The Darkest Night (Lords of the Underworld #1)(76)
Author: Gena Showalter

Trembling, tears again burning her eyes, she pushed to her feet. She didn’t take the key from his now-open hand because she didn’t need it. She planned to use the same escape route the prisoner had used.

But first… Go on. It’ll hurt, but you have to do it. Hand shaky, she picked up the stool McIntosh had been sitting on earlier and slammed it into the metal bars until one of the legs snapped off. She used the jagged edge to scratch desperately at her arm. She winced, nearly cried out. Blood flowed, and she whimpered at the pain. Finally she reached the GPS chip. She dug it out and tossed it on the floor, hiding it in the dirt.

Hurry, Darrow. Hurry. She couldn’t risk running into any more of the Institute’s employees up top. Most were probably sick, like McIntosh had said, but that didn’t mean the ones who were well would let her waltz out. Bringing the prisoner’s voice to her mind, she stumbled to the cell’s only toilet and twisted the bolts that fastened it to the wall. Some didn’t want to budge and she had to force them, nearly breaking her fingers as she did so. When the last fell onto the dirt, she kicked the toilet aside.

A man-made hole stared up at her, a hole someone had dug straight to the outside world. She didn’t want to crawl through the tight, black space, but with only one backward glance at McIntosh’s prone body, she entered the opening. Total darkness surrounded her.

"Don’t panic," she said, the prisoner’s voice echoing hers in her mind. Her exhalations ricocheted from the muddy walls. A rat scampered past her fingers.

She hissed in a breath.

Forever she crawled, her legs burning from exertion. Wouldn’t have been so bad, but it was an uphill climb. Chunks of dirt fell on her, even filled her mouth, coated her tongue. Keep going. Just keep going.

She felt like the princess in Maid Maleen just then, fighting her way free. The thought brought her mind back to that strange conversation she’d had with the goddess. Or hallucination. Ashlyn would never again wish to be inside a fairy tale.

A light appeared at the end of the tunnel, small but visible. Relief flooded her, and she quickened her movements. A second later, she found a small opening. Even a child couldn’t fit through. "No. No!" She clawed and clawed and clawed.

After an eternity, she caught a glimpse of moonlit sky.

Arms nearly sagging in relief and fatigue, she pulled herself up onto the cold, hard ground. She stood, her knees knocking. Snowcapped trees towered all around her. She shivered, Maddox’s baggy clothes doing little to keep her warm.

A man screamed, a tortured sound.

She stiffened. Maddox. Maddox! Midnight must have arrived. She looked around, spotting the fortress on the horizon, but the scream hadn’t come from that direction. When she heard him again, she kicked into gear despite her exhaustion, following the sound. Another scream. A roar.

"I’m coming. I’m coming."

As she ran, Ashlyn began to cough.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

When Maddox awakened, terror was already gripping him. Ashlyn needed him.

He was… not in the forest, he realized. No, he was in his own bed, his own bedroom, staring up at the vaulted ceiling as he did every morning. But he was not chained.

How? Why?

Sunlight streamed through the window, warming him. He’d failed to find Ashlyn and the time for his death had arrived, preventing him from searching further. Reyes, he thought then. Reyes must have dragged him home.

Maddox bounced out of bed, determined to renew his search. He would find her today, no matter what. We’ll destroy the world piece by piece until she’s recovered.

There would be no resting until –

A woman’s cough stopped him midstep. He had been about to hit the hallway running, but now spun around. Ashlyn lay on his bed. Shock slammed into him with the force of a sword through the gut.

He scrubbed a hand over his face, afraid to believe. Still the vision remained. Relief swamped him, overshadowing the shock, and he ran back to the bed. A wide grin stretched his face as he fell to his knees, thanking the gods, reaching out to gather his woman in his arms.

She coughed again.

He froze, realization setting in. His grin disappeared. No! Not Ashlyn. But he studied her more closely. She was pale, too pale, and there were dark circles under her eyes. Little pink splotches marred her pretty skin.

He could have torn out his own heart.

He had suspected… he had feared… and now his worst fear had come true. The Hunters had exposed her to disease. They had probably died, one by one, allowing her to escape and find him.

Allowing her to come home to die.

"No!" he roared. He wouldn’t let her; she was his life. An eternity roasting in hell was preferable to a single minute on this earth without her.

Reyes stomped into the room, as if he had been waiting for some sign of life. He was grim and angry as a storm cloud, ready to erupt. "Has she woken yet?" He had so many cuts on his arms it was hard to tell where one began and another ended.

"No," Maddox replied brokenly.

The warrior looked her over. "I stayed nearby. She coughed all night. I’m sorry." Then, in a comforting tone, he added, "Most die within hours of becoming infected, but she’s managed to stay alive. Perhaps she’ll survive."

Perhaps wasn’t good enough. Maddox laid a hand over her too-hot brow. Commands began to spill from him. "Get me cool rags. And more of those pills, if we still have Danika’s purse. Water, too."

Reyes rushed to obey, returning shortly with everything Maddox had wanted. Ashlyn refused to awaken, so he crushed the pills and dumped the powder into her mouth. Next he poured the water down her throat.

She coughed and gagged, but did eventually swallow. Finally her eyelids flickered open and she squinted against the light. "Home," she said when she spied him, her voice hoarse. "Hurt. Worse than before."

"I know, beauty." Softly he kissed her temple. While he could be infected by Torin, he could not be infected by a human. Not that it mattered. He would have touched and held her anyway. "You’re going to get better this time, too."

"Boss… Hunter. Dead."

He nodded in acknowledgment, not wanting to speak what he was feeling about the man’s death. Satisfaction.

"What of Danika?" Reyes asked, stepping forward. "I followed the hole you came through and found the prison and the dead Hunters, but Danika was not inside."

"Might be… on her way to… New York," Ashlyn said haltingly.

Reyes paled, the color draining from his face as though it were being sucked out by the vacuum Aeron always grumbled about using. "They told you nothing else?"

"I’m sorry." She coughed.

Maddox winced at the terrible, rattling sound. He laid one of the cool, wet rags on her brow. She sighed, closed her eyes. Reyes tangled a hand in his hair, clearly frustrated, needing to pace, needing pain.