The Goblin Warrior (Beneath Sands Book 2) by Emma Hamm (100 books to read txt) 📕

pointed to Catherine on the floor and tried to make her expression as horrified as possible.

“She collapsed. I don’t know what happened. Help her please!”

There must have been enough fear in her voice because the guard’s moved into action. One roughly grabbed her arm and yanked her off the table while the other knelt in front of Catherine and gently tried to shake her awake.

“Come on.” The guard holding Jane said, his voice was hard and angry.

As she left the room, she could hear the other murmur softly to Catherine who had started to “wake up”. The two women shared a knowing look before the door was closed between them.

13

Time seemed to pass both slow and fast in the cells Luther and Jane were kept in. Parts of the day felt as though they were caged animals. They would pace and argue with each other until a guard would come down the hall and tell them both to be quiet. Other times they told stories of their childhood and laughed.

But the times when they argued were only growing more and more frequent. There was no day or night, only the blinding bright fluorescent lights that blinked.

“You were the one that left us.” Luther’s angry voice carried once more. It was the same argument that she had heard hundreds of times so far.

“I had to leave, Luther. I didn’t have a choice.”

“Everyone has a choice.”

“I was kidnapped!”

“That’s the excuse you keep giving me!”

“How is that an excuse?” Jane threw her arms into the air and laid down on the small cot. Their arguments had devolved from anything intelligent to repeating the same things over and over again.

There was little more she could tell him, other than what had already been said. She didn’t have a choice to come back to them. She had come back as soon as she could. Jane hadn’t wanted to disappear on them.

But she had already said all of that. He had heard her, or at least said that he had heard. Yet they were still arguing about the same thing over and over.

She laid her head down on the sorry excuse for a pillow and found herself wishing for the gentle swing of a hammock. She would have been pleased for the darkness of the caves and the hard cold floor. Jane was missing much of her life underground. Life had been easier Below, at least for her. Selfishly, she wanted to disappear back into that world and never see this one again.

“Jane.”

“Luther I don’t want to argue anymore. I have had enough of that.”

“Jane, look at me.”

She growled, but rolled over until her feet touched the ground and she could stare at her brother once more.

“What. What is it that you could possibly want.”

Her eyes met his. His expression was carefully still and devoid of emotion. The clear difference from anger made her instantly worried.

“What-”

She was cut off when his eyes flicked towards the ceiling. It was then that she heard it. A slight shuffling from the vent above them. There were no openings that she could see. She had days to explore every inch of her tiny cell and there were no ways for the two of them to escape.

But a small child inside a vent could hear them perfectly.

Jane cleared her throat and said loudly, “Luther can you hear me through that glass?”

Luther nodded as he played along, but Jane was listening for the quiet answering thump against the metal above her head.

“Catherine told me that Juo was with her.” She was still speaking too loudly, but she was praying that whoever was listening to them would only think that she was still angry. “I don’t know where they’re keeping Ruric but I assume it’s somewhere secret.”

“There are rooms deeper in the building.” Luther answered her. “They’re underground and I’ve only heard of them.”

“We couldn’t get there if we tried.”

“The other interns used to say that the air was stale because there weren’t any vents.”

The warning was clear. Willow wouldn’t be able to get to Ruric even if she tried. There were too many obstacles. Jane’s throat swallowed hard as she realized there was a choice to be made here.

Ruric was too far for them to get, but she could still try to save three out of the four goblins. She knew what Ruric would choose.

“If we get out of here, we’ll grab Juo and go.”

“Jane.” Luther leaned forward as though to press his hand against the glass. He was shaking his head, but her mind could not be changed.

“No. That’s the plan.”

She waited until she heard the shuffling of her sister moving away from the vents. Willow was gone, Jane had made her choice.

She laid back down on the bed and closed her eyes, refusing to listen to Luther speak or his thumps against the glass that separated them. Her heart felt as though it was bleeding. Jane had experienced that enough in the past year to last her a lifetime.

Rather than dwell on the present, she let her mind wander to memories that soothed the wound upon her soul. Beneath her closed eyes she saw blue lit caves, fish that glimmered underneath cool water, and the warm rumble of an inhuman voice practicing her language.

His eyes burned. His stomach was on fire. His hands were bound and he could not seem to move.

Ruric attempted to lick his lips but found that he couldn’t open his mouth. It felt as though he had swallowed a mouthful of sand. There should be water here. He couldn’t feel the sun blistering his skin, so surely he must be home?

He opened his eyes to slits so that he could vaguely see what was around him. His vision was blurry, but he could make out movement to his left. His head turned to watch the shadow pass by him and pause next to him.

The muscles of his bicep bulged as he attempted to lift his arm. Ruric wanted to