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Chapter 19
The guards drag me down the spiral staircase as low as it can go down, down into the dungeon. They drag me through the narrow hallway between the rod–iron cages. Instead of going to the cell at the end of the hall, where I was once tortured with the truth serum, one of the guards unlocks a cell along the way and throws me inside
I stumble, toppling down to the dirty floor.
The guard slams the gate closed behind me and locks it.
I want to beg him not to go, to reconsider, to say this is all a mistake.
But my crime was clear. I was trying to escape, and 1 got caught. Nothing I could say would change that.
So, trapped in these iron bars and my own misery, I watch the guard walk away, abandoning me in this dark, damp place.
Someone is wailing from down the hall, moaning like a ghost. The noise echoes through the space, unnerving.
Is this to be my home now? Am I to live out my days in the dark?
What about my pack? Who would alert them now? Could Nina still find a way?
Surely she hadn’t led me into trouble on purpose. We are pack. This had to be my own fault. I didn’t wait until late enough. or I made too much noise shifting through the hole.
Sfie has to still be out there, working to save our pack. I have to believe that. It would be far too bleak not too. I can’t succumb to hopelessness just like that.
So I start to pace. My mind wants to race so I focus on exercise instead. My cell isn’t very large, maybe six foot by six foot, but I walk from one side to the other. Back and forth, again and again. My legs are sore and my mind exhausted, but I won’t slow down. I won’t give in.
I don’t know how much time has passed. Minutes. Hours?
Suddenly, the wailing stops. The room seems to hold its breath as steady, proud footsteps come down the stairs and enter into the hallway.
“Show me where,” Caleb growls.
“This way, my King,” says a voice I don’t recognize. A guard, perhaps.
The footsteps come closer. King Caleb, Tristan, and the guard stop just outside of my cell.
I stop in my tracks and look up. Caleb’s eyes trap my own, and I swallow thickly. A fiery rage ignites within his irises, the blue of his eyes even starts to redden.
Is he about to shift
Instinctively, I take a step back.
“Open this door.” Caleb snaps.
The guard scrambles to open. He fumbles with the keys once, putting in the wrong one.
As Caleb continues to glare at me, a growl starts at the back of his throat.
The guard, hands shaking, finally unlocks the door. Caleb’s arm flashes forward. The cell door swings open so hard and fast,
it smashes backwards against the bars of the cell, making a horrible clanging noise that makes me wince
Chapter 19
The gate out of the way, Caleb storms forward into my cell.
I back up, step after step, until my back presses against the cold, lamp stone of the cell wall.
Caleb continues forward, boxing me in.
Where did you think you were going in?” he demands, voice shaking with barely constrained anger. “Did you believe you could escape me! You are mine.”
Frightened as I am down
