Of every possible exit.
Her gaze collided with his again and a flicker of a frown danced on her brow as a strange sensation filled her, making her feel she knew his face from somewhere. Knew that piercing silver gaze and thick, short onyx hair, and those wings.
He had to be someone who had visited her cage in the past. It was the only explanation that made sense. She had seen this male at some point during her captivity and the image of him had understandably seared itself on her mind.
He was every bit the warrior, every bit as brutal and dark as her guards had been.
Bile rose up her throat as she saw a flash of the one she had touched, saw his skin blackening and blistering, charring before her eyes.
“Calindria,” the behemoth before her whispered, his expression something akin to stunned, as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing.
Giving her pause.
Calindria?
Was it a name? Why would he use it for her? Was it her name? It was familiar.
He looked her over and she clutched the pouch to her chest, afraid he would try to take the precious water from her when she was still so thirsty, parched beyond belief. A war erupted inside her, a battle between whether to run from him or not. Her legs were already tired, her muscles unused to supporting her weight now. She wasn’t sure she could outrun him. If she tried, would it anger him? Would he hurt her? The alternative was giving up and she had come such a short distance from her prison. She couldn’t give up now. She flexed her fingers around the waterskin, thoughts blackening as she recalled how she had hurt the guard. Could she use that power on this male too, buying herself time to escape?
The thought sickened her, twisted her heart and stomach in knots for some reason, and no matter how fiercely she fought to tamp down her fear of her power, the desire not to hurt others that insisted on rising within her, those knots wouldn’t loosen.
She needed to be stronger. Colder. This power was a weapon and she could use it to defeat her enemies—to have her revenge. She couldn’t let this soft part of her that had somehow survived the years stop her from doing whatever was necessary to complete her mission.
When he lifted his hands, her resolve to fight shattered and running won.
She broke into a sprint, her muscles protesting as her legs carried her swiftly across the black ground. She didn’t feel the pebbles that bit into the soles of her bare feet, didn’t feel the ache in her bones with each jarring step, she knew only the desire to escape, to do whatever it took to elude this male and the cage.
“Calindria!” he bellowed.
The sound of that name gave her pause again, had her step faltering as a sensation that she knew it shot through her, but the second he closed in on her, she was running again, heart thundering and legs pumping harder. She rounded a corner, stumbling as her footing slipped, her eyes darting around, seeking a way to escape him.
There! She spied a tunnel in the far right of the cavern. The entrance was narrow, might be small enough for her to make it through, but not him.
She skidded to a halt as he landed in front of her, his great wings beating hot air against her, her heart lodging in her throat to silence the scream that wanted to escape. Fear blasted through her as she almost collided with him, as she leaned back to avoid the collision and ended up landing on her backside on the hard ground.
She stared up at him, adrenaline making her limbs quake and her breath stutter. Her entire body trembled as shock rolled through her, as the fact she had almost touched him shook her to her core. She might have killed him. She didn’t know who he was, was aware he might be another guard, but she didn’t want to hurt him.
What if he wasn’t a guard? What if he was innocent? The thought of killing an innocent turned her stomach.
“Calindria?” He gentled his tone, the rugged lines of his face softening as he gazed down at her, keeping perfectly still. He knew she would run if he moved. Wise male. “Let me take you away from this place. I can fly you out of here.”
He looked up at the roof of the cavern where an opening yawned, revealing thick dark grey clouds.
She shook her head and scrambled backwards on her hands and knees, refusing to let him near her. He couldn’t touch her. If he did, she would hurt him. It wasn’t only fear of harming him that had her backing away from him though. She didn’t know him, which meant she certainly wasn’t about to trust a word he said to her, or believe that he was here to free her.
She had heard all that before.
“You are like the others,” she growled, glaring up at him as she eased onto her knees, as she tucked the waterskin close to her and remained in a crouch, ready to run. “They came to my cages… offered to free me… bargained with me. They made me believe I would escape… and instead they had led me to another cage.”
There, they had laughed at her, shattering her spirit as they had easily overwhelmed her, too strong for her to fight.
This brute looked just as strong, if not stronger, than those males had been, and the cruel edge to his expression as his lips twisted and his black eyebrows knitted hard, narrowing his silver eyes, said he would laugh just as viciously at her weakness, at how gullible she had been.
“Calindria—” he started and then closed his eyes and planted a large hand to his brow.
His hand fell away from his face and his shoulders rose in a sigh that lifted his furled wings too. When he opened his eyes, there was a flicker of blue fire in his silver irises, and she sensed a shift in his power. Shuffled further away from him when he held his hand out, palm facing her. She eyed it suspiciously.
There was something dark about this male.
Something dangerous.
His dark eyebrows pinched in another hard frown as he studied the distance she was placing between them, as he lifted his silver gaze to pin it back on her.
“I swear, I am not here for a nefarious reason, Calindria.” He lowered his hand and eased back, his enormous body relaxing at the same time. The danger and darkness he radiated fell away, that change in power she felt falling away with it.
He was trying to appear unthreatening. Something which was impossible given his size and his appearance.
“Why do you keep calling me that?” She flexed her fingers around the water, attempting to ignore her thirst, how she wanted the sweet quenching taste of it flowing over her tongue to soothe her and restore her strength.
“Calindria?” He frowned at her, a curious edge to his silver eyes. “Because it is your name. You cannot be anyone other than the one I was sent to find.”
Someone had sent this formidable male to find her? She scoffed at that. She had been held captive for what she was sure was centuries. If someone had wished to find her, they would have done so long before now.
“Calindria.” She rolled that name around her tongue, frowning as she tried to figure out whether it felt familiar because he kept saying it or because it was her name. She stared into his eyes, seeking the truth in them. “And who are you that you know this name that is meant to be mine?”
His chin rose almost imperceptibly, a slight upwards tilt that spoke of pride, and belief in his strength and his reputation. “Thanatos, god of death, loyal servant of your father, Hades.”
“Hades,” she murmured. She had heard that name before, muttered by the guards in fear.
It evoked an image in her mind, one of a tall black-haired male with ashen skin and blue eyes who had been ruthless towards others, but had always had a smile for her.