Calla, you are running out of time.
The voice of Isolde was a whisper across my ear, chilly as ice, soft as silk. The sound made me fline, but the shackles over my wrists prevented me from moving away.
I screamed, "You're lying," my heart banging against my ribs, my breath shallow.
Her laughter was subdued yet delighted. "Am I?"
She moved forward, her icy blue eyes glistening just under the low torchlight of the subterranean cavern.
"Your blood is the key," she said. And I meant to utilize it.
I struggled, but the iron shackles stayed still. Trying to break free left raw wrists. Under me the floor was wet, full of blood and something ancient, something strange.
Darius slumped sloppily against the tunnel wall, staring goldenly at the transaction.
I said, my voice louder than I felt: "Lucian will come for me."
Darius smiled. Oh, I am depending on it.
A shiver slid down my back.
"What are your preferences?" I insisted.
Isolde knelt in front of me, her fingers mockingly affectionately stroking over my cheek.
"Your power," she said in a whisper. "Your family's cursed legacy; the magic in your blood can break my chains, set me free." Her voice changed to become tougher. And soon I'm free, I shall end Lucian Grey.
My blood froze.
I sent a quick "You won't touch him."
Darius let out a grim chuckle. "You consider yourself able to stop us?"
I started to bite. "I am sure I can."
A fast slap broke across my cheek. Though I ignored it, pain blossomed.
"You're brave," I said to solde. But bravery will not save you.
She reached for a dagger among the folds of her robe. The blade shimmered, a terrible, old silver throbbing with magic.
She purged, "this," "from the bones of the first cursed wolf. And I shall thus shape the force from your veins.
My tummy turned over, terror lashing my throat.
I stammered.
"If my blood is the key," I said fast, "then you need me alive."
Isolde grinned. "Oh, sweetheart, relax not too much. You will only long enough to see Lucian perish.
The dagger shoved against my wrist.
Afterwards—
The air cracked with a scream.
The cavern rumbled.
From the ceiling, dust came raining. The torches flashed madly.
After that, Lucian.
His eyes shining with pure, wild rage, his silver wolf tore through the door like a force of nature.
"Leave her behind."
His voice was unvarnished, deep, full of a wrath I had never heard before.
Darius laughed, unconcerned.
"took you long enough."
Lucian silence. He shifted.
He pushed in a whirl of motion.
Darius scarcely avoided, but Lucian was quicker. He knocked into him, claws tearing over his chest. Blood sprayed the ground.
Her magic crackling, Isolde shrieked and lifted her hands.
The links around my wrists got tighter.
White-hot and intolerable, pain tore across me. I shouted.
Head turned by Lucian toward me. His darkening silver eyes reflected a shadow.
"Let her." Proceed.
Isolde laughed only.
Not till she bleeds for me.
Darius tackled Lucian as he moved to strike, knocking him onto the stone floor. With lethal accuracy, the two alphas used claws, teeth, snarls.
Heart racing, I twisted against the chains.
Calling! Lucian exclaimed. "Don't let her draw your blood!"
In Isolde's palm flashed a dagger.
I responded out of impulse.
I hurled myself ahead.
The razor fell short of expectations.
Rather it cut across my links.
I felt power exploding through me.
White-hot energy blinded, overwhelmed me from the bottom up.
I gasped; my eyes went black.
I was plummeting then as well.
From my throat, a scream tore.
And then Lucian caught me.
His arms closed around me, firm, warm, safe.
"I have you," he said in a rough, shivering whisper.
I buried my face against his chest, inhaled his scent—pine, smoking, something quite different.
From where he lay in a pool of blood, Darius groaned. Isolde disappeared from view into the darkness.
The hold Lucian took tightened around me.
"It's not over," he said quietly.
Deep down, too, I knew he was right.
Since something within of me had evolved.
Something gloom.
something risky.
And I doubted whether I could stop it.