worm devoured him with a sucking, slurping sound, the guy still screaming from inside it as I fled with Claud on my heels.
I reached the tunnel Plunger had made, shoving Claud ahead of me and following him as we had to crawl into it. The sound of someone chasing behind me told me Gustard had avoided death and was right on my heels. I clenched my teeth in irritation over that fact, moving faster and faster as the tunnel started sloping down beneath us.
The red light ahead of us suddenly lit up a wider space and Claud scrambled to his feet before grabbing my arm and pulling me up after him. If I wasn't mistaken, we were in our tunnel from earlier but much further down it. There was no way of getting to the surface now. I knew that in my heart and my gut sank like a stone as we all started running down the passage as fast as we could. The sound of footfalls up ahead filled me with relief and I looked over Plunger's head, spotting Esme, Brett and Sonny racing along together. The tunnel was too small for any of us to shift, our Order forms far bigger than our Fae forms, and I feared we might bring the whole roof down on our heads if we attempted it.
Tremors shook the walls all around us as we sprinted along, moving as fast as fucking possible to try and get back to the prison.
I wasn't going to die here in some hole in the ground. I had to return to Rosa. I'd bared my heart to her. And I would not leave this world until I’d claimed her as mine.
The tunnel curved sharply to the left and Claud suddenly turned around and pushed me back, making me slip on the damp mud beneath my feet, my ass hitting the ground. A worm lunged at him from behind, its monstrous mouth closing around his legs. He screamed wildly and I shouted out in horror, diving forward and catching hold of his hand, dropping the shank in my desperation to save him.
"Don't let go!" I commanded him and another strangled scream escaped him as the worm slurped and sucked him deeper into the depths of its horrible mouth.
I kicked at the beast, refusing to let go of my friend, but with every inch I gained, the worm took more and more of him from me. I was losing him and I cursed and fought to try and hold on as he continued to scream in agony.
A heavy body slammed into me and Pudding's hands closed over mine, trying to cling to Claud, lending me his strength as we heaved him backwards together. The worm whipped its huge ugly head sideways, ripping Claud’s hands from our grip and with a horrible gurgling sound, it swallowed my friend and his screams were silenced forever.
“No!” I roared.
He’d been the only person I truly trusted in this place since I’d arrived. He had a family waiting for him beyond Darkmore, a life. Fuck. No no no.
The creature came at us next and I felt around for my weapon in a panic, barely able to see anything as the red light beyond the worm grew fainter and fainter while Plunger left us to die.
A rock grazed my palm instead of the shank and I snatched it up, throwing it hard at the worm’s ugly fucking face, making it shriek in pain. Pudding caught on, picking up rocks of his own and managed to throw one right into its eye.
The worm turned away, lurching towards the opposite wall and cutting a hole into it, making the entire tunnel shudder as it slithered away into the mud. I got up with a shaky breath and Pudding started forward at a slow pace, gazing warily down the tunnel it had disappeared into. The roof above us rumbled and dirt started falling heavily over us, making dread wash through me.
"Run!" I shouted at Pudding, shoving him forward and he moved faster than I'd ever seen him move as the tunnel started collapsing behind us.
We sprinted down, down, down, chasing after the low glimmer of Plunger’s nose in the dark, having no idea where the others had all gone or if they’d been eaten too as death chased us, the heavy crash of rock and mud following us a hair's breadth behind my back.
I thought of Rosa and ran with determined strides. I would make it back to