Sun Broken (The Wild Hunt #11) - Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,91

barely see his silhouette, but his aura shone brightly. So, he was the Keeper of Keys. I wondered just what else he could do. All of the Ante-Fae were unique, all incredibly powerful even when they were young. Raven hadn’t even begun to come into her powers yet and she could throw fire, as well as a number of other tricks. I wondered what she would be like when she was fully grown.

As Trinity stiffened, I felt a shift. I slowly withdrew my sword, waiting.

Another moment, and Trinity let out a shout as the tunnel lit up. Then, as the light dimmed, a tall woman with golden hair, wearing a PVC jumpsuit, swung around the corner. Her eyes were blazing with a crimson light, and she held out one hand, palm facing us, and laughed.

Trinity flew through the air, slamming into the opposite wall of the tunnel. The invisible force then found me, smashing me back against the wall and holding me tight. I struggled, trying to free myself, but I couldn’t. The next moment, another wave came rippling through the air, and this time, everything went dark.

When I came to, I was chained to the wall of a largish cavern. I was hurting—or at least my wrists were. They burned, feeling raw. I realized there was iron in the shackles. I winced, adjusting my arms so that they were in the middle of the shackles, barely touching the metal. If I moved in the slightest, my wrists would hit the metal rings and I’d get another jolt of pain.

I looked around, trying to figure out what the hell had happened. The walls were lit by globes of light, but they weren’t overly bright—like forty-watt incandescent bulbs. I shook my head, trying to clear the cobwebs. A glance to my right showed me Trinity, also chained to the wall. He was alert and when he saw me staring at him, he gave me a solemn nod.

I glanced around the cavern. Mostly, there were just piles of rocks, and on the other side, I saw the exit back into the tunnel. There was another exit to my right, and if I gauged my distances right, it led out to the back side of Mount Bracken.

In the center of the chamber was a large metal table. I caught my breath as I realized that Raven was lying on it, her legs and arms spread wide by shackles. There were pools of blood around the table, mostly near her face and hands, and her jaw was swollen and bruised. She was staring at the ceiling, moaning softly.

My stomach knotted. I wanted to talk to her, to ask how she was, but that might bring Pandora back in here.

I thought of tugging at the shackles, but I didn’t want my wrists burnt, and right now they were already blistering. But soon my arms would get tired and the minute they started to drop, they would hit the sides of the shackles and burn even more.

I looked back at Trinity. The Ante-Fae weren’t as hard-hit by iron, and he was wearing long sleeves, so he had some protection from the manacles. He caught my gaze and tentatively smiled. Grateful for the gesture, I felt like crying. I hated being helpless. When all control was stripped away, I had to face my vulnerability. Raven was obviously hurt, I could tell from the blood. And before long, I’d be burned too badly to do anything.

My sword, I thought. Where’s my sword?

A glance around the cave told me that it was over against the other wall on a stone outcropping, along with my bow, and some other things that I assumed were Trinity’s.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

The sound caught my attention. I looked around, trying to pinpoint it. There, against the other wall, near my weapons—a small trickle of water was slowly running down the rockface, pooling at the bottom. Or was it?

It was water all right, but as I squinted, I could see that it wasn’t pooling at the bottom, but rather flowing into a hole on the floor.

Frowning, I glanced at my wrists. I needed to go into trance, to try to see if there were any water elementals here, but that would require me to let go of my rigid stance. My arms would fester up once they rested against the iron. I tried to wiggle the sleeves of my jacket so they weren’t pushed back by the shackles, but could protect my arms, but couldn’t quite