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My hands were already around the edge of the iron door, trying to pull it farther open.

Pendragon slipped back to the other side. “Oh gods, this can’t be good.”

Theo sucked in a breath. “It’s … taking more blood. I can feel it. It feels … strange.”

Pendragon tried to yank Theo free as black veins began to crawl up his hand, moving up his skin in ugly, thin lines. The door groaned, metal flexing. I felt strength flow through me. I was a blooddamned fucking dragon. I might not be in dragon form right now, but fuck if I was going to let a simple door stop us. Vorago might be gone, but I was still a dragon.

Power answered me. The metal screamed. Theo screamed, too.

The door gave way, wrenching open with a clang and slamming back against the stone wall, just as the ward released Theo. He stumbled forward, gritting his teeth, as blood poured from his palm. Pendragon was already ripping the sleeve off Theo’s shirt, wrapping it tightly around his hand, and tying it off with shaking fingers.

“I’m fine,” Theo said quickly. “It’s fine.” The black veins along his arm had faded. I breathed a sigh of relief.

“But, uh, yeah. That definitely set off some kind of alarm,” he said. “We need to hurry.”

“Of course it did,” I muttered.

We turned around. The basement door had opened into a long stone chamber. Cells lined one side of the room. The other side seemed to be some kind of underground warehouse. Long metal tables were haphazardly shoved into the space, each one with ruined chains hanging off the edges.

I gagged. “What the fuck is that smell?” Blood, rot, and some sort of alchemical mixture all merged together in a horrific combination. Pendragon wasn’t listening. She broke away from us and ran to one of the tables. A body lay there, chest carved open, legs half-covered with a sheet: a blightborn woman with dark eyes and long, dark hair.

I held my breath.

“It’s not Florence,” she called back to us.

I walked over. The poor woman had been dead for a while. Pendragon reached a hand down and gently closed the woman’s eyes, then pulled the sheet over her.

We moved on, looking into each cell. The first ones were the worst. Dead bodies were piled carelessly, some half-skeletal. One cell was full of dwarves—and only dwarves.

“What kind of sick fucking experiments has Viktor been conducting?” I spat.

“Experiments, or just plain torture?” Pendragon said quietly.

The bodies were maimed, some burned. Some half-fucking-eaten. Which brought us to the next cell: It was full of infected highbloods. They looked like they were starving. Fresh-looking bones and the remnants of women’s clothing littered the cell behind them. But clearly what they’d been fed hadn’t been enough to go around. Silently they pressed against the bars weakly, reaching for us with trembling hands.

“Gods,” Medra breathed, her hand to her mouth.

Then—

“Vaughn!” Theo shouted. He ran down the hall.

Vaughn Sabino was slumped against the bars of a cell up ahead. He looked bruised and dirty, but at least he wasn’t missing any body parts. Not like the unfortunate dwarves in the other cell.

“Theo?” Vaughn’s head snapped up. “I heard voices. I thought … Is it really you?”

Theo fell to his knees in front of the cell, his wounded hand forgotten. He pressed his hands through the bars. “I’m here. I’ve got you. I’m so fucking sorry.”

Behind Vaughn, an older white-haired man lay on a narrow wooden bunk. His breathing was shallow. “My grandfather,” Vaughn whispered, looking back at him.

“What about Grandma Mae? Where is she? Didn’t they take her …?”

Vaughn was shaking his head. “She’s gone,” he said hollowly. “Your uncle … he took her away last night.” He looked down the row of cells. “We could hear her screaming.”

Theo looked up at Pendragon and me helplessly. There was no way I was going to tell Vaughn what we’d seen in that cell. I just prayed he wouldn’t notice when we walked past.

Vaughn caught our expressions. “I know she’s gone,” he said with resignation. “We knew she had to be.”

“We need to get you out of here,” Theo said, already moving to unlock the cell with the guard’s key ring.