“Well, no, but?—”
The music from before falls silent, and a harsh thudding noise takes its place. The ground vibrates beneath our feet, and we turn to look down the dark tunnel, peering into nothingness.
A rat scurries past, making me jump.
“Okay, maybe Percy has a point,” Lexington says.
“Come on, Elle. You’re not a chicken, right? I can see it in your eyes that you want to go to the meeting.”
I glare at her. “Stop reading into my gaze so much.”
“Why? Will you almost kiss me again?”
The music picks back up, caressing our ears and drowning out all reason.
Scoffing, I shoulder past her and turn, concentrating on the austere tune as it crescendos. “I only threatened to kiss you earlier to get you to shut up. Don’t flatter yourself.”
She makes an unintelligible sound behind me but then skips to catch up. “Just think about how cool it’d be to see Death’s Teeth in their natural element. You’d basically be solving a campus-wide, centuries-old mystery. Maybe then you’d be able to clear your family name?—”
“Well, well, well. What do we have here?”
An overly familiar voice materializes like a phantom before us, and I skid to a complete stop before I can run into the tall, gangly form of Jean-Louis Dupont. Two bigger, stockier masked figures flank his sides like bodyguards.
He’s in a tailored suit, but his withered hand clutches a gold mask.
A mask like the ones I saw eight years ago. Like the one Sutton had in the forest weeks prior.
“You four know you shouldn’t be here. This area is prohibited.”
“O-oh, sorry, s-sir.” Sabrina backs up a step, trying to pull me with her, but I don’t move. “We must have taken a wrong turn, but we’ll head back and get out of your hair.”
He stares at her, his glacial gaze chilling.
My feet stay rooted in place.
“Lexington. Perciville.” Jean-Louis looks at them over our heads, his expression unreadable. “Please see yourselves out of Tartarus.”
Tartarus?I glance around, frowning at the fact that I can’t see anything still.
If this is their underworld, we’re in trouble.
“I don’t think I can leave without my friends,” Lexington says.
“You always did like playing the Good Samaritan role,” Jean-Louis replies in a droll voice. “Don’t worry, son. I’m just going to give them the tour they seek. If you want, you can stay here and wait for them.”
“How did you know we were down here?” I ask.
Jean-Louis lifts a bony finger, pointing up. A tiny red dot blinks at us from the cave ceiling.
Cameras.
Theywere watching us from the moment we came down. Maybe even before.
He grabs my and Sabrina’s shoulders, surprisingly strong for a man who looks so ill. Sharp fingernails dig through layers of fabric, and I glance behind me at Percy and Lexington, who stand in place, staring at us.
“Jean-Louis?—”
“I’ll bring them back,” he calls out, his voice bouncing off the cave walls as he shoves us forward. The masked figures from before bar the boys from following, pinning them back againstthe wall with brute force. “Just testing out a theory.” When I try to slide out from Jean-Louis’s touch, he grips harder. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Ms. Noelle. Play nice, and I’ll bring you back to your friends soon enough.”
