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But what else could I do?

My eyes found the girl’s, my chest tightening when I noticed her trembling. She didn’t lower her eyes like the other two girls. Her cold glare was brimming with distrust and hatred. She thought I was one of them.

Was I about to prove her right?

Rage and frustration crackled through my muscles as I straightened my back. If I didn’t do what the minemaster ordered, the Rathalans would discover my secret. Then I’d be killed or enslaved, and Lila would be put to death by the Kovak king when I didn’t return with the stone.

But I can’t hurt this girl.

What choice do I have?I argued with myself.

I moved toward the post, gripping the whip so tight my knuckles were white.

A vision of Lila filled my mind. The thought of her being half-starved and chained in the dungeons of Askeland was the only thing that kept my feet moving forward.

The platform creaked underneath my boots. The blood pulsing in my ears was so loud I barely noticed the hush that had fallen over the mine.

I stopped in front of the three girls. The dark-haired girl was still glaring at me, but I couldn’t meet her eye. I glanced over my shoulder toward the stairs that led up to the tower. Only two guards blocked the exit. And only one looked fully alert. Maybe I could?—

“Get on with it!” the minemaster barked.

“Jeddak—” breathed Kah. He was clearly as panicked as I was.

And he wasn’t going to like what I was about to do next.

Suddenly, a hand gripped my shoulder. My attention shifted to see the ugly guard I’d fought last night holding me back.

“Give me that,” he snarled, yanking the whip out of my hand. “You might go too easy on them,towerguard. I’ll show you how it’s done around here.” He leaned his mangled face close to mine and whispered, “I’m going to enjoy this. And when I’m finally done, that girl’s going to wish you’d never shown up last night.”

I balled my fist to strike him, but he shoved me backward and advanced toward the three girls, limping from his injuries.

Kah said nothing as the guard’s whip cracked on the older girl’s back. She cried out and tugged against her restraints.

The black-haired girl watched in horror as her friend screamed. She tried to whisper words of comfort but choked on them as the whip fell. I didn’t even know her name, but I could imagine how much she hated me right now.

I felt sick to my stomach, my fists shaking as I suppressed the overpowering urge to pound the guard into the ground. How was I any better than the Rathalans if I just stood by and watched this injustice unfold? I couldn’t live with myself if I did nothing. But the odds were stacked against me.What am I going to do?

Just then, a hooded figure emerged from the shadows, holding up his hand.

From the platform, the minemaster saw him. “Wait!” he shouted at the ugly guard, whose expression contorted in anger at being interrupted.

The cloaked figure mounted the steps to the platform, pausing to study the spectacle.

“That’s enough, mineguard,” the figure said, pulling back his hood. It was the guard commander, the man who’d demoted me to a mineguard last night. He had a curious look on his face when he saw the dark-haired girl, as if he’d been given the reins to his first horse.

“But, Commander?—”

“That’s enough, I said!”

The guard snarled but dropped his whip in compliance.

A nervous energy swept through the mine, making me guess that the guard commander didn’t typically interrupt the punishment of mine workers. Six towerguards stood motionless at the mine entrance, their black silhouettes like soldiers of death from the shadowlands.

Commander Bloodbain turned toward the minemaster. “Lord Thrailkull has requested this girl be brought to him. Unbind her.” When he pointed to the black-haired girl, her eyes widened.

“What about the other two, Commander?” the minemaster asked.

Commander Bloodbain raised an eyebrow at the older girl’s semi-conscious body with blood trailing down her back. “It seems like she’s had enough if you want her back to working tomorrow.”