Leaving the enchantress still sprawled on the stone floor, Briana stepped over her. She didn’t get far before footsteps echoed in the corridor ahead of her. There were too many scents—dampness, blood, matted fur and unwashed bodies—to pick through to better identify whoever approached.
Briana flattened herself against the wall, slipping the dagger from the sheath strapped to her calf.
Vaughn rounded the corner, arching a brow when he saw the weapon in her hand. “When I used to joke about you playing for the other team, this isn’t quite what I meant.”
Sighing, she lowered the blade. “I’m a little jumpy.” She didn’t bother to mention what had happened with the enchantress. It would lead to more questions than either of them had time to get into.
“I’d say you’re entitled seeing as you’re mated to a wraith.”
Given Nessa’s comment about Briana being a walking blood bank right before Maeve and Aren had sent them here, it shouldn’t surprise her to know that Elena had filled Vaughn in on what the Lady of the Lake had said.
She couldn’t say the same about the barely veiled disgust in Vaughn’s voice. He’d never been one of Lucan’s biggest fans, but neither had he seemed that strongly bothered by him, as long as he didn’t have a sword at his throat.
They walked in silence, and thinking about what Lucan had said at the start of the Gauntlet about her own friends turning on her if the stakes were high enough, she questioned the wisdom of putting either her or Vaughn in that position with only two challenges left to go.
Thinking of parting ways with him in favor of finding Lucan, she paused at the next place the corridor branched off. Camelot’s subterranean levels were almost as confusing as the catacombs.
“Don’t go that way,” Vaughn cautioned, pointing to the stairs that disappeared to the level below.
Briana hesitated. “How do you know what’s down there?”
He shrugged. “Stole a few things from the weapons room down that way. A heavily guarded weapon’s room.”
Somehow she knew his “few things” was probably an understatement. “How did you get past the guards?” If he’d liberated anything from Morgana’s armies this deep inside Camelot, he must have had help.
“A goddess may have been involved.”
Briana stopped. “Rhiannon?” Since when had she taken an interest in the rebellion? She couldn’t imagine Vaughn risking his neck for anything else.
Nodding, her friend paused before choosing the corridor that went left. “Any excuse to make trouble for Morgana.”
Not for the first time Briana wondered why Rhiannon, far more powerful than Morgana, hadn’t taken care of the power-hungry sorceress herself. What was Morgana holding over the goddess’s head?
The corridor slanted downward, the lighting dimming as they moved into what she could only assume was one of Camelot’s dungeons. She’d heard the original dungeon had been expanded to satisfy Morgana’s desire to imprison and torture anyone who still admitted loyalty to Arthur.
The first row of cells they passed sat empty, but the further into the area they moved, the more cells showed signs of humans and immortals huddling in the farthest corners.
“Where are all the guards?” She lowered her voice as much as possible.
“Waiting to jump out and yell surprise?” Vaughn ventured.
This was one of the few times she didn’t quite appreciate her friend’s sense of humor. Increasingly wary, she half expected some of the more coherent prisoners to raise the alarm, bringing half of Morgana’s army down on their heads.
The enchantress hadn’t been that far off the mark with her earlier comment. The vines would be far more merciful than the sorceress who’d encouraged her son to kill her own brother.
Vaughn frowned. “The population’s grown since I was here last.” Something in his tone warned her that he wasn’t talking about the time he’d raided the place for weapons.
Briana kept her attention fixed straight ahead, trying to ignore the pull to free those of her race she could hear growling in their cells. The odds of an unplanned jail break having any chance of success was slim to none when she didn’t even know the way out. “Is this where she keeps them?”
“Anyone affiliated with the rebellion, yeah,” Vaughn finished.
It crossed her mind to ask if his imprisonment had anything to do with his nightmare the other day, but her attention fell to the shadow on the floor to her right. The crescent vanished as someone’s body blocked the candlelight—the only cell to have any—projecting the shape on the floor.
Vaughn walked ahead a few steps before noticing she’d stopped. “What is it?”
Red eyes gleamed from inside the cell. A Korrigan.
She edged closer, careful to keep from making direct eye contact as the candle was extinguished. Something moved in the cell.
Two hands gripped the bars inches from Briana’s face, and she found herself staring at Lucan.
“What are you doing—” The question died on her lips when she noticed the cell door was slightly ajar and he wasn’t alone inside with the Korrigan. Nessa stood just past Lucan’s shoulder, her face as blank as Lucan’s.
They’d been entranced.
Chapter Fourteen
The roar of Briana’s blood pounding through her veins nearly deafened her. She thought they’d been sent to retrieve some kind of moon-shaped mystical object or relic, not a person.
“Kill her,” the Korrigan hissed at Lucan, stepping from the protection of the shadows to reveal the crescent-shaped glyph on the immortal’s left cheek.
Apparently they’d found Treasach’s Moon—and she wanted them dead.
Lucan frowned, his knuckles turning white where he gripped the bars. “No.”
“Do it,” the Korrigan snarled, edging toward the door. She gestured to Nessa. “No one follows me.”
Not good.
Vaughn grabbed Briana’s arm. “We need to go.”
On instinct she jerked free of his hold. “Lucan—”
“We can’t help him if we’re in pieces. Even if he can’t kill us yet, he can make it hurt like hell.”
The cell rattled as Lucan shook the bars, looking ready to tear right through them. Black pooled in his eyes. “Run,” he snapped. “Now. Can’t…fight…it.”
Pushing past Vaughn, she locked her fingers over Lucan’s. “You have to try. Do you know when I fell in love with you? Hey,” she cupped his cheek, forcing him to meet her gaze, knowing it was too late. She was losing him. “It was the moment you took my hand, after the lake, when you didn’t laugh at me for wanting to join the Guard.”
“Briana,” the pained growl bordered on feral.
“That’s the moment you stole my heart.” He needed to know that, needed something to hold onto as he spiraled into a place she knew she couldn’t reach him.
“Back away from the door.” Each word became less human sounding.
Helplessness radiated through her, and she forced herself to retreat. “It’s okay. I’m going to be okay.” She needed him to believe that. Both of them needed to believe that.
The cell door flew off its hinges, coming close enough Briana felt the breeze of it just missing her and Vaughn’s head. Nessa stepped into the corridor, her sword drawn. She made no move to attack them.
Briana couldn’t say the same about the wraith. He launched himself out of the cell, his murderous gaze locked on her. By accident or intentionally, Vaughn ended up between them. The few seconds it took the wraith to throw Vaughn away from him, allowed the Korrigan to burst past them and vanish around the corner.
The wraith bared his teeth at Briana, his lower half completely phantom. He stalked her in a circle, and she kept both the cat and her fear locked down. She knew if she moved or betrayed the damning emotion, he’d be on her and she wouldn’t have a chance.