Page 22 of Throne of Ice and Blood
“Aw, woman. This is… You’ve gotta come with me. Quick.”
Taking a step around me, he waves frantically with his hand while he hurries across the cellar floor and towards a door set into the wall on my right.
Hope surges inside me. He does know the resistance. He has to. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be reacting like this.
With excitement coursing through my veins, I jog after him. Metallic clicking echoes between the stone walls of the cellar as he unlocks the door and pulls it open.
“Hurry,” he calls, and casts an impatient glance over his shoulder. “Ain’t got much time.”
I pick up the pace as he disappears across the threshold. My feet thud against the stones as I hurry into the room after him.
Blinking, I come to a halt. It looks like some kind of storage room. Wooden crates are stacked floor to ceiling, and it’s dark. The only light comes from the torches that were set into the wall of the main room we just left. And the man is nowhere to be seen.
“Where…” I begin right as something creaks behind me.
I whip around.
But it’s already too late.
The man, who was apparently hiding behind the wall right next to the door, has already darted back out and thrown the door shut behind him. I sprint towards it and throw my shoulder against the wood right as a metallic click sounds.
Utter darkness now fills the room.
“What are you doing?” I scream at him through the door as I bang my fist against the wood.
“The only smart thing there is,” he replies from the other side. “I’m gonna give you back to the Shadow of Death and beg him for his mercy.”
“No!” I slam my fist against the door again. “Don’t do this! You can’t?—”
“Have to. If he found out that I hid you… That I helped you… He’d slaughter everyone I’ve ever spoken to.”
Summoning my magic, I shove desperately at the spark of sympathy in his chest. But it’s not there.
“Please,” I beg, trying to create a spark of sympathy that I can manipulate. “He’s going to kill me. He’s going to torture me. You can’t give me back to him. Please. I’m begging you.”
I push frantically at his sympathy again. But my lies have apparently not been enough to create any. I slam my hand against the door.
No sound comes from the other side.
Dread washes over me when I realize that he must have already left.
Wood groans in distress as I pound hard on the door and throw my shoulder against it over and over. But the door refuses to move.
“Coward!” I scream at the man who is no longer there. “You fucking coward!”
I try everything, put everything I have into it, but no matter what I do, I can’t get the door open.
Something between a sob and a scream rips from my throat as I sink down to the floor and brace my back against the cold stone wall.
Goddess fucking damn him.
Goddess fucking damn it all.
Why can I never catch a fucking break?
CHAPTER SEVEN
Voices drift from the other side of the door. I leap to my feet and grab the only item that I could find in this pitch-black room that can even be remotely classified as a weapon. Which happens to be a particularly sturdy carrot.
