Devious Claws

Chapter Twenty-seven

I felt like I was back at the old chocolate factory in Hillstone when staring at a hole the size of a flatscreen TV. We were at the foot of the castle, Blue, Luke and I - all equally suspicious. Blue kept eyeing me eyeing the hole - Luke's gun remained firmly in his hands.

"We made this a few days ago, the king used it to enter."

"You just made it? Nobody noticed a big hole in the wall?"

Blue shrugged. "Not really. Too many battles, too much chaos, way too much to notice a little hole. If they'd found it, we would've known by now."

"Or they're waiting for us inside."

Blue shrugged again, switching feet cautiously. "This'll lead you into the dungeon, then you'll almost immediately come to a staircase, follow it up into the ballroom."

"Do you know where to head next?"

"No, sadly not. What goes on in there... nobody knows."

I stared into the darkness of the dungeon. Snowflakes twirled into the hole, disappearing seamlessly. "Eros could be dead by now."

"He's not." Blue's resolve shut me up. "I can feel it. But you should hurry, if what you've said is true."

"You're not coming?" Luke questioned, not doing a good job hiding his suspicion.

"They haven't called me in yet - I have to follow my orders."

There wasn't much else to say. With a small prayer that much too big spiders didn't exist in this world, I ducked into the void, getting swallowed just like the snowflakes. Luke followed behind me; I heard his feet trying to find their way on the gravelly floor. Our surroundings were dank, smelling of mold and dirt - for the first few moments I walked forward blindly.

"Do you see that?"

I did. We were walking on a narrow path, lined by what I had at first thought were small storage spaces but could now see were cells, separating us from the empty insides with silver bars. We were quite literally in a dungeon. At first I was relieved that the cells were empty, then I saw one of the doors swinging lazily as we passed and a chilling thought crept up my spine: if the prisoners weren't in there, then where were they?

"I can't believe they have a dungeon."

"I can't believe we just walked blindly into a dungeon."

"You think we can trust him?"

I swallowed, tried to repress the fear. "I guess we'll find out - there's the stairs."

"You wanna go first?"

I looked at my knife, squinting through the darkness, before moving my gaze towards Luke's gun. It looked far more impressive. "Yeah right. Go ahead."

With a grumble, Luke hurried past me and up the small stone steps. There was a door just as Blue had said and as Luke grabbed the handle, it creaked open - it'd been broken off its hinges.

The light hit my eyes like acid.

"Oh my God!"

I raised my knife at the sound of Luke's cry and despite my watering eyes hurried through the door. Far more clean air entered my lungs as I blinked furiously. "What is it, Luke!?"

"Look!"

And I finally did look - and had to mimic Luke's exact sentiment. The ballroom was marvellous. It felt as if though we'd entered an old Roman cathedral; high, curved ceilings, golden detailings of godesses and angels I couldn't name and a floor so shiny it was hard to remember that we were in the heart of a war.

"This is insane. Are you sure we're in the right place?"

Luke looked exasperated as he turned around taking it all in. "Can you believe this? Do you see these dietys? I wonder what their stories are."

"You can ask Eros later..." I touched one of the beautiful tapestries on the wall. "Should we take a picture?"

Something crashed far away, behind the large oakwood doors on the far end wall. Luke and I simultaneously realized that we were sitting ducks in the middle of the large ballroom and hurried to the closest possible hiding spot: pushed up against the wall next to the dungeon door.

"Now what?" Luke nervously eyed the doors which had begun rattling, as if a chaotic herd was nearing.

"Who do you think's coming?"

"Could be Eros' guys - or Creed."

"Or any of the other guys going for the crown."

"Should I just shoot?"

"No." With a small prayer, I gripped the knife. "Don't shoot unless you're sure you can hit someone."

Luke pressed closer to me. We both had our gazes locked on the rattling doors.

One second.

Two.

The ballroom doors shot open just seconds before the dungeon door did. Before I could even process what happened, a hand reached out from the dank darkness and grabbed a hold of my upper arm. As it enclosed around my bicep, I let out a scream, and as a dozen men barged into the ballroom, I let out another one.

I heard a shot fire but couldn't see where it landed as I was thrown to the floor. My back screamed in pain. The back of my head produced a high pitched ringing as it went against the boards.

"Drop the gun or I kill her!"

The gun clattered to the floor beside me. Luke was standing above me, his hands held high, his soft face worriedly frowning down at me. Behind him was an angry-looking man I'd never seen before. More soon joined him.

"They smell funny."

"Humans."

"No kidding. Kill them."

"No!" Someone stepped in, another man, eyeing me in a way that made me feel a bit like a rabbit. "This must be her, the human which is bonded to Eros. Frill said she saved his life and he's given her a Royal Vow."

The man handling Luke now had a scary smile on his face. "Yes. Yes. We can have fun with this, what a find."

"Cindy..."

Luke received a swift blow to the head, making him hiss and join my side on the floor. His face contorted in pain.

Now it was my time to stand. They pulled me up, surrounding me like flies to honey. I did my best to meet their gazes, take in their appearances. In a way I thought it would help my fear. It didn't. Their faces were bruised and bloodied, a stark contrast against the clean ballroom.

They reminded me of sharks.

"This is the trump card, lads. We just won the throne." Someone pushed me in the back, towards the large doors. "Now let's find the king."

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A/N

We're nearing the end!