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There are no patrols within Wormwood, but undercover spies live and work there, reporting through a network back to Ambrose.

“I’m not afraid to enter,” I say, my words ringing with challenge.

“It’s not about that,” Seven says, his eyes bleak. “Wormwood is a warren. The gateway in and out is heavily guarded, but underneath is a maze of interconnected passages and the former sewer systems. Miles upon miles, most of it undocumented, tunneled out and expanded since we withdrew.”

“If they have been taken down there,” Nox says grimly. “Finding them will be…”

He trails off. Not wanting to voice what we are all thinking, what I am only now understanding.

If they have been taken down underground, we may never find them again.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Fawn

Iswallow down bile. Dread seeps into my bones from the frigid room. I’m naked, and although I have been around shifters all my life, it makes me feel vulnerable today.

Before us are monsters.

I already understood that Marigold was a cruel woman, yet those spiteful things she said to me, in which she pretended to be favored by Seven, barely scratches the surface of what she is.

The men are Eiden’s brothers. The ones who hurt him when he was young all because he was an omega and, at that time, could not shift. My heart breaks for him. As I look upon men who should have nurtured him and read their intentions in their unflinching gazes, I see the truth of Eiden’s words.

My body may be enclosed in a cell, but in my mind, I stand on a lonely hill, watching a storm approach. I have no protection or shelter. It is bearing down upon me. There is nowhere to run nor hide. I can only stand here and endure.

My lip quivers. I feel dampness upon my lashes and a stingy pressure at the back of my eyes.

I must be brave. Seven, Nox, and Wolf will be coming for us. I know they will. I just need to survive until then.

But a haze is settling over me—a terrible, sickly awareness of inevitability. Marigold said bluntly what these cruel men will do. The frantic churn as my mind conjures up ways to escape and false hopes while knowing that none will come to pass.

We are deep underground. The brief flashes of consciousness while they brought me here linger like a nightmare. The twisted wooden gate rising like the maws of hell. Dark, desolate buildings that seemed to suck the light. Litter-strewn cobbled streets. A fight breaking out between monsters too hideous to comprehend as they spilled out a weather-worn tavern doorway to the roar of a crowd. The flash of a blade. The arc of blood. And then a body upon the floor. Distant screams. Violent guttural language.

A howl, but not a wolf, something dreadful and wretched.

Wormwood.

I know almost nothing about this place besides Nox’s teasing comment about trolls. Now I wonder if there really are trolls in this secret, dark side of the beautiful stag city locked behind a soaring wall.

If I cannot conjure the route between the gate and the building we finally entered, my hope of escape is further thwarted by the blur of stairs and under passages I stumbled down, caught between the two guards. Even if they should unbind me and set me free, I might never find my way out. And when I reach the surface, how would a helpless Fawn flee through a district filled with beasts and dread humans?

My trembling becomes so violent that my teeth begin to chatter.

Marigold sneers, her nails rake lightly down the naked chest of one man.

Eiden’s brother. Not only his brother but undoubtedly his twin. The same red-gold hair, the same regal line of his nose and brow. He looks like Eiden in every way, yet there is bleakness in his deep, brown eyes. He caresses the back of Marigold’s neck and inspects me with villainous intentions.

He releases Marigold and steps forward. My chest catches with a sob, and my frantic gaze shifts to Eiden.

The horror on his face lights into my own fears. He strains against the chains holding him to the wall.

The brother on the left snickers. “Rut her well, Crael. Show her how a real man fucks.”

I flinch back, but Crael still fists my hair. I claw at his wrists. He only grins down at me.

“Let her go,” Eiden snarls.

The brothers only laugh.