Page 7

Something was seriously wrong with Uthred. He had done hundreds of Dungeon dives. He would have had to become a minor expert on how to survive in this place for his group to reach the rank of Prince. His not recognizing one of the sections of the Dungeon was unthinkable.

Not that I knew what an Ordered section was. I’d never heard of it before.

“You really must have fried your brain with…” Rorik’s eyes slid over to me before he continued. “Whatever you were doing last night. Come on, I’ll lead the way.”

Uthred got to his feet. Rorik edged to the opposite side of the wall, walking along it with his back pressed against it. Then he ducked and crawled forward. After that, he made a sharp diagonal across the floor and jumped over a section.

We all followed after him, copying his movements.

He eventually stopped in an area that was solid rock, a nice brown granite rather than the smooth white marble of the hallway behind us. Uthred stopped and put his hand on the wall, so I walked past him after the group.

“Are you there?” Uthred whispered from behind me.

“Who are you talking to?” Rorik asked.

“The Dungeon,” he said.

My skin crawled, like spiders were running along my flesh under the fabric of my school jacket. Rule forty-two: don’t attract the Dungeon’s attention. This place was a shifting malevolent sentience, a behemoth made up of shifting rooms and manifested monsters.

Rorik’s eyes widened, and he took a step back from Uthred.

“Are you suicidal? Don’t get its attention!” he hissed. “This only works because it doesn’t pay attention to us. It’s too busy with the Goddess spreading her Order within it.”

“Sure, I’ll just take a minute to get myself together,” Uthred said. Then he closed his eyes.

I didn’t realize how fascinated I’d been with him until fingers closed around my arm, squeezing hard to layer new bruises over the old. Garrick yanked me backwards, dragging me away from Uthred. He threw me, and my back slammed into the wall, knocking my breath out of me as my skull cracked against the marble, sending a sharp pain through my skull. His hand went around my throat, one of his dirty fingernails scraping against my jaw.

“You’ll be a good girl,” he sneered.

This time I didn’t smile in response, as my anger overwhelmed my fear. He didn’t get to say that to me. He didn’t get to take an expression of love and twist it into one of hate.

They were going to torture me anyway. My friends were safe.

I might as well end this quicker by fighting back.

“Fuck you,” I gasped out.

I swung one of my clenched fists at his face.

Garrick raised his forearm, blocking the blow with a laugh. Then he slapped me across the face and squeezed so hard that black spots floated in my vision. I writhed in his grip, my own fingernails clawing at his forearm before he suddenly relaxed his grip, letting the air flow back into me.

Panic and fear rushed over my anger, drawing it out, and tears pricked at the corners of my eyes. I knew this was going to happen. I knew this was what they did to the women they brought in here.

Garrick’s free hand dove down and lifted up the bottom edge of my skirt. His filthy fingernails scraped the inside of my thigh as he grabbed my underwear.

“That isn’t in Proper Order,” Rian said, his voice soft as he put a hand on Garrick’s shoulder.

My relief at the interruption faded just as quickly as it arrived, vanishing as Garrick’s fingernails dug into the skin over my pubic bone.

“You can have a turn next,” Garrick sneered at him before he yanked hard, and I heard the tear of fabric as he ripped away the last of my meager protections, yanking out several of my hairs with it.

Rian’s fingers dug into Garrick’s shoulder, and he jerked him back. Garrick let go of my throat as his eyes widened in surprise, and he staggered backwards. I sucked in air, staying where I was pressed against the wall, eyeing the two men.

What was Rian’s game?

“I said that isn’t in Proper Order,” Rian said, his voice harsher.

“Proper Order is that the strong take what they want and the weak do what they must to survive,” Garrick snapped at him as he tried to shrug off the other man’s grip.