Read Online Beyond the Shadows by Cassidy Hunter - Free Book Online Page A

empty hall, the sounds grew overpowering—shrieks and clangs and flesh upon flesh.
    The doorless stairwell gaped like a hungry, open mouth as he led her down into the dark prison. The steps were short to the bottom, only six to the first landing and six more to the basement floor.
    Cells lined this level like cages kept by dog fighters, ugly, oppressive cells in a mean, shadowed space. Flickering lights in the low ceiling only added to the horror. No windows lined the dirty, brick walls to allow any life-giving sun into the heartless prison.
    And somewhere here lived Constantine, a child of the sun, the spirited, willful child of her heart. Acid bile rose into her throat, and she swallowed it down, calling to the anger never far from the surface. It would chase the fear away. It would give her the courage she needed to look Constantine in the eye and remain passive and calm. His life depended on it. Her life depended on it. She wasn’t sure Kai was to the point where he wouldn’t kill her if— when —she betrayed him. It was too soon.
    Still, his hand on her back was gentle, his gaze tender as he watched her. She smiled. “I’m fine, Kai.”
    He nodded, his smile quick to flash. “Someday I’ll figure you out, woman.”
    That would not be a good day. The fighting culminated in a final shriek and a drawn-out moan; then a particularly loud silence descended. As though all the pitiful prisoners listened with bated breath, the thick air covered her with a smothering blanket of oppression and hopelessness.
    “Sarah?”
    “I’m okay.” Wasn’t it understandable that her voice came out in a whisper heavy with tears?
    Legs weighted by dread, she walked down the aisle between the barred cages. They went on forever, the walls on either side of her lined with cells filled with ragged, tough men who held dirty hands through the bars to her as she passed them by, her gaze ever searching for the one man she’d come for.
    They began to whistle and call out nasty, dark things she barely heard and paid little attention to. Kai followed, a dangerous, hulking shadow, silent as he allowed the men their vocal releases. Once, when she drifted from the middle line of the hall and too close to the cells, he nudged her back with a firm hand.
    Where was he? Where was her baby brother? She peered into the dim cells, the flickering light too weak to push the shadows far. How did they stand it?
    But that was part of the punishment. Men were not coddled, and crimes were not excused. They knew that before they decided to break laws. But it was her brother there, and she knew him. She knew why he’d felt the need to defect and follow the orders that had sent him after Kai.
    Hoots and catcalls followed her progress, and men banged on the bars with fists and metal plates. Prisoners too ill or crippled to walk crawled to the bars to see what the excitement was about.
    She felt Kai’s looming presence constantly at her back, his protection leaving her no room to fear for her physical self. Even if the men had roamed free, she would not have feared with him behind her. She trusted him that much. He would defend her to the death, and she would betray him.
    The prisoners stared at her with fevered eyes, and she realized it would be difficult to pick Constantine out. Dirty faces, sunken eyes—they all looked alike.
    But then she saw him; in that instant of doubt, she saw him.
    He stood straight and still, his eyes burning holes into her mind, his face as filthy as the others’, but shining, to her. Shining and pure, alive, alive. Oh God, her Constantine. Unable to help herself, her gaze glued to his glassy green one, she sobbed. Her legs gave way, and she dropped to the hard floor, her noisy sobs of relief and pain echoing off the walls of the dismal prison.
    She had to look away or give them both up. Long hair hiding her face, she knelt on hands and knees and bowed her head, her tears washing the floor with grief.
    Kai picked her up. He lifted