by Alexia Purdy
We did not touch. We couldn’t allow anyone to know about our love.
“We’ll have to give them Amy,” Ridley announced, avoiding my gaze.
“No way! You know I can’t allow that.” I squeezed the handle of my gun more tightly, feeling it dig into my palm. “You can’t ask that of us.”
“I know.” This time her eyes met mine, filled with unshed tears as they liquified. “I’m so sorry, Craig. I wish there was another way. I have to give the order.”
“No, you don’t.”
She looked away, motioning for the guards nearby to do as she’d said. A few stayed behind with weapons drawn.
I turned back toward the windows. The warrior in me craved the violence, and I was going to get some if it was the last thing I did.
“What have you done, Ridley?” I whispered, feeling my own anger rise.
“I did what I had to do.” She gasped as my hand went for her shoulder, squeezing into the injury with just enough pressure to cause her to pale. “Craig… please stop… please.”
“I’ll never forgive you for this,” I hissed, watching her grow paler. The other agents raised their guns at my head. “Call them off,” I said. “Tell them to stand down, or we’re all dead anyway.” I turned toward Jay, eyeing him as I conveyed to him to go get Amy. He nodded and turned toward the soldiers, daring them to not let him through. I continued to press into her shoulder as her lips quivered.
“Stand down! I got this,” she barked at the agents. They hesitated before she snapped at them again, and they turned and took off down the hall.
Good thing S.R.A. operatives didn’t disobey commands. Brainwashed idiots.
Jay took off after them heading toward the stairs down to the iron rooms.
I pressed Ridley’s injury one last time until she yelped and her eyes rolled into the back of her head before I let her go, letting her slide to the ground, unconscious. Her pallor had advanced enough that I knew she wouldn’t recover in time to follow me.
We needed to get out of here, now.
I sprinted off toward the back stairwell, avoiding the elevators, like Jay. Ridley had put us in a tight spot, and I swore I’d make her pay for her betrayal. She had left me no choice.
Chapter Twenty-three
* * *
Amy
We followed Jay out into the hall, making our way to the stairs to sublevel three, where the armory was. Craig met us just outside of it and had already strapped his own gun and other weapons to his body. He held out a full duffle bag to me.
“Here. Take what you want from there. We have to go.”
I lifted an eyebrow but didn’t question him. I peered at Jay, who was looking as strained as Craig.
“Somehow, I think you’re not telling us everything, bro. Spill it.”
Jay groaned as he rubbed his face and kept taking the stairs two at a time, never missing a beat. “I’m not taking you to the battle. We’re sneaking out.”
My eyes widened. “Why?”
“Ridley’s planning to personally hand you both over to the faery king.”
There was a moment of silence as we continued down.
“What?” I finally managed. My mouth hung open. Unbelievable!
“She thinks we’re risking far too much keeping you guys safe behind the walls.” Jay frowned, pressing his lips tightly.
“Why would she do that to us?” Hatred radiated from me as I waited for my brother to answer.
“I don’t know.”
“Craig? Do know about this?”
“Yes.” My brother’s stern answer told me all I needed to know. “I let her know how unforgivable it was too. I left her unconscious in the foyer, but she’s probably awake by now and back in charge.”
I stared at the stainless-steel doors in front of me as we made it to the fifth sublevel. It contained the old lounge and was rarely used for anything now. We held our breaths as the doors slid open, waiting to get bombarded by agents or even Ridley. The woman had some balls, if I had to say so myself. She was going to pay for wanting to give us up to the faery king and not protecting us. Wow. I was shaking from the fury.
“Clear!” Jay waved us on after he checked the hall, his gun in hand and cocked. The lights were flashing on and off as we kept on. Luckily, the floor was abandoned. It seemed like everyone who might be looking for us hadn’t thought to go down there. I swallowed back the bad feelings leaving a nasty taste in my mouth. Something wasn’t right.
“Hey, over here.”
We both jumped, startled and glaring at Craig, who should’ve been grinning at catching us in surprise. But he wasn’t. The grim frown pasted on his face made my heart squeeze. He wore his heart on his sleeve, and now it was splayed wide open and bleeding.
“What’s wrong, Craig?” I asked.
“I’m sorry about Ridley,” he whispered. “I should’ve seen it coming. She has some nerve to think I’d ever go along with it.”
“I’m sorry too. I never thought she’d betray us. You guys were in love, right?” I pressed my lips together, avoiding a peek at my brother, knowing my words probably stabbed him in the heart. “I’m sorry. I—I….”
“Don’t worry about it. It doesn’t matter anymore. We’ve been having problems lately, but her lack of sensitivity when it comes to my family is the last straw.” He wiped his face on his shirt, glancing out the door once more. “Hurry up, guys. I’m sure they’ll know our whereabouts soon enough.”
I nodded. “Right. Let’s go.”
Atieran held a gun with curiosity. “I’ve never used one of these before.”
I took the gun from him and handed him a blade. “Here, you know how to use one of these, right?” He nodded. “Good. Just try to avoid the bullets, okay?”
He grinned, his eyes lighting up as he tested the weight of the blade.
“It’s agile. So lightweight. What’s it made of?”
“Steel, I think? But it’s made by elves. Best blades there are.” I winked.
“Elven blades… I’m impressed. They don’t exactly mingle with the faeries, so we don’t ever get to use elven metal.”
“What do you call your kind of fae?”
“We are woodland fae, dryad and pixie mixes. Unfortunately, like my brother who seeks true fae blood, our blood has no original fae magic in it anymore.” He looked up and watched me as I waited for him to continue. “That’s why he needs you.”
“How would I even know if I have faery blood?”
“You wouldn’t unless you activated it.”
“How would I do that?”
His eyes gleamed in the flashing strobes overhead. The red emergency lights barely illuminated the hall.
“With just one kiss,” he whispered, his breath so near me I could feel its warm flash against my skin. I shivered, afraid to breathe as I met his gaze. I felt like I was entranced, and I couldn’t look away as he parted his lips, keeping his face emotionless but his eyes narrowed on my mouth. My heart felt like it would burst, fluttering crazily as my face heated up.
“Come on, guys. Kissing time later. We need to get gone.” Craig beckoned us into the old lounge. “The silent alarm has been activated. I see it flashing down the hall.”
“Shoot. Come on. The hidden shaft… is it still there?” I lifted an eyebrow. My brothers nodded as Atieran looked on, confused.
“Hidden?” he asked.
“It’s our secret way out.”
“Does the Agency not know about it?” Atieran questioned.
I shook my head. “Nope. Only us three. Well… now four.”
“I see.”
“Come on, it’s clear,” Craig called out, and we made our way into the old lounge where dusty tables and chairs sat awaiting long-forgotten meal times. We paused at some cabinets lining one wall against the false windows which used to display nature photos to make the underground room seem less claustrophobic. That was before they’d moved the lounge aboveground years before.
I heard a soft rumble of boots com
ing from the hall and waved for everyone to hurry. Ridley was probably on a rampage, yelling at agents to find us. Or the faery king was unsatisfied with how long it was taking to get us out to him and shaking up the agents. Either scenario was plausible.
“Move, move.” I pushed at Atieran, afraid he was going too slowly. “Follow me.” We switched spots, and he kept right on my rear, almost annoying me just as much. I ignored him, concentrating on staying close to my brothers. Craig yanked at two of the cabinet doors located under the sink. The escape route was carved into the wall behind the cabinet. Damned if we’re going to get caught before we made it there. He slipped in with Jay following.
“Hey, who’s there?”
We froze. I glanced at my siblings already safe in the darkness and then back at Atieran, winking before I turned to face our accuser. “Oh, hey. Rudy, right? What’s up?” I threw him the widest smile I could conjure.
“I thought I heard something. Just checking it out.” Rudy smiled back, already blushing at my flirtatious grin. Darn rookies were so easy to manipulate. I had to get rid of him as fast as I could.
“I’m just showing a newbie around.” I waved at Atieran, who was blocking the hole behind the cabinet where Craig and Jay were quietly waiting for us. Atieran nodded, trying to look like a rookie being trained by me. He did a great job standing in place, straightening and hiding his blade at his side.
The agent, Rudy Taylor, was newly appointed and had rarely seen me in his time at the Agency. That had probably saved us, since he just nodded absently. He didn’t recognize me in the dim lighting.
“You’re showing this guy around with everything that’s going on? We’re supposed to be looking for the triplets, right? Have you seen anyth—”
“Haven’t seen them, no. But they’re not in here, so you’d better check down the hall.” I smiled again, trying to look calm and collected. Sweat dripped down my back, and I swore some was pooling under my arms. I hoped my face wasn’t flushed enough to arouse suspicion. “I’ve got this area covered.”
“Very well, Agent…?”
“Laney. Laney Richards,” I responded. There was an actual officer named Laney, but she’d retired before he’d started at the Agency.
“Oh, yes, Agent Richards. Sorry to bother you. Once you’re done, head out to the lobby. We’re tracking those three agents and a faery thing that’s with them.”
“No problem. I’ll get right on it.” I held my grin. Luckily, he took it that we were fine and continued down the hall, shining his flashlight into the adjoining rooms. Once the door clicked shut, I let out a sigh of relief and turned toward Atieran. I shoved him, motioning for him to get into the hole in the cabinet.
“Get in. Hurry.”
“You guys okay?” Craig asked.
“That was close. Luckily, that new agent is more ignorant than he should be.”
“He didn’t recognize you?”
I shook my head. “Nope. He thought I was someone else. His nerves are probably making him not think straight. That or he expected to come across all three of us together, holding up our ID badges. Now help me move the panel back into place before he comes back, Jay. It’s heavy as bricks.”
Jay crawled back toward me, grabbed the cabinet doors and drew them closed. Next, he took the wall panel that covered the hole and slid it back into place. There was a small slit in it where the two panels joined together, which allowed us to peek out into the lounge if the cabinet doors opened. The tunnel in front of us would ultimately take us beneath Wicked Grove and into the city’s sewer system.
Jay turned and threw us an elated smile, barely visible in the glow from his flashlight. “All right. Let’s go.”
Chapter Twenty-four
* * *
Jay
It figured the Agency would betray us like they had. As I watched Amy, her friend the faery guy, and Craig crawl through the hole ahead of me, I heard a noise to my rear. Freezing in place, I listened for any familiar voices.
“I swear they came in here. Had I known it was the girl and the faery you were looking for, I would’ve stopped them. I swear… he didn’t look fae at all. And I didn’t know she wasn’t Laney.”
“Enough. I’m tired of the incompetence you’ve shown today. Search the room. Kenneth, take another group and check the other rooms on this level.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Craig turned his head and silently inquired about what was going on. I mouthed “Ridley” to him and pointed back toward the lounge. His eyes widened as he froze, his eyebrows furrowing as he tilted his head to listen. A second later we both clicked off our flashlights and kept as still as possible.
“Craig… where are you?” Ridley’s voice sounded frustrated, but even I could tell she was scared and mad all at the same time. I could almost imagine my brother’s pained expression in the darkness. She knew he would never forgive her. She had to know that this would end things between them forever. There was no doubt in his mind that she understood what her betrayal meant, and it had cost her more than she’d bargained for. Both their hearts cracked in the silence. I heard Craig begin moving forward again. He was done listening to his now ex-girlfriend.
We made our way into the main tunnel without a word, without a sound, and headed toward the branch which led to the city sewer system.
Broken hearts sucked, and this wasn’t the first one he’d experienced, but damn if it wouldn’t be the last from the way his jaw was set taut and his mouth tightly pressed shut. He was so done with love. He’d trusted Ridley with all his heart, mind, and soul for years, and this was the payment he’d received for it? How heartless could a person be?
I felt bad for my brother. No one deserved what he’d gotten for loving the wrong girl. Once we were out of earshot and deep in the underground, Amy moved up next to Craig.
“You okay, bro?” She eyed the path before us, lit only by our flashlights.
“No. Far from it.”
“I know Ridley meant a lot to you.”
“Yeah, well. She means nothing to me now.”
“Don’t be so hard on her. She’ll have to explain herself soon enough, I believe.”
“I’m not going to listen to anything she has to say.” Craig stomped off and refused to continue the conversation.
She turned to look at me, a pained expression on her face. She jogged to catch up to our brother again. “She was pressured to do it; you have to know that. There’s no way she’d do that without her own life being threatened.”
“It’s over between us. I mean it. We’re done. How can you repair something like this? She betrayed the only thing that matters to me. My family. She’d hand me to the werewolves if she had the chance.”
“She had to hand us over. The faery king is probably flipping out on them as it is. She had to make a decision to save everyone else.”
“I don’t care. The whole Agency is full of it and can kiss my—”
“You don’t mean that.”
“Yes, I do. Haven’t you realized how corrupted they’ve become? We’re just pathetic pawns in their little genocide game. I won’t be a part of it anymore, and this is just as good a reason to leave as any. I’m through.”
Amy pressed her lips together as her eyes roamed over to Atieran. She watched the fae human for a moment, thoughts running wild inside her head. I knew my sister, and when she was like this, anything could happen. I was afraid to even ask what she was thinking.
“My brother left,” Atieran offered. “He’s no longer there because we’re no longer there. We’re going to have to face him sooner or later.”
“Now that we’re free of the iron rooms, he’ll be able to locate us more quickly,” Amy said. “Right now, we have some time, but what do we do when he finds us?”
“I’m hoping he’ll come against us alone again,” I answered. “That way we can take him out with one of Tinker’s little toys that I lifted from the armory.”
“I think he will come after us. He’s bound to feel
us moving,” Atieran said.
I looked at him as he glanced over his shoulder. “How do you know?”
“My brother values his tribe above anything else. If he can’t do it alone, he will give up. But he’ll take down a great many before that happens. He rarely uses his magical abilities, and if he’s wearing the armor you mentioned, he intends to take this to the very end without involving the tribe again. If he does use up his stores and drains the clan, most will perish, and we’ve lost far too many already. I don’t think he’d want to go that far.”
“So, he means to take us down alone, no matter what,” Amy said. “That’s good and bad, I guess. What if he does take it that far and uses the clan’s magical reserves?”
“He’ll kill what he holds most dear. His tribe,” I answered, feeling cold at the thought. Atieran nodded in agreement. I suddenly wanted to run away, far from this threat from the faery world. Atieran’s brother’s clan was an anomaly in the magical order, an abomination. What would the other faery tribes say about them? Maybe that was why Amy’s new friend was taking this on himself, alone. If anyone had to pay for anything, it would be him.
“Atieran, how do we stop him?” I asked.
He turned forward again, his lips in a tight frown. I knew he didn’t really want to answer me, for it would mean the destruction of his brother. No one wanted to see a sibling killed, let alone to save those he barely knew.
“I can’t say.”
Craig turned around, his eyes lit up with fire as he dropped his flashlight and grabbed Atieran. Within seconds, he had Atieran pinned to the wall, his legs dangling midair.
“The hell you can’t. People are dying because of your brother. He almost converted our sister into one of yours forever. We would’ve lost her if not for her quick thinking, and you can’t tell us how to stop your psychopathic brother? You’re disgusting.” He dropped Atieran, who crashed down onto his knees, gasping for breath.