Chapter 23

“Fen, are you out there? I feel you. Where are you?” Lia’s voice echoed in my mind as I reentered consciousness. I opened gritty lupine eyes, but still saw nothing. Stretched my nose until it bumped into the same dank wall, only the surface was wetter this time around than it had been before. Plus, I was now paw-deep in a soup of mud rather than in loose earth. Perfect, my hole had become not only small and dark, but also out-and-out wet. Raining outside, my animal half suggested, soothing me as if I were a child. But, smell—fresh air coming in.

Sure enough, the wolf was right. With her enhanced senses, I could feel the faintest eddy of air flowing into our prison cell through cracks in the earthen walls and the boards overhead. The urge to try one more time to dig ourselves free nearly overwhelmed me.