Page 129 of Claim the Light
Now that I’m armed with more than my claws, I wait, preparing myself for when I hear Zadkiel’s approaching footfalls.
Long moments pass.
The snarls on the other side of the wall die down a little. Then start up again. The beasts seem to be prowling back and forth. Waiting, like I am.
Time stretches. The long minutes become long hours.
At one point, I nod off, only to wake with a start, but nothing has changed.
The hours become a day and by then, my hands are going numb. I’m forced to put down my weapons, but I’m prepared to pick them up at a moment’s notice.
One day becomes two, and now I’m hungry.
I have one chunk of bread left and half a flagon of water.
The beasts continue to move back and forth in front of the opening I made, but the pitch of their snarls has changed. Every now and then, they make a plaintive moaning sound.
Are they hungry too?
Zadkiel has never been absent for longer than two days. When the second day stretches into a third, I begin to consider that he might never return. He hasn’t brought me food or fresh water, and I haven’t heard him come to feed the beasts, either.
Finally, the snarls outside my cage stop and, when I dare to peer through the little opening, I make out the faint silhouette of a paw and a leg resting on the ground. One of the creatures must be lying close by.
It gives a soft whine, but that’s all.
By the fourth day, I have no water left and my choices have run out.
If I’m going to die anyway, better to do it while I’m still strong enough to put up a fight against the creatures outside my cell.
Assuming I can even break the wall open now.
Cautiously, I use the blunt end of one of my makeshift weapons to tap the wall. The stone is so brittle that it cracks off at the lightest touch.
I test it on a higher spot and with slightly more force, expecting the wall to remain solid.
Crack!
The sharp sound is followed by a cascade of cracks and then, to my shock, the fissures extend in all directions, a vibration ripples through the wall, and the surface fractures across several feet.
Chunks fall in both directions—toward me and outward.
I leap back just in time to avoid being hit in the head as a portion of the wall above me also collapses.
I left one of my makeshift weapons on the bed, but I don’t dare take my eyes off the beasts now directly in front of me, gripping my remaining plank of wood in my left hand.
On the other side of the wall, multiple yelps sounded as the stone clattered down, and dust fills the air.
As it clears, I find myself facing another cage, but this one has bars and a fully visible door with a latch that looks like it could be broken but has remained in place.
Four shapes move in the darkness. I make out sleek, black bodies, silver eyes that disappear when they blink, and silver claws that extend and retract as they prowl toward me.
They look like panthers and my memory stirs.
But no… They can’t be…
Not the shadow panthers my mother told me about. One female and three male. She was convinced these beasts had hidden themselves from the world in a mountain somewhere.
Yet here they are. All four of them. Each with unnaturally silver claws and eyes that betray their species.
