"The key... Anya, where is the key?" I gasped, my voice bouncing off the damp walls.
"Aurielle, behind you!"
I spun around, my breath hitching in my chest. A dungeon guard stood there, his face a mask of cruelty as he leveled his rifle directly at my forehead. The world slowed down. I could see the grime under his fingernails as he tightened his finger on the trigger. I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the end.
CRACK.
The sound didn't come from the guard's rifle. I opened my eyes to see the guard's head snap back, a crimson spray painting the stone wall behind him before he crumpled like a marionette with cut strings.
Standing in the corridor, steam still rising from the barrel of his sidearm, was Kieran.
He didn't say a word as he reached into the dead guard's pocket, fished out a heavy ring of iron keys, and tossed them toward me. I caught them, my hands shaking so violently the metal clattered against itself.
