Page 27 of Veil of Shadows (Fae of Woodlands & Wild #2)
CHAPTER 27
Phillen grasped the door handle and with a mighty wrench, tore it open. Before I could inhale my next breath, Jax was down the hole, leaping from the forest floor to the bottom of the stairwell in blurred speed.
My heart lurched, but nobody hesitated. In seconds, the entire band of dark raiders were underground, and I hurried to race down the stairs after them.
The sounds of the Wood quickly fell behind me. Stone slid beneath my soles. Musky, damp scents assaulted me. Solid rock walls met my fingertips when I reached out. It was exactly as the semelees had shown me.
Torches lit the stairwell, and my eyes widened when I beheld two massive fusterills lying at the bottom, already unconscious. Jax hadn’t been kidding. He’d made quick work of them, and given the strength of Jax’s magic, I highly doubted the guards had even known what hit them.
“Elowen, which way?” Jax asked quietly.
It took me a second to realize I’d frozen and was staring at the guards. Snapping myself out of my shock, I got my bearings.
Three tunnels branched out from this stairwell, all carved from stone. Water dripped from the ceilings of all of them, a steady drip, drip filling the quiet.
“That way.” I pointed at the right tunnel.
Jax took off, leading the way, with me closely behind him, and the others silently padded at my back. The tunnel snaked downward, and heavy pulsing magic emanated from the walls, making a sickening throb grow inside my head.
Several times we reached intersections, and I kept a firm grip on the information the semelees had shared with me. Take the right tunnel from the stairwell, past three intersections. At the fourth go left. Look for a cell on the right, sixth door down. I’d already told Jax that, but he didn’t have the visuals the semelees had given me, and they’d warned me that magic cloaked entrances to caverns in this labyrinth. I not only had to remember the directions they’d shared, but I also had to assess the feel of each tunnel.
A few steps past the second intersection, Jax raised his hand in a silent gesture. I stopped just in time to prevent myself from smacking into him.
Male voices came from down the tunnel.
“Move that group to the training cavern,” a deep voice said in the quiet, his tone reverberating on the walls ahead. “They’re starting training today. And those females there, take them to cavern eight. They’re to be bred tonight.”
My stomach twisted as I hovered behind Jax. Training? Being bred? What in the realm is happening down here? How I wished I’d been able to demand more answers of the semelees.
Jax didn’t move a muscle as we waited to see which way the males went. Not that it mattered. If whoever was ahead happened to venture our way, they’d spot us immediately. The tunnels were too narrow to hide anywhere. But I also knew Jax could coat us in illusion magic at the last second, hiding us from view.
Footsteps finally drifted farther away, and then the males speaking grew quieter.
My heart thundered.
Jax crept forward, his steps silent. The only sound I heard was my own breathing through my mask and that constant drip, drip from the water.
Jax took off again, moving swiftly now that we were in the clear. Moments later, we reached the third intersection, and a branch of four new tunnels appeared. Moans came from down one, banging from another.
Jax was about to continue onward, but I reached out and grabbed his waistband. He stopped and peered over his shoulder at me.
I closed my eyes. Something about this intersection felt different from the others. I paused, sensing the magic around us.
“It’s this one,” I whispered.
He cocked his head, knowing damned well that we hadn’t reached the fourth intersection yet, but this one felt right.
“You’re certain?” he asked, speaking just as quietly.
I nodded. “The third one must have been cloaked. It’s this one.”
He inhaled sharply and turned left. The tunnel cut steeper downward, and the moans ahead increased.
Every fiber in my body turned on high alert, and it felt as though my heart would leap into my chest. Behind me, the others crept silently, so quietly that I looked over my shoulder several times just to ensure they were still there.
The tunnel abruptly ended, and a huge cavern emerged. Jax’s breath sucked in, and I nearly squeaked.
Torches flickered higher up, dimly lighting the huge space. A huge circular room lined with solid doors waited. Thumps came from behind the door nearest me, as though whoever or whatever was in it was banging its head against it. Moans came from another. Scratching sounds emitted from one farther down. But the rest were silent.
“Stars and galaxy,” Bowan whispered so quietly that I almost didn’t hear him.
Jax inhaled sharply but let out a frustrated growl, and I couldn’t help but wonder if whatever magic contained this space was masking scents too.
But this cavern looked exactly as the semelees had shown me. “He’s in that one.” I pointed to the sixth door, and within seconds, we were all surrounding it.
Lars and Phillen immediately covered our flanks, turning outward and watching the entrance to the cavern.
Jax grabbed the door handle and shoved.
The door didn’t budge.
He shoved his shoulder into it, and the door creaked but still refused to open.
“Let me try.” Before he could attempt muscling his way through it again, I whispered the most powerful unlocking spell I knew.
Potent lorafin magic swirled around me, billowing the air around my mask and clothing.
An unclicking sound followed, and the door opened.
Jax’s eyes crinkled in the corners, and I knew he was grinning at me, but before any of us could celebrate, an alarm blared.
My breath sucked in just as Jax shoved the door fully open.
A male with antlers appeared on the other side, sitting on the floor. Dark hair covered his head. Muscular arms were visible in his thin tunic. He sat upright, legs sprawled out in front of him, his back to the stone wall, but he didn’t move. He didn’t even flinch at our violent entrance.
Jax’s entire body tensed. “Bastian?”
Bootsteps sounded in the distance, running through the distant tunnels as the shrill alarm continued to wail, and two things hit me at once.
Guards were coming, and the male who sat despondently in this cell, as though completely unaware of us, was Jax’s missing brother.