“Have you two, the both of you, been conniving?” the woman’s tone was becoming shrill. “Against me?”

“You will be quiet.”

This was a new voice, a smooth one. A calm one.

An attractive one.

Even an alluring one.

Tedrey chanced a glance to the clearing to see the three of them facing off against each other.

Paying he and the women no mind.

They had time.

But they had to work quickly.

“Hurry,” he encouraged, loosening the binds of another, who in turn moved to help.

“You do not tell me what to do. I am your mistress,” she retorted, and Tedrey heard a pained cry and a thudding splash.

He’d struck her.

Tedrey did not look to see if he was correct.

They only had three women left to go.

He turned to the second he’d released who had stayed. The others he sensed, but did not chance to look, were huddled behind them and waiting.

“Draw them away, quiet, but quick,” he ordered.

She nodded, stood and moved.

“We found one,” he heard called and glanced up to see four of the women who had emerged from the earth shoving Fenn into the clearing, his hands tied behind his back.

Tedrey’s fingers slipped on the wet ropes.

Gods be with me, gods be with me, he chanted in his head. Just get this done. Just get it done.

He let her loose.

“Go, go,” he hissed at her.

She fumbled with the ties that bound her feet, got free, but slipped as she tried to stand, took the hand another was holding out to her, and then they were away.

It was he and the first he’d released who had stayed to help now working on the last two girls.

“You take them. I will follow slowly, so if they notice, I can distract them from your leaving,” he instructed before warning, “I do not think the new is any better than the old.”

“You must go with us,” she urged.

He opened his mouth to reply but did not as more words came from the clearing.

“Put him to his knees,” the woman, clearly having recovered, demanded.

“He keeps his feet,” Jell ordered.

“Knees!” she shouted.

“Feet!” Jell bit.

“He is not yours!” she yelled.

“He has always been mine!” Jell yelled in return.

Tedrey looked up, the end of the rope beginning to slide free as Daemon roared, “Enough!”

“As we planned, we will—” Jell began, looking to Daemon.

“You planned?” the woman countered. “We came to the surface to save those girls.”

“Oh, gods, no, only two more,” his mate whispered in the same terror he had, for they were mentioned, and that might gain attention.

“I said…enough!” Daemon snarled.

“Just get them to their feet and go,” Tedrey demanded, forcing the hoops of the ropes over the heels of the woman he was working on.

“But—” his comrade began.

“There are only two of them. They can run connected. Untie their hands later, get them to their feet and go!” he nearly yelled as the earth beneath them began to shake.