“She did? Then why … Oh. Right. You had to stay with us.”
“It’s the basement,” Owen says, sounding annoyed. “There are rooms down there. We’ve never had time to check them. There could be some kind of way out. Fuck. I’m sending a team.”
“How do I get down there?” I ask.
“There’s only one exit and one entry point. The elevator.”
“I’m on my way down now.”
Chapter One Hundred-Thirty-One
Falcon
The basement level of the academy feels empty. The flickering lights that don’t seem to cover the length of the hallway are bad enough. It takes me a lot of shuffling around to find the piece of chocolate Robin left behind. The door it’s in front of is locked, and here I am without keys.
I kick the fucking thing full-force, using every bit of the rage inside me over her kidnapping to give it everything I’ve got. The wood splinters in all the wrong places. I kick again, and again, and it breaks open.
There’s no light inside at all.
I use the flashlight on my phone to look around.
It’s a stone box of a room. No carpet, no wallpaper, nothing.
I look for the chocolate, and when I find it, I find a section of wall that looks more suspicious up close. It takes a bit of fumbling around blind to find the mechanism to open it.
The sound it makes is full of protest as the doorway to a tunnel opens up.
I step into the darkness, and I shiver at the sudden change in temperature.
There’s only one way forward, so I take it, turning off the light on my phone.
There are lights in the tunnel. They’re not super bright, but I don’t know how long the tunnel is or how long I might be in here. I need to save the battery for any forks in my path.
The tunnel goes on and on. I rush onward, trying to map out where I am underground against where I am above. It doesn’t take too long to guess where the tunnel might lead.
The couple of turns I’ve made so far have taken me to what would be the left side of the property. I should be moving away from the academy now, toward the woods, and I’m guessing there’ll be another turn later that leads to Warren Corvina’s house in the woods.
When I check my phone, I don’t have a signal.
I try sending a message anyway, and, surprise, surprise, it doesn’t send.
Stuffing my phone back into my pocket, I start to run through the tunnel.
It’s not a short distance, but if I go back to get above ground and drive over to that prick bastard’s house, I don’t know if I’ll get there before Robin is transported or hurt.
So, I run, as fast as I fucking can.
It’s got to be where they’re headed.
There’s nothing else out here.
Chapter One Hundred-Thirty-Two
Robin
We’ve been walking for so long that I’m getting physically tired and slowing down without even meaning to. I’d thought I was doing well, that I was pretty much all good, but this underground trek has shown me I’m not as healthy as I thought I was. I guess my little walks around the gardens at the academy weren’t exactly cardio work outs.
“Stop slowing down,” Warren snaps.
