The Summer King Bundle 3 Stories - Jennifer L. Armentrout Page 0,100

the memory of his icy breath and the horror of the feeding that resurfaced. It had felt nothing like when Cad—when the King had done it. That had been orgasmic, but this…this had felt like frigid claws reaching deep into my very core, tearing through bone and tissue and yanking out what made me who I was. Now I remembered. The tide of pain had sucked me under into an abyss.

How much had Aric taken from me? Based on the way my head felt, more than enough.

I needed to get up. I needed to figure out where the hell I was, and then I needed to find that bastard and kill him a million times over.

Turning my head, I stopped suddenly when something hard bit into my neck like a frigid vise. My eyes flew open as I lifted my hand to my neck. Metal—cold and unforgiving—encircled my throat. I pressed my palm against the band, my fingers digging into the narrow space between it and my skin as I jerked upward and scanned the…

“What the hell?” I croaked out, my voice hoarse.

I wasn’t home, that much I knew, and that was about all I knew. The flames did very little to beat back the shadows, but what I could see reminded me of… God, it reminded me of some kind of underground tomb.

A tomb.

Pressure clamped down on my chest as my wild gaze darted around the circular chamber. Two torches jutted out from a grayish brick wall, spaced several feet apart. Dark and ropey lines climbed from the low ceiling and down the walls, forming a network of veins. Vines? Across from me was a slab of stone standing about five feet high. The center was stained with something…dark.

That was when I realized that I was on a similar rectangular stone bed.

Holy crap.

I was in a damn crypt, chained by the freaking neck to a stone slab that had quite possibly been used to murder people based on the stain. My hair fell forward and slipped over my bare shoulders as I lifted my arm. Dread exploded. Part of me already knew what I was going to see when I looked down, and I wasn’t wrong. The bracelet that held the four-leaf clover was missing. Without it, I was susceptible to a fae’s glamour.

Jesus.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I struggled to stay calm. I was trapped by a psychotic creature, and I knew how this was going to end.

Not with me breathing.

No. I couldn’t think like that. I dragged in a deep, musty breath as I struggled to push back the creeping panic. I couldn’t focus on that scenario. If I did, I’d have no chance of surviving this.

Opening my eyes, I ignored the pounding of my heart as I drew up my legs and swung them off the edge of the slab. A wave of dizziness rolled over me, and I took another deep breath before I picked up the heavy chain and stood, wincing as my bare feet touched the floor. I didn’t think about how I’d lost my shoes since those suckers would’ve had to be removed as I followed the length of the chain to the metal hook embedded in the stone floor. There were several feet of chain, allowing me to edge toward the darkened area of the chamber, but not long enough to reach what appeared to be a wooden door.

“Damn it,” I snapped, stepping back between the two slabs.

I refocused, looking around the room until my gaze stopped on the vines. It seemed like the chamber was underground, but it was rare to find such a place in New Orleans and the surrounding areas. Had I been taken out of the city? And if so, how far? Or was this a place designed to appear as if it were below ground?

If I was still near the city, I had complete faith that I’d figure out where I was the moment I got outside. If I knew anything, it was the layout of New Orleans and the surrounding areas.

I’d just have to get out of this tomb first.

Tightening my grip on the chain, I looked down at the heavy metal. My thumb smoothed over a rusted section, causing some of the oxidation to flake off.

Wait.

That wasn’t rust.

It was dried blood.

Jesus.

Stomach churning, I almost dropped the links as I lifted my gaze to the door. The chain freaked me out, but it was also a weapon. An image of Princess Leia choking the ever-loving crap