CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

 

STAYING LOW TO the ground, I crept toward the voice I’d heard. It didn’t seem threatening, but that could have been a ploy to get me to reveal myself.

“Please,” the voice called again. “If there’s someone there will you please let me know?”

The fear I believed I’d detected in the voice before was definitely there now. Forgetting my hunt for an exit, I crept closer still. There were no answering calls, or shouts of concern after she’d spoken, so I figured whoever it was, she was alone.

“You . . . you’re not human, are you?”

My mind raced, and I froze in place. How could she possibly know that?

“I can see you. Your aura. It’s like flames.”

None of the Rain would be able to see my aura, at least I didn’t think they’d be able to. As far as I knew, that ability was exclusive to the fae. Even if that assumption was wrong, I was certain no human would be able to without some sort of additional, magical, assistance.

“I have only ever seen something like that once before, back when I was a fledgling.”

The word fledgling gave me a little more hope that I wasn’t dealing with an enemy—and perhaps that I’d even stumbled onto the reason for our mad rescue party. “Mackenzie?” I whispered around a lump in my throat. Ethan had said she’d be on level six or seven. Could it really be possible that she was in the electrical room? The bigger question was probably why.

She didn’t confirm who she was, but instead answered with a question of her own. “You’re the phoenix that lived in my court, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “What are you doing down here?”

“I—I don’t know.” Her voice quivered as she spoke. “No one will tell me what’s going on.”

“What do you know about where you are?”

“I know the Rain captured me and brought me here, but I don’t know why. I thought they usually tortured and then killed, but they put me in here and left me. I haven’t seen anyone in days. It’s like they’re waiting for something, but I don’t know what.”

With Mackenzie’s words in my head, my stomach twisted with dread. The rescue effort was a mistake. Not because she didn’t deserve to be rescued, but because the whole set-up was likely a trap. It didn’t make sense that the Rain would have gone to the effort of capturing her to leave her alone in the basement unless she wasn’t their intended target.

If it was a trap though, who was it designed to lure? A handful of answers sprung immediately to mind, but I didn’t like any of them.

“Are you hurt?” I asked, stepping closer to her location and trying to see whether there were bars or chains or anything else holding her in place.

“No,” she whispered back. “But I can’t move more than a few feet without feeling like my body will explode if I refuse to back away.”

The image of Clay falling to his knees as he passed the anti-fae symbols crossed my mind. “I’m going to get you out of here.” Swallowing down my fear and aiming for soothing tones instead, I tried to ensure my voice didn’t belie my words, “I just need to know more. Is there anything physical blocking your way?”

“I do not think so,” she said quietly. “Just the pain. I tried to ignore it, but it is too much.”

Now that I knew we were alone, I grabbed the cell phone I had, it was a basic one with only text and call capabilities, but I hoped it might be able to give me some light in the darkness. I unlocked the screen and tried to use it as a torch, but the muted light was dull and not of any real assistance.

“I have another plan,” I said, heading back toward the desk or bench or whatever the hell it was that I’d bumped against earlier, taking less care to be quiet now that I was certain we were alone in the room. Rummaging over the surface and searching in the solitary drawer, I tried to find anything wooden and sufficiently long enough for my plan. Once I’d found something that might suffice, I wrapped my scarf tightly around the top of it. I walked back to Mackenzie knowing that even if I could get the torch to catch, it wouldn’t give too much light, or stay lit for very long without some sort of accelerant to burn before the flames destroyed the material.

When I was close enough that I could see Mackenzie’s outline among the shadows, I wrapped my hand around my scarf and forced heat into my fingers. Almost instantly, the material caught and a flash of flames lit the room. I glanced up to see Mackenzie and immediately felt foolish for not having guessed who she was to Clay when I’d lived in the court with Aiden.

I could vaguely recall her face from the time I’d spent in the classrooms, but her features had matured a little over the years. She’d grown into a beautiful young woman, almost the spitting image of Louise, except with Clay's slightly rounder and softer features.

Maybe if I’d known Clay and Louise when they were much younger, I would have seen it.

I shook away the guilt and self-doubt and focused instead on assessing Mackenzie’s well-being. Her face and clothes were dirty, and she was gaunt from the lack of food, but she appeared healthy enough to assist in her own getaway.

When I found I was openly staring at her, I forced my eyes away. Instead, I focused on the area surrounding her for every symbol that could be holding her in place.

“Let’s get you out of here,” I said with as reassuring a smile as I could muster. “Hold this.” I stepped into the area that was surrounded by the protective charms and handed her the torch.

Setting to work quickly, I broke all the symbols and laid crystals in a pattern that would allow her to pass across the line and out of her metaphysical cage.

The makeshift torch died before I’d finished, but I’d memorized the placement of everything enough that I could complete the task without the benefit of sight.

“Be careful when you step this way,” I warned as I reached for her hand. It was difficult adjusting back to the inky blackness after the brief intrusion of light. “If you knock the crystals, some of the protective charms might still be in place.”

As soon as she stepped free of her prison, she thanked me.

“Don’t thank me yet,” I said. “We still have to get out of the building.” And I don’t think that’s going to be quite as easy.

I spent a few moments checking the electrical room for another exit, but I couldn't see one. There was a button and door on one wall that might have belonged to an elevator, but nothing at all happened when I pressed it. It must have been out of service or needed something more to power it or a special key to make it run. I tried flicking on a light switch that I’d found, but it seemed like it had been disconnected.

“Let’s go,” I said to Mackenzie, indicating the doorway to the stairs.

Grabbing the cell phone again, I unlocked the screen with the intention of sending Clay a message that I’d found Mackenzie. Before I could, I noticed a little envelope icon indicating I had a message.

When I viewed the message, my blood became ice.

‘Dad’s holding Clay and demanding to know what happened.’

“Shit,” I murmured under my breath.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s, um, Clay,” I said, not knowing whether the name would even mean anything to her. I didn’t know how much she knew about her mother’s other family. “He’s in trouble up on level six.”

“Did he come with you?” she asked, and I had my answer about how much she knew—not a lot. She didn’t even seem to recognize his name.

“Yeah, he was keeping the Rain distracted while I searched for you.” It was a version of the truth, even if not entirely correct. “But they’ve discovered he’s hiding something from them and I think he might be in danger.”

“What do we need to do?”

“Regroup,” I said. There was no way I’d risk trying to get Mackenzie out through the lobby by myself. The probability of capture was too high. I fired off a quick text to Aiden, letting him know that I was in Room 407. I hadn’t noticed any anti-fae symbols throughout the lobby or in the elevator so I hoped they’d be able to get at least that far. We’d have to work with any other opportunities as they arose. “We’ll go to the hotel room I’ve booked and plan our escape from there.”

We raced up the stairs to the sixth floor. A little sigh of relief left me when I saw that it had a lock on the knob. My earlier assumption regarding the Rain’s security measure to ensure that no others escaped into guest areas was probably correct. Kneeling in front of the door, I pressed my ear to the surface, listening intently for any sign that the people who’d been milling around in the hallway earlier were on the other side.

Mackenzie did the same. “I don’t think there’s anyone there,” she murmured.

Grabbing the hairpins that I’d used to pick the lock downstairs back out of my pocket, I set to work on the door. The knowledge I’d gained from the first lock made the second one easier and a little quicker to manipulate. In under a minute, I was able to unlock the door.

I twisted the handle slowly, listening intently with every turn. If I was about to alert anyone to our presence, I wanted to know about it as quickly as possible so I could try to be proactive. Opening the door a crack, I peered through the opening and tried to figure out if we were alone. The space beyond seemed empty and I could do little more than hope that was actually the case.

“Come on,” I whispered to Mackenzie as I held the door open just enough for us to pass through it.

Leading her, I walked as briskly as I dared along the corridor to the elevator. The fact that she didn’t fall to the floor in pain gave me hope that I’d been successful in removing the anti-fae protections. Not that it mattered any longer, but it was good to know that I could do it if I needed to.

I stopped short as we hit the corner. Two people, a man and a woman, stood in front of the elevator shaft. Their eyes appraised the empty corridor in steady sweeps. Mackenzie continued walking, and she smacked into my back, forcing an audible “oof ” from me with the impact.

Without waiting to see if the sound had drawn the attention of the operatives in front of the elevator, I clamped my hand down over Mackenzie’s mouth to stop any sounds of exclamation from my actions and shoved her back around the corner out of sight.

“Stairs,” I mouthed to her, unwilling to hang around in the corridors of the floor any longer than was necessary. With a gentle nudge, I guided her back to the stairwell.

“What now?” she asked in a hushed whisper after I closed the door as quietly as I could.

I stared down the stairway for a moment. “We can’t go down, it only leads to the room you were in. We’ll have to go up.”

It was Mackenzie’s turn to glance upward. Her eyes, such a similar shape to Clay’s, glanced up the stairwell as though it would provide answers. “What is up there though?”

Trying to get the heat of my skin under control, I swallowed down the fear and doubt that was creeping over me.

“There’s only one way to find out. Come on.” I grabbed her hand, as much to confirm for myself that I’d done at least part of the task, before leading her up to level seven.

As I worked the lock on the next door, I gulped down my breath. “I don’t know what’s through here,” I warned Mackenzie. “There might be fae protection. A room full of Assessors. Anything.”

When she didn’t respond to my statement, I glanced up at her. Her eyes flashed with fear. “I am ready. Tell me what I need to do.”

I stood and held her shoulders in my palms, hoping that the bite of my heat wasn’t too much. “Be careful. If there are any anti-fae symbols through here, they’ll hurt, but you can’t scream out or make any noise. Can you do that?” The memory of Clay’s screams rang through my mind. “No matter what.”

She seemed to understand how important it was when she nodded, sincerity and another flash of fear racing through her blue eyes.

“We’ll be okay,” I promised her even though I had no right to say it. I was speaking to the parts of her that didn’t want honesty. They wanted platitudes. They wanted to know that everything would be all right. I recognized the tattered edges of insanity from my own flights from the Rain. “Let’s go.”