls and roars is Jaxon. What if he’s as dizzy as I am and can’t fight her off? What if—
I take off running toward the wall that I can hear things clattering against. It’s a dumb move—the dumbest—but I have to know if it’s Jaxon. I have to know if he’s okay or if she’s doing to him whatever she’d planned to do to me.
I knock my knees against something as I try to make it to the other side of what I’m beginning to realize is a huge room. Whatever I bumped tips over, and liquid splashes onto my feet and the long cotton shift Lia has me dressed in for some reason.
The water feels gross, squishing inside my toes and soaking through my dress, but I ignore it as I take off running again as fast as I can. To be honest, that’s not saying all that much considering the drugs and my raw, wet feet, but I do my best. At least until what feels like a thousand candles burst to life all around me and all at the same time.
As their flames illuminate the room, I stop dead in my tracks. And wish with everything I have that I was back in the dark.
58
Never Do a
Trust Fall
with Someone
Who Can Fly
At least I know exactly where I am. The tunnels. Not the part of the tunnels I’ve already been in, but one of the side rooms they lead to that I haven’t seen before. Still, I’m sure that’s where Lia has brought me. The architecture—not to mention the bone chandeliers and candelabras—is a hard decorating choice to forget.
Too bad the obviously human-bone candle holders are the least terrifying thing in the place. The same can’t be said for the—at least—two dozen three-foot glass vases filled with blood that line what can only be described as an altar in the center of the room. At the center of which is a stone slab with bloodied ropes.
So, not actually that far off when I snarked about being a human sacrifice. Fantastic.
A quick glance down at my legs shows just why that “water” squishing between my toes felt so gross earlier. Because it’s not water. It’s blood.
I’m covered in someone else’s blood.
Funny how that sets me off worse than anything else in this nightmarish hellscape. But it totally does. I manage to swallow down the scream clawing at the inside of my throat, but it’s a close thing. So close that I can’t stop a little whimper from doing the same.
And that’s before I turn around and see a giant green dragon flying straight toward me, wings beating fast and talons extended.
Not going to lie—I freak out. Like totally, absolutely freak the fuck out—screams absolutely included. I duck down, try to make myself as small as possible as I run for the door, but I know it’s too late even before a volley of flames streams right by me, slamming into the stone wall to my right.