His mouth snaps shut and his brows draw together. I sense his mounting confusion as I drop his hand and step closer to the cage. My forehead stings as I bring it right up to the bars, the searing kiss of iron scorching my skin. I ignore the pain, narrowing my eyes on the shadows beyond. Trying to pull the occupant inside into focus.
“Hello?” I whisper. “Is someone there?”
A growl comes in answer.
It is a feral sound, like a wild wolf caught in a snare. Chills break out across my flesh and the hair at the back of my neck rises in alarm. I jolt backward several inches, pulse pounding hard.
“Soren, get the torch.”
He crouches beside me, bringing the light close to the bars. Illuminating the crouched form inside.
Not a beast at all, but…
A girl.
She looks around my age, though it is difficult to tell. Most of her face is obscured by matted hanks of hair that have not seen a brush in gods only know how many years. It cascades practically to her feet. She is clothed in a nightgown similar to the one Arwen is wearing, but it looks frayed with age and streaked withfilth. Her skin is nearly as dark as the shadows of her cage. But her eyes…they glow bright, green as the new shoots that erupt from the frozen earth each spring…and swirling with unchecked power.
My heart lurches as our gazes hold.
For beneath that telltale swirl, I see only madness. Madness and…
Rage.
“Rhya, we really should—”
Soren’s words cut off sharply. Because at that moment, the ground begins to vibrate and the air begins to buzz. The bellwether of an earthquake. As I stare in shock through the bars, as I feel the surge of maegic swelling in the air, visceral despite the deadening ore in these walls…I know this quake will be like no other I have ever endured.
For we are standing at its epicenter.
And staring at its source.
“It’s her,” I choke out, hardly believing the words I’m about to say. “She is…She’s…the Remnant of Earth.”
Chapter
thirty
I think the whole prison will come down around our ears as we ride out the rampant trembles of the earthquake. Soren tucks most of my frame under his, as if that will protect me when the ceiling crashes in, refusing to move away until the last of the aftershocks have faded.
“No wonder the quakes have been so bad in recent months,” he says, staring through the bars with the same shocked look I’m certain is etched across my own features. “She’s been setting them off.”
The girl growls again and chucks something violently against the bars. A rock, from the sound of it.
“Gods,” I mutter. How long has she been here? Weeks? Months? Years? No wonder she’s gone mad. I’ve been in this place for an hour and feel like my mind is under assault. “We need to get her out of here, Soren. Now.”
His head snaps sideways to peer down the length of the corridor, which is littered with piles of fallen debris where the ceiling crumbled loose. Plumes of dust dim our visibility nearly to zero. “Vaughn!”
With a muffled oath and a few hurried steps, the half-Titan emerges from the gloom smacking dirt from his breeches. “I’mcoming, I’m coming. Whole cellblock collapsed at the end of the hall. Bloody mess. Squished limbs everywhere.”
“Vaughn.”
He looks up at Soren’s severe tone. “What? What could possibly top squished limbs?”
“Her.” I point at the cage. My fingers get a bit too close to the bars and, almost before I have a chance to yank them back, a broad set of white teeth try to snap the tips off. “She’s the Earth Remnant.”
Vaughn takes one look at her and his mouth drops open. “So you’re saying that quake…that washer?”
The girl snarls so ominously, I flinch back into Soren.