Page 94 of Into the Abyss
“Magnus,” Wren said slowly. “I… ah… I’m notsure that’s a great idea. It sounds a little—”
The rest of her words were drowned out whenI rammed my horns into the symbol again. My horns took the brunt ofit, but this blow jarred my spine all the way to my tailbone. Headthrobbing, I pounded the ceiling with my horns again.
I don’t care if I break every bone in mybody, I’ll destroy this thing.
Pulling my head back, I was about to ram thesymbol again when the low grinding noise became an ominousgroan.
It’s booby-trapped.
I had only a second to register this,release the bars, and lunge toward the front of my cell beforedebris broke free from above to pelt my shoulders and back. A chunkof building the size of a boulder hit me between my shoulder bladesand knocked me to one knee.
When another one crashed onto my othershoulder, I fell to my knees. Debris piled up on my back so fast Iwas certain it would bury me alive. Dust clogged my nostrils andfilled my mouth when I drew in a breath.
Choking, I tried to spit out the cascadingrubble, but there was no escaping it. My next breath brought thedebris all the way into my lungs.
“Magnus!” Wren’s scream barely penetratedthrough the thunderous clatter of my grave falling around me.
Amalia! I have to get to her.
The thought of her gave me a fresh wave ofstrength. When I stretched my arm out, my fingers curled around alarge rock, and I used it as leverage to pull myself out from underthe crushing weight of debris. Rocks slid away from my back as Istrained to pull myself forward inch by excruciatingly slowinch.
And then, some of the weight gave way enoughfor me to scramble to my feet. The rubble causing the floor to risebeneath my feet forced me to run in a hunched-over position towardthe front of the cell. I would have only one chance at freedombefore everything collapsed on top of me.
Lowering my shoulders, I ran full speed atthe bars.
• • •
Amalia
Pride lifted my mother’s head from the ground andheld it before me. I recoiled from her unseeing eyes and gapingmouth.
“Are you going to tell me no again?” Prideasked as he waved her head at me.
He wanted to see me break and watch mecrumble, and I was so close to doing that, but I couldn’t. If Idid, he’d destroy me, and I wouldnevergive him thatsatisfaction.
“You bastard,” I whispered.
My father lunged for the head, an inhumansound issuing from him. His hand snatched at the air and came upwith nothing as Pride swung it beyond his grasp.
“Givehertome!” my father bellowed.
I winced at the raw agony pouring from him,but gradually his sorrow became replaced with a building rage thatwould make the erinyes proud. And the erinyes demons more thanlived up to the name the humans had given them—furies.
When my father leapt at Pride again, I doveforward and wrapped my arms around his waist. I managed to stop himfrom grabbing the horseman. “Paupi, please no,” I pleaded.
The death of my mother also doomed myfather, but I craved a few more minutes with him, and I did notwant Pride to destroy him. The lump in my throat threatened tochoke me as my father’s emotions poured from him. My parents hadspent over eighteen thousand years as each other’s Chosen.
I could only hope Magnus and I might havethe time they’d shared, but to lose someone after so many years,and after enduring so much with them, was a loss I couldn’t fathom,but I felt it from my father. He may still be breathing andspeaking, but he was essentially a living corpse.
When my father struggled to break out of myarms, Nalki intervened and helped me restrain him.
“No, Eron,” Nalki murmured. “Your death willsolve nothing.”
My father collapsed like someone pulled thebones from his body. Sobbing, he gathered my mother’s body to himagain.
“Now,” Pride said, his eyes focused on me.“Will you take us to them, or shall I getyourChosen?”
Around me, the shock of some of the jinn wasfading to become replaced with disbelief and anger over the murderof my mother. Their postures were rigid as they glanced from mymother to Pride and back again. In his arrogance, Pridemiscalculated the depth of the jinn’s loyalty to each othercompared to him. And so had Olgon as some of them turned angry eyestoward my uncle.
