Blackbird Crowned (The Witch King's Crown #3) - Keri Arthur Page 0,66

the movement. I looked sideways to the spot where Winter had stood and saw the vague outline of a curved wall.

It took a moment to actually register the fact that I could now see. Not well, and not fully out of both eyes just yet, but joy nevertheless surged. Sight definitely improved my chances of escape.

I blinked a couple of times and felt the muck gumming my lashes move. The moisture that still ran down my face and slicked my skin must have softened it. I blinked like a crazy woman and eventually managed to pry my eyes fully open.

The barrier I’d felt was a constantly flowing river of dark, purplish energy that emitted just enough light for me to see. I was in some sort of sewer junction that was about ten feet wide. The ceiling was high and arched and made from slabs of stone rather than brick or concrete, suggesting this place was very old indeed. Or even, perhaps, that it was something other than a sewer, despite the stench.

Three tunnels led off it. Water trickled in from two of these, pooled around my ankles, and then trickled off into the third. My gaze returned to the barrier. I had no idea whether I’d be able to get through it, but that was something I could worry about once I’d gotten free from the restraints.

I started flexing my arms, trying to gauge how much give there was in the tape around my wrists. After a few minutes, the tape shifted. The moisture slicking my skin was obviously enough that it was affecting adhesion.

I continued twisting and pulling my hands apart, trying to force enough slack in the tape to get a hand through. The movement eased the numbness, and the pins and needles hit instead. I bit down on the instinctive curse and kept twisting and pulling at the tape. Eventually, it loosened enough that I managed to pull one hand free.

I sucked in a relieved breath, bit back the resulting cough as the air burned my throat again, then ran my fingers around the outside of the tape at my waist, looking for the end of it. Picking it free from the rest of the tape seemed to take forever, and frustration surged. I couldn’t afford this delay. I had to get out of here before the bastards came back.

As if to emphasize this point, something heavy splashed deep inside the tunnel to my right.

I stilled, my heart in my mouth, barely daring to breathe as I waited to see if that splash was repeated. It wasn’t, and there was no sense of anyone approaching, but urgency nevertheless pounded through my veins. If I was caught now, when I was so damn close to getting out of here, it would break me.

But maybe that was the whole idea.

I thrust the thought away and continued to unwind the tape, my shaking fingers making the task all that much more difficult. Once it was off, I tossed it onto the ground, then repeated the process with the tape around my ankles.

I was free. But as I stepped away, my legs went out from underneath me, forcing me to grab wildly at the pillar to keep my balance. It wasn’t weakness as much as the slipperiness of the stone underfoot that was the problem. I kept one hand on the pillar and reached for my phone. Thankfully, it was there, but I couldn’t ring out because there was absolutely no reception in this hellhole. I shoved it away and checked Elysian; she remained strapped to my back. It seemed the only thing I’d lost was one goddamn shoe.

But Elysian’s presence did raise an interesting point—was she the reason they’d been unable to take me through the dark gate?

There’d never been any suggestion she was capable of such a feat but, in a way, it would make sense, given Darkside’s beings couldn’t physically touch her.

And if that was true, then I was damn well going to keep her strapped across my back, no matter what, until this whole goddamn mess was sorted.

I released her hilt and glanced around again. I had no idea where I was, other than deep underground somewhere, and no idea which of my three exit options would take me back to the surface. There was a way to find out, however. I tugged off my remaining shoe and both socks. It would no doubt be dangerous to run barefoot through these waterways, but it would be