Free Return of the Hunters (The DeathSpeaker Codex Book 4) by Sonya Bateman Page B

place.
    Still holding the sword, I turned to find the other two guards immobilized and everyone more or less okay. “All right,” I said. “Any chance we could just open a portal right now, and get the hell out of here?”
    Reun opened his mouth to reply, and a wave of sound crested the hill—pounding feet and clanking metal. The sound was followed by more of the Seelie Guard.
    Dozens more.
    I guessed running away was out.

    So this was the Seelie dungeon.
    The battle on the hill hadn’t lasted long, and everything that happened was still pretty fragmented in my aching head. There was a lot of magic flying around. Reun had disarmed a bunch of guards and attacked a bunch more wielding a sword in each hand. I’d held onto the one sword for a while, but I couldn’t do jack shit with it. So I’d cast shields and knock-back and sleep spells until my spark wore out.
    And the Duchenes had gone after the Guard with a vengeance, paired off and tearing them up one by one with a combination of magic, borrowed weapons, and brute willpower. Zoba hardly needed the spells, though. He was strong as a herd of stampeding bulls, and twice as pissed. They were still fighting when both Reun and I went down—him with a sword through the chest, and me out of juice and bleeding from a dozen deep gashes. The Fae couldn’t counter their magic…and I was pretty sure the element of surprise helped. They thought they were fighting humans.
    They hadn’t counted on furious swamp demons wielding voodoo and desperation.
    But still, here we all were. I’d grayed out from blood loss while the Seelie Guard dragged us off, and came around slumped against a wall in what was definitely a dungeon. Stone walls, metal bars, shackles hanging from chains. At least no one was clapped into them. Zoba and Denei were in one large cell with me, and another cell across from us held Reun and the other four. All of us were in various stages of battered and bloody.
    “Fuck,” I slurred, trying to sit up straight. Everything hurt. Even the roots of my hair, for some reason. “That was a lot of guards.”
    It dawned on me slowly that no one was talking, or even moving. For a minute I thought one of the guards had thrown a spell on them while I was out, until Denei shifted a little and closed her eyes. “We ain’t gonna make it,” she said, so low that I could barely make out the words.
    I wasn’t going to accept that—and not just because it meant I’d die of a broken promise. “We’ll find a way,” I said, forcing myself to my feet. Christ, it hurt to move. But I was surprised to sense that my spark had recharged, at least partway. “Maybe we can unlock the doors, or just cross over from here. I mean, you can open the Veil anywhere, right?”
    Reun shuddered hard from his slumped position on the floor. “This place was made to imprison Fae,” he said. “The bars are cold iron. The entire dungeon is warded, and there are guards, should the wards fail. There is no way to escape.”
    “Don’t matter anyway.” Denei’s voice still didn’t rise above a whisper. “It’s been near three hours since we left the train.”
    “Jesus. How long was I out?” No wonder I had some of my spark back. But I didn’t expect an answer to the question, and it didn’t really matter. What mattered was how much time we had left.
    Which was maybe half an hour. Probably less.
    “Fine. Then we’ll get someone to let us out,” I said. “We’ll talk to the King.”
    “The King.” There was something terrible and broken in Reun’s voice. “You mean the King who ordered me brought here in the first place. Fantastic plan, Gideon.”
    “I’m sure he’s a reasonable guy.”
    “Then you know nothing of Seelie royalty.”
    I didn’t have time to debate my nonexistent knowledge of Fae politics. Something had to happen, right now.
    So I moved as far to the end of the cell as I could without touching the cold iron, and started shouting.
    “Hey! Guards! Whoever’s