章節 15: Escape from the Dungeon
But at that moment, with his searing touch still branding her from the inside out, she had never felt so exposed, so utterly disarmed of all shields and secrets. Panic gripped her as Wald pinned her with that intense, demanding stare, awaiting her confession like a hanging judge.
Thinking quickly, Madison surged up and kissed him fiercely, pouring all her pent-up desire and fear into the scorching liplock. As she'd hoped, the prince responded with instant, ravenous hunger, his rough hands roaming her body hungrily. For long, heated minutes, she was able to divert him with frantic passion, banishing all demands of revelation from his mind.
However, Wald's single-minded determination eventually resurfaced. He abruptly tore his mouth from hers, chest heaving as he fought to master himself. "You cannot distract me so easily, vixen," he growled in that deep, gravel-rough baritone that made her toes curl. "I want the absolute truth, now. No more pretty lies or clever evasions."
Madison trembled, her fragile bravery faltering under the weight of his scrutiny. She couldn't bring herself to risk confessing her true purposes, not when she had felt such a profound, unexpected connection blossoming between them. keep him in the dark a while longer, tell him in another way, anything to avoid his wrath and judgment.
She never got the chance to formulate a response. A thunderous pounding at the door shattered the tension, accompanied by urgent shouts. "Prince Wald! We must speak with you, there is an emergency!"
The prince snarled in displeasure, fangs elongating as he stalked over and flung open the door. He was met by a cluster of flustered guards and advisors, all babbling over each other in clear panic.
"What is it?" Wald roared, his booming alpha voice instantly quelling the clamor. "Out with it, before I gut the next man who wastes my time!"
The guards froze, quailing beneath his blazing glare, until the captain swallowed hard and stepped forward. "A-apologies, Your Highness," he stammered, visibly struggling to master himself. "But we have a dire situation in the dungeons. One of the prisoners has escaped his bindings!"
"Impossible!" Wald barked. "Those manacles are spelled to be inescapable!"
The captain nodded vigorously. "Aye, my prince, we all witnessed it with our own eyes. By some foul magic, the prisoner burned through the chains and overpowered his guards before we could react!"
Dread bloomed coldly in the pit of Madison's stomach as she realized who the escaped prisoner must be - Prime Minister Douglas who was caught and locked up days ago. Her handler, the orchestrator of this entire blood-soaked mission to assassinate Wald. If he was loose in the castle...
The prince seemed to arrive at the same grim conclusion. "Show me," he bit out through clenched fangs. "I want every exit and hidden passage sealed at once, no one gets in or out!"
With a roar that set the torches guttering, Wald summoned a cadre of elite guards before gesturing for Madison to join them. She fell in among the heavily armed werewolves as they hurried through the torch-lit depths toward the dungeon block.
The stench of scorched flesh and ozone burned her nostrils long before they arrived. Rounding the final corner, a scene of devastation came into view - the entire cell block a shattered, smoking ruin. Blackened corpses of guards littered the rubble, their empty sockets and frozen rictus screams bearing mute testament to an agonizing demise.
And there, amidst the horrific carnage, stood Prime Minister Douglas. The robed figure raised his hand in a negligent gesture, sending a spiral of eldritch flame arcing toward the advancing party. Wald snarled and countered the blast with an earth-shaking roar of his own, the concussive force of the two elemental powers colliding enough to shatter the stone beneath their feet.
While Wald held off the treacherous sorcerer, his guards surged forward in a phalanx of blades, silver steel glinting deadly in the dim light. Douglas laughed, a sound devoid of any warmth or sanity as he fended off their assault with terrifying ease.
Madison watched in shocked horror as one guard after another fell, impaled upon lances of jagged crystal or burned alive by gouts of emerald fire. The sorcerer was toying with them, a spider idly picking off the faceless morsels ensnared in its web.
"You always did underestimate me, princeling," Douglas sneered, flinging out his palm to freeze another trio of guards in jagged coils of ice. "While you wasted your years playing the spoiled heir, I have been marshaling the true powers of this world. Now I will have my reckoning - you and your cursed bloodline will FALL!"
A deafening crack split the air as the warlock unleashed a dome of searing force, hurling shrapnel, debris, and werewolf bodies in a deadly hailstorm. Madison instinctively flung up her hands to shield herself but still felt white-hot pain lance through her scalp and temple as something struck her with crushing force.
She crumpled, stunned, and dazed, ears ringing with the percussive echo. There was a constant, rhythmic thudding sensation penetrating the haze, like the rapid pounding of a massive heartbeat.
The sense gradually returned, and Madison realized the thunderous pounding was Wald's fists, slamming into the hastily conjured shell of stone and iron Douglas had encased himself within. The battered prince was roaring incoherent challenge, his features twisted into a rictus mask of feral hatred as he pounded away relentlessly at the arcane barrier.
Eventually, a hairline crack appeared, rapidly spider-webbing outward until the entire shell shattered in a hail of debris. Douglas stood in the eye of the ruined maelstrom, robes scorched and wild hair askew as he regarded Wald with a sneer of hatred.
"So determined, so consumed by wrath," the sorcerer mocked. "Just like your wretched father before you."
Wald snarled wordlessly, stalking forward with his claws extended, eyes blazing with primal menace. But Douglas simply laughed again, that chilling sound devoid of any mirth.
"But alas, I've wasted enough time indulging this futile rebellion. The die is already cast, and prince - forces are in motion that you cannot begin to comprehend. Soon enough, your death will be the least of your concerns."
With those ominous words hanging in the air, Prime Minister Douglas waved a negligent hand. A swirling vortex opened in the shattered floor, surrounded by pulsing runes that seared the very air with their eldritch power. Douglas cast Wald a mocking salute, then calmly stepped backward into the gaping rift and vanished from sight.
The vortex wavered for a moment, its outer edge flickering with emerald flames like hellish candle flames. Then it imploded with a deafening bang, leaving only a scorched crater in its wake.
A stunned silence fell over the decimated dungeon as the ringing echoes faded away. Madison shakily pushed herself upright, her temples sticky with blood from some unseen wound as she stared at the blackened crater.
Wald was already barking orders, and few guards remained hurrying to secure the area and begin rescue efforts. But Madison's eyes remained locked on that ominous scorch mark as a cold knot of dread formed in her belly.
Douglas's dire warnings rang through her mind again. Forces in motion they could not comprehend...death being the least of their concerns soon. Whatever path she and Wald were now on, it was clear they had just stepped over a terrible threshold.
And there would be no turning back from the darkness to come.
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