I immediately turned my shoulder away from his view, pulling my blue and green tunic tight around my neck.
“I am fine.”
He crouched down beside me on the sand, his knee resting inches from my boot.
“You refused to listen to me.”
He reached his hand out toward my injured shoulder.
“Now you are bleeding through your clothes.”
“I said I am fine,” I snapped, raising my right hand and slapping his fingers away from my body.
I was not fine.
My shoulder felt as if it were on fire, my right leg was throbbing with every beat of my heart, and every muscle in my back felt torn to pieces.
But I refused to let him see my weakness.
I stiffened my spine, forced my breathing to stay steady, and stared straight ahead into the dark corners of the cave.
I had spent years pretending I was stronger than I actually was.
Back in the palace, back in the hospital, I had learned to hide every tear, every limp, and every flinch so that nobody could use my pain against me.
I was not going to break that habit now in front of a handsome stranger chained to a wall.
I looked down at my lap, my hands clenching into tight fists over my knees.
Why was I sitting here in a cave worrying about a bloody shoulder?
My mind raced back to the palace.
I saw the fire spreading through the high halls.
I saw my twin sister take her last breath while her stomach was punctured with three sword holes .
I saw Cynthia and Sandra , and the destruction of everything I had ever known….
I needed revenge.
I needed to get back up to the surface world.
I needed to find Caspian and put my hands around his neck.
I needed answers about what really happened to my family.
And here I was, trapped in a dark pit, bleeding.
“How am I supposed to leave this place?” My voice dropped low, losing its sharp edge.
“I cannot stay here forever.”
I looked around at the wet stone walls and the dark river.
“There is nothing here except rocks and water.”
I shook my head.
“I would rather die than stay trapped in this hole.”
I pulled my tunic straight, adjusting the fabric over my bruised chest.
When the man reached out again to steady my elbow, I jerked my body away from his touch.
“I do not need your help,” I said firmly, glaring at him.
A sharp grinding noise echoed from a ledge high up on the side wall of the cave.
Small pebbles tumbled down the rock face, splashing into the shallow water near the bank.
Then, something larger dislodged from the upper shadows.
It rolled down the slope of stone, bouncing slowly at first, then picking up speed as it hit the lower rocks.
It bounced off a flat stone and rolled across the sand, stopping right beside my left hand.
I looked down.
My eyes went wide.
The breath caught in my throat.
Sitting in the sand inches from my fingers was a bare, hollow skull.
Its dark eye sockets stared straight up at the ceiling, and its white jawbone was cracked on one side.
It looked like a human skull, or perhaps the heavy skull of a Lycan wolf in its natural form.
My heart slammed into my ribs.
I lost all control over my body.
“AHHH!”
I screamed at the top of my lungs and scrambled backward across the sand on my hands and knees, kicking my legs wildly.
I did not think.
I did not plan.
In a second of pure terror, I lunged straight toward the only living thing in the room.
I scrambled right onto the man’s lap, throwing my arms around his neck and burying my face into his shoulder.
I held onto his black shirt with both hands, squeezing my eyes shut as tight as I could.
“What is this place?” my voice shook violently against his neck.
“What is wrong with this place?”
I tightened my grip on his shirt, my fingers digging into the fabric across his shoulders.
“Why are there skulls rolling around on the floor?”
The man’s chest suddenly expanded against mine, and a loud, booming laugh burst out of his throat.
He laughed so hard his entire body shook beneath me, his chained arm lifting slightly as he shook his head.
I opened my eyes.
I looked down and realized I was sitting directly across his lap, my legs wrapped around his side and my hands clinging to his chest like a frightened child.
Heat rushed into my face.
I shoved my hands against his chest, scrambled off his body, and landed heavily back on the sand two feet away.
“Why are you laughing?” I yelled, my voice cracking with embarrassment and fury.
I pointed a trembling finger at the skull sitting in the sand. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
“Why is there a skull sitting right there?”
I swung my arm around, pointing at the piles of old tunics and trousers scattered near the riverbank.
“And why are all these clothes lying around?”
The man adjusted his shirt, his gray eyes shining with amusement as he sat back on his rock.
“Too much questions ,” he said, a broad smile spreading across his face.
I pulled my legs in and crossed my arms over my chest.
“What ?”
“Seems, you are ready to have a normal conversation,” he said.
“I want to leave this place,” I said, keeping my tone dead serious.
“Is there actually a way out of here or not?”
He did not answer right away.
He rested his hands on his knees, watching me closely.
“How long have you been down here? I need you to tell me the truth not lie again ” I asked, looking at the heavy iron chain pinned to the wall.
“And why are you chained like an animal?”
I paused, studying his smooth, unwrinkled face and his sharp jawline.
“Are you really over a hundred years old?”
He stopped smiling.
His gray eyes turned cold and serious.
“I am not lying to you.”
His deep voice carried through the quiet cave.
“I have been in this cave for a hundred years.”
“A hundred?” I repeated.
“Yes,” he said.
“That is impossible,” I said, shaking my head.
“Nobody stays in a cave for a hundred years.”
“Only the Moon Goddess knows how long I have truly been locked to this wall,” he said quietly.
I stared at his face.
There was not a single line on his skin.
His white hair was long, but his face looked no older than a man in his late twenties.
“How can you be that old?” I asked.
“You look young.”
He gave a small shrug with his right shoulder.
“I cannot convince you with words.”
He turned his head and glanced toward the slow-moving river water.
“I have not looked at my face in a proper glass for a very long time.”
He paused, touching his jaw with his long fingers.
“Sometimes I see my reflection in the water of the river. I know I still look young. If someone told me I had been here for a century, I would doubt them too.”
I leaned forward slightly.
“If you are truly that old, why haven’t you died of old age or hunger?”
“Because of my kind,” he replied.
“What kind?” I asked, my eyebrows pulling together.
“I belonged to an ancient bloodline before I was brought to this pit,” he said, looking down at the iron ring on his wrist.
“My kind does not age the way ordinary beings do. My body does not wither.”
He looked back up at me.
“I do not grow weak with age, and I do not starve the way normal wolves do when they are stripped of their abilities.”
My eyes widened slightly as I listened to him.
“I am very strong,” he said, his voice quiet.
“That is why this iron was placed on me. That is why you cannot treat this cavern like an ordinary prison.”
I remained completely silent, listening to the rushing sound of the waterfall.
“If you do not calm yourself and work with me, you will remain here,” he said.
He pointed his finger toward my face.
“You will grow older as the years pass.”
His tone turned dead serious.
“You will eventually grow weak and die.”
He pointed his hand toward his own chest.
“And I will still be sitting on this rock watching you rot.”
I swallowed hard, a cold lump forming in my throat.
“If you truly want a chance of getting back up to the surface to finish what you started,” he said, “then you need to stop fighting me and start working with me.”
I stared at him, my mouth dry.
“First, I need to know why you fell into this place,” he said, his eyes lowering to the sand near my feet.
“And second, I need to know what that is.”
He raised his index finger and pointed to a spot on the ground three feet behind me. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
I turned my head and looked down.
Lying on a patch of dry sand near the flat rock was my family heirloom a small, silver metal casing with my family crest carved into the top.
My heart gave a hard thump against my ribs.
I scrambled across the sand, reached out with both hands, and snatched the heirloom off the ground.
I pulled it tight against my chest, covering it completely with my fingers.
I turned back to face him, my posture stiffening.
“You do not have the right to know anything about this.”
The moment those words left my mouth, the man’s expression changed completely.
The light gray color in his eyes vanished in a split second.
A deep, solid red filled his pupils, glowing with a dangerous light in the dim cave shadows.
My entire body froze.
The hair on my arms stood straight up.
He stood up from his rock.
The heavy iron chain rattled loudly, pulling tight against the wall.
His voice dropped into a low, terrifying tone.
“That is your problem.”
He took a step toward me, his tall frame blocking out the light behind him.
“If actually I want to treat you as my sacrifice i could easily take whatever I want from you, and you would end up dead like the others whose clothes are lying by the river.”
He stared straight into my eyes with those solid red pupils.
“But you carry something that answers questions I have had for a very long time.”
I stared into his glowing red eyes.
The arrogance and defiance drained right out of me.
For the first time since I opened my eyes in this cavern, I felt genuine danger standing right in front of me.
Sacrifice?
This man is scary
I lowered my hands slightly, taking a slow, quiet breath to calm my racing heart.
“My apologies,” I said, keeping my voice soft and steady.
He stayed still for three long seconds before the red color faded from his eyes, returning to that sharp, cold gray.
He sat back down on his broad rock.
I glanced down at the heavy iron cuff wrapped around his wrist.
“So,” I began, trying to change the topic, “have you ever tried escaping this place?”
I pointed at the thick iron link pinned into the cavern wall.
“Have you tried breaking that chain?”
The white-haired man shook his head slowly.
“I have tried many times.”
“And nothing happened?” I asked.
“Nothing,” he said.
“The iron does not bend, and the ring does not move.”
My old irritation flared up again.
“You simply did not try hard enough.”
I stood up from the sand, ignoring the sharp ache in my legs, and walked straight over to his rock.
“I will break it myself,” I said.
I reached out with both hands and grabbed the thick iron chain right above his wrist.
The moment my bare skin touched the metal, a violent, invisible force exploded out of the iron links.
“AHHH!”
A massive wave of power slammed straight into my palms.
The force lifted my body right off the ground and threw me backward through the cavern.
I flew fifteen feet through the air and crashed straight into the middle of the river with a huge splash.
The water swallowed me whole.
At that exact second, a bright blue light flashed across the entire cavern.
The blue glow lit up every wet stone wall, illuminated the rushing waterfall, and reflected off the dark rocks on the floor before vanishing into complete darkness just as fast as it had appeared.
I kicked my legs, broke through the surface of the river, and dragged myself onto the shallow bank, gasping for air.
Water poured from my hair and my mixed purple tunic.
“What the hell was that?” I whispered, holding my hands out in front of my face.
My palms were stinging, covered in bright red marks.
“Magic?” I breathed, staring at my fingers in disbelief.
My breathing became heavy and fast.
We were werewolves stripped of our abilities.
Our strength was gone, our senses were dull, and our wolves were completely silent inside us.
Magic should not exist here.
I lifted my head and looked back at the white-haired elder sitting on his rock.
His gray eyes were fixed on me, unblinking and unbothered.
My voice dropped into a low whisper as I stared at the heavy iron chain on his wrist.
“Wait…” I stared from the chain to his face.
“Are you the moon goddess husband??”