A Valley of Darkness (A Shade of Vampire #52)(67)

I stepped out of the tunnel, looking around and trying to understand why the Exiled Maras were keeping this place a secret. Blaze pulled me behind a stack of wooden crates nearby.

The tracking spell lingered by us for a while. It glowed brighter, until the light went out and both the pendant and bracelet burst into a puff of black smoke.

“What the heck?” I cursed under my breath, while Blaze looked around, then nudged me.

I followed his gaze and stilled, a sudden wave of relief washing over me as I caught sight of Fiona sneaking between two rows of cages. We waited for a couple of the Correction Officers above to turn their backs, then rushed after her.

“Fiona,” I whispered, and she turned around and paused, her eyes wide with shock.

“How… How’d you get in here?” She kept her voice low, grinning and thrilled to see us.

I hugged her tight, then grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.

“You nearly gave us a heart attack!” I spat. “You’ve been missing for hours! Hansa got knocked out by someone, and when she woke up, you were gone and the tunnel had collapsed!”

“Shush, keep it down,” Fiona urged me, while Blaze kept watch. “I was going into the tunnel when there was an explosion and it collapsed. There was too much rubble for me to clear on my own, and I couldn’t hear Hansa on the other side, so I just kept going, hoping I’d find another way out. Instead, I found the prison… Is Hansa okay?”

“Yeah, just ashen, since you were gone!” I replied. “Well, she had a headache, too, but Jax gave her some Mara blood and she recovered. They sent us down here to find you!”

“Well, ta-da!” She chuckled. “Listen, there’s definitely something weird going on here! I’ve been touring the place without the Maras seeing me for about an hour now… I think. This prison is dodgy…”

“What do you mean?” I asked, looking around.

Some cages were empty, but most were occupied by Imen—the majority too weak and pale to even move. They were slumped against the metal bars, their skin almost translucent, dark rings around their half-closed eyes. I even spotted a couple of Maras, but they were unconscious and blindfolded, their arms shackled behind their backs.

“Oh… That’s what you mean,” I murmured, a chill running down my spine.

“I spoke to a couple of the prisoners, who looked a little less… worn out,” Fiona whispered. “But they’re quite delirious, didn’t make a lick of sense. They keep saying the ‘soul eaters’ are coming.”

“Avril mentioned ‘soul eaters’.” I remembered her and Heron’s account of their expedition to the west side of the mountain earlier. “She and Heron bumped into some Imen who weren’t from Azure Heights, and they mentioned soul eaters, too, before they were mind-bent into running off by some Correction Officers… What is going on here?”

“I don’t know, but this is definitely the prison Arrah was talking about,” Fiona replied.

“What are the chances you found her brother, Demios?” Blaze asked.

“None, so far,” she sighed. “The Maras keep moving around, and there are way too many cages in here for me to check on my own…”

“I wonder what the soul eaters are,” I said, mostly to myself, then looked at Fiona. “We need to get out of here for now. Whoever sealed that tunnel entrance, they wanted you separated from the group. We need to get back to the team and organize a proper infiltration here. Now we know where the prison is.”

“Yeah, can’t believe it was pretty much right under our noses,” she muttered.

Blaze motioned for us to go back behind the crates, just as a giant bell went off above our heads. A single gong, low and loud, echoed through the prison and made my stomach rumble.

“Midnight!” one of the COs above shouted, and pulled a lever on the wall.

We heard heavy chains rattling and metal screeching as we watched the iron gates go down and block the tunnels.

“Crap! Run!” I hissed, and darted toward the passage we’d come through, followed by Blaze and Fiona. It was too late, though. The gate had already hit the floor, its bars too close to one another for us to squeeze through.

“It’s okay,” Fiona whispered, and grabbed two bars, ready to pull them apart. The sound of more chains rattling made her stop.

We glanced over our shoulders and saw another gate, on the opposite side of the prison, being pulled up. It was a straight line between cages to get to it.

“Close it down! Close it down!” one of the Correction Officers shouted above.

“I can’t! It’s jammed!” another replied.

Blaze pulled both Fiona and me behind the crates as more Maras started running around, in different directions.

“Oh, no,” I murmured, noticing the reason for their sudden agitation.

The air rippled in front of the open tunnel on the other side. I pointed at it, and my stomach twisted itself into knots as I realized what was happening. Some of the captive Imen who were still conscious cried out, banging their fists against the iron bars of their cages and begging for help.

“Get us out of here! Help us! Please! Make it stop!”

“I think those are daemons!” Fiona gasped.

We watched in horror as dozens of invisible creatures surged through the open tunnel. I caught glimpses of red eyes as they scattered between the rows of cages. My hand instinctively gripped Blaze’s forearm as one of the daemons stopped in front of a cage, and the lock was ripped off. It was discarded on the stone floor, looking like a piece of iron-colored clay, twisted and mangled. The cage door opened, and the Iman inside retreated farther back, horrified and covered in sweat, suddenly conscious and alert.