Ties That Bind: a New Adult Fantasy Novel (The Spire Chronicles Book 2) (14 page)

While I appreciated the spunk, he just spent who knows how long getting tortured less than two hours ago. I doubt he could even walk on his own.

Burying my face back into my shoulder, I took a deep breath and formed another orb between my ankles and the chain, ripping apart the metal with a cacophony of sharp clinks. Maybe it was because I was too distracted by the pain I was already in, but it didn’t hurt as much this time. It could also be due to the small protection my boots afforded – thank everything for leather. I used what little magic that trickled out to patch my bones up as best I could; at this level of exhaustion, I wasn’t sure how effective my regeneration abilities would be. If I was dying, they’d kick in immediately, but no matter how much it may have felt like it, breaking these bones wouldn’t kill me. Shame.

My body went limp for a few seconds, and I reveled in the small break – pun unintended – before dragging myself by the elbows to the cell bars. My mangled fingers touched the cold metal, and this time, I couldn’t mute the shout of pain that raced through my hand and up my arm. I waited for a long, tense moment, my ears perked for any incoming footsteps.

When nothing happened, I steeled myself once more. This wasn’t the time to give up. I needed to push myself harder, to go past my normal limits. With a deep breath, I lifted my arm up as high as I could and trailed my fire infused fingertips down, watching as the metal glowed a bright orange and began to melt. The heat brushed against my face and being so close to the bars seared my fingers, but I fought through the pain; my entire body was burning anyway.

Unless I let it affect me, I was immune to the heat – or cold – from my magic, but not from the objects it affected. Molten metal dribbled over my skin and fat tears slid down my face once more. I could barely hold back my whimpers of pain. Hopefully, the Garou would just assume it was one of their own whimpering over a stubbed toe or something, though I wasn’t sure anything they’d do to me would compare to what I was doing to myself. I pushed myself back and repeated the action with the bars next to the ones I had already melted until there was a medium sized hole.

I could feel the skin on my elbows tear, my blood trailing over the ground, as I dragged myself to the next cell. “Please tell me you’re in this one.”

“You sound like you’re in front of me,” he said. I get that he’d been through a lot, but this habit of being painfully unhelpful wasn’t doing either of us any favors right now.

It was torturous, but I managed to melt a hole through his bars, too. A single ghost light floated into the room and vanished a moment before reappearing in Tom’s open palm. I guess the werewolves didn’t think they needed to chain him up after days of torture. The light wasn’t strong enough for me to make out his appearance, but he could have three heads for all I cared right now.

“Did you get a chance to look around the place when they brought you in?” I panted out. Please, please tell me he was as good a hunter as Alex said he was.

“Kind of,” he said, crawling through the hole.

“There’s a room with some stairs leading up. Do you know where it is?”

“If I remember correctly, yeah.”

I gave him instructions on how to get back to the tunnel from the stair room. When I was finished, I reached over and placed my hand on his shoulder, sending as much healing magic as I could into him. It wasn’t much, but it was enough that he was able to carry me, however sluggish our pace.

The trip from our cells to the storage room was a huge blur. All the worry I had about getting caught or Tom not being able to carry me the whole way was lost as I let myself be claimed by exhaustion.

I awoke to the smell of cured meats and the sight of a disheveled brunette. Tom was of average size, with curly brown hair and hazel eyes. Thick stubble covered his hollowed cheeks and deep, dark bags pulled at his bloodshot eyes. He was barefoot, and what remained of his tattered clothing was caked in blood and dirt.

“You’re gonna have to crawl the rest of the way,” he whispered, his eyes trained on the doorway. “Think you can do that?”

I managed a blunt nod and followed after him even as the world dimmed around me. I knew I had no choice but to make it out or die trying.

If I thought crawling into this place was tough, then crawling out of it was torture in a ten-gallon cup made of wasps. Mutant wasps. That shot lasers out of their fucking eyes. My ruined elbows did most of the grunt work, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see nothing but bone left when I made it out. Especially after those stupid upward slopes that made me feel like I was scaling Everest. I was able to occasionally work my knees to give myself a boost, but it wasn’t really necessary; Tom wasn’t moving much faster than I was.

I had no idea how long it’d been since we started crawling, but I was frustrated enough to consider blowing this whole tunnel up. There was no way I had the strength to do that, but thinking of ways to bring this mother down distracted me enough to keep me going. I was in a fugue state as we moved forward, and with the tunnel being so dark, I couldn’t tell if I was blacking out or if my eyes were still open.

It could have been minutes, hours, or even days later, but finally, as if by a miracle, light began to trickle past Tom’s shoulder and a soft breeze danced across my skin. I didn’t have the energy to speak, but Tom did.

“Holy shit,” he whispered, his voice so low I could barely hear him. “We made it… We fucking made it.”

The sight of freedom boosted him forward and soon the soft breeze turned into an icy wind that cut across my skin. I didn’t care. After all the pain coursing through me and crawling through the tunnel that might as well have been Satan’s asshole, it was literally a breath of fresh air. My palm relished in the texture of the dry leaves on the ground, soft and prickly at the same time. It hurt, but it meant I was almost out. Freedom was right there, just a few feet away. But I couldn’t any more. My body felt like it was made of solid lead, and I went limp halfway out of the tunnel.

“Alex?” Tom sounded ten light years away. “Dude, what are you–”

“Morgan!”

Out of everything that was happening, how I looked should be last on the list, but I couldn’t help thinking how horrible Alex must find me right now. I was covered in dirt, blood, sweat, and God knows what else. My hair was disheveled, sticking out in odd places and matted with blood in others. Lord knows what I smelled like, but it certainly wasn’t soap. I wasn’t even sure if I still had all my fingernails, though I was pretty sure one wrist was doing a weird, floppy, boneless thing.

“Broken,” I managed to utter out.

“I’m sorry,” Alex said as he pulled me out by my shoulders.

I cried out in pain and he pressed my face against his chest. “It’s okay. It’s over. I’m going to get you back to safety, okay?”

“Okay,” I said, equal parts delirious and out of breath. I wasn’t even sure if the words I was trying to say were translating properly. “Are you okay?”

He gave me a sad look and lifted me bridal style, pressing me closely against him. I curled into him with a satisfied groan. “I’m fine, Morgan. Of course I am. You’re the one who went through everything and you’re asking about me?” He swore under his breath. “What the hell were you thinking? How could you go off by yourself like that?”

I wanted to remind him that splitting up was his idea in the first place, that I was just scouting the area like he asked, but I didn’t want to fight. I never wanted us to fight again. All I wanted was to stay in his arms forever. My eyes closed and I went limp, pressing a weak kiss to his chest.

“We got to go, man,” said Tom.

“Yeah,” Alex breathed. “I can find the way back, just lean on me.”

“You sure?” he asked.

“I have a compass. I can navigate,” said Alex. “What did they do to you?”

“Bastards tortured me and my friends.” Tom spat. “I’m the only one who made it out. Thanks to Morgan here.”

“Did they hurt her? Did they–”

“Nah, man. They didn’t get to her. All they did was knock her out.”

“I’m going to kill them,” Alex growled. “They’re going to fucking pay.”

I chose to believe at least part of his rage was out of concern for me and enjoyed the warmth the revelation brought. How close had I come to losing him today, to never seeing him again? The thought brought tears to my eyes, followed by more tears as the initial bout of crying made every nerve in my body light up with pain.

“Morgan?” Alex’s voice was heavy with concern.

“Pretty sure she broke a few bones,” said Tom. “Can’t blame her for crying. She’s tough as hell, though – broke us out and still managed to crawl through those tunnels.” They were quiet for a while before Tom spoke up again. “Is she single?”

“Dude.”

“What? I’m just asking.”

“You’ve spent the last two days getting tortured.”

“It’s given me a new perspective on life.”

I didn’t need to open my eyes to know Alex was rolling his. “It doesn’t sound any different than the perspective you had before, Tom.”

“Dude, if you’re into her, just say so.”

“Tom–”

“Guys,” I groaned, the sound louder than I thought I could manage in this condition. “If you’re going to fight over me, wait until I’m awake and have jell-o to throw on you.”

9

The beeping that invaded my mind made me think I’d dozed off during an episode of
24
. I hadn’t made a habit of watching TV while high since I was twenty, though, and this dopey feeling I was currently experiencing was even more of a trip than when Rowan and I accidentally set an entire shipment of marijuana on fire. Okay, when
I
accidentally set an entire shipment of marijuana on fire.

When I opened my eyes, I was greeted with the sight of a pristine white ceiling and a sickening mixture of smells I could only label “Eau de Hospital.” It was ironic how the smell of antiseptic and whatever the hell else they used around here made me feel even sicker.

Sullivan was sitting near me, holding my hand up to his face, which was shocking enough on its own. Then, I saw his expression. He looked miserable. His hair was disheveled as if he’d run his hands through it a hundred times, and his eyes were red and glassy like he’d been crying and was about to start on round two. He took in a deep, shuddery breath and squeezed my hand. Unable to process the feelings his actions brought forth, I let my head drop to the other side to look at the IV. This shit was amazing; I needed to get the name of whatever they were giving me so I could see about getting some for myself later.

At my movement, Sullivan’s face fell back into his stoic mask and he put my hand down, making me wonder if his demeanor a second ago had been nothing more than a drug addled delusion. Well, the magic was nice while it lasted – and for him to look concerned about me was definitely magic.

“Morgan–” Wright called, coming into view a second later. At Sullivan’s disapproving glare, he cleared his throat and said, “Miss Wallace, I’m glad to see you’re okay. I was told you snuck into the Garou stronghold and rescued our sole survivor. What did you discover? Did Tom say anything to you?”

“Wright, she just woke up,” said Sullivan.

Maybe it was the drugs, or the way my stomach was roaring loud enough to challenge even the most ferocious lion shifter, but I had absolutely no interest in entertaining Wright. Despite my post-sleep grumpiness, there was a voice inside me that, as the two men spoke about something the drugs prevented me from caring about, screamed,
“Something’s wrong.”
Even if I dismissed his outburst at the prison, I knew there was something off about him. I knew it from the moment we met and shook hands. The thought played across my groggy mind twice before hitting home. I sat up, letting out a cry as the world spun around.

“Morgan!” Sullivan rushed over and placed a supportive hand against my shoulder. “You need to lie down.”

“Hand,” I said as I reached back to move the pillows so they would support me. “His hand.”

“His hand?” Wright stepped toward us with eager eyes. “What about it? What did he say?”

Sullivan held a hand out to keep the other man away. “Stand down, Wright.”

Holy shit, I was stuck halfway between Sleepville and Tripping Balls Falls. I swayed, my eyes wide open as if that would help me find my balance. Sullivan noticed my disorientation and fixed the pillows behind me so I could stay sitting up, but he didn’t take his hand off my shoulder.

“I need to get this shit streamlined into my home's air system,” I mumbled, dropping my head back against the pillows.

Wright laughed, though it sounded forced even through my high. “Tom said the same thing. Alex is with him right now, but the doctor seemed eager to kick him out. He’s pretty beat up, but you got to him in time. The bastards tortured him,” he spat, grimacing as he shook his head. “I told you they were animals, sir. Vile beasts. This just proves it. Your own daughter was captured–”

“They didn’t say anything,” I blurted out in one quick exhale to make him stop what sounded like the beginning of a really long hate-ologue. “I didn’t even see anyone besides Tom.”

“And what did he say?” Wright pressed.