Left, right, right, and then left again we turned, every new passage whiter than white and squeaky clean. Matching plastic doors blended with the surroundings, silent, not a rustle of clothing or a scrape of shoes behind them.
“Hurry up,” Ezra grumbled as we headed for an elevator at the end of yet another hallway. “We don’t have all day.”
Although I had allowed him to cuff my hands behind my back and transport me in the back of a military truck, his mood had soured by the minute the closer we got to Ardaton.
Any time I had lookedwrongat one of the soldiers sitting with us—guarding Ezra—he wouldtskin warning, reminding me he had Kali and Zion apprehended.
Yet my cooperation hadn’t lessened Ezra’s scowl. Seemingly, it had the opposite effect.
Curious.
One of three soldiers nudged my shoulder, and I had to repeat the exercise of inhaling for four seconds, holding my breath for the same amount of time, and then doing the samewith the exhale. If I hadn’t done it, the soldier would have ended with his face smashed into the floor despite my restraints.
Once you spent your life training for war, a couple of thin bracelets forged out of metal and a short chain connecting them could not hold you for long. Too many methods existed to break free of them.
We came to a stop before the elevator, and I smirked at my so-called brother. The movement unsettled the swelling under my right eye from a punch I’d become a target to, but the smarting added a…spice of sorts to my voice as I remarked, “Well,Ihave all the time in the world.” Leaning against the steel frame, I savored the chill permeating my clothing and seeping into my muscles. “What’s the rush, Ezra? Is your new master so impatient he can’t wait for his servant to arrive?”
His light brown complexion grew beet red. “You should watch how you speak to those above your station.”
“Hmm. Somehow, I think mine is higher than yours.” Adjusting my position, I stifled a groan from the fire blossoming in my fractured ribs. “Otherwise, I would have either a bullet in my head or my throat open right now. Instead, I haveyouleading me to your boss. That makes me more important here.”
“We’ll see about that,” he sneered, rapidly tapping a set of numbers into the keypad. His nail-less fingers surely had to twinge any time he touched something.
Zion knew precisely how to aggravate the nail root to maximize pain.
A ding marked the elevator’s doors retracting and revealing what could only be described as a sterile box.
Ezra bit out, “Get in.”
War or not, you had to be ready for your plans to go to shit. A good strategy meant you went in prepared, but it was the adaptability that swayed the outcome one way or another. So, like a cooperative captive, I squeezed inside the elevator. Mythree guards, as mute as statues, flanked me, serving as buffers between me and my brother.
The box enclosing us resembled a surgery room: all shining metal, smooth seams, the space optimized for cleanup, the fluorescent lights so bright they caused glints to leap around and scorch my retinas.
But before I could take a move from Zion’s playbook and taunt Ezra some more, we had already descended however many levels and were marching down another hallway.
Ezra entered a code into another palm-sized keypad installed in a wall, and the snow-colored door, as spotless as everything else in their containment institution, clicked.
Without waiting another moment, I kicked the plastic, swinging the door open and striding inside.
Remaining behind the threshold, Ezra drawled with unfiltered mirth, “Have fun.” A wave of goodbye, and he closed the door, locking me in the long, rectangular room. No windows, no chairs, just a bolted-to-the-floor table and the man I recognized from the broadcast that he and his colleagues had transmitted back in Ilasall.
The large mirror spanning the length of the room reflected the tumble of his black curls, each coil a snake poised to strike.
As I sauntered over to the Head of Ardaton, I could feel the eyes of the venomous creatures tracking me. I knew they weren’t real, merely a figment of my imagination, but I couldn’t deny the aura of rot hanging around him.
Halting a few feet from the leader of the city, I inclined my head. “Adder.”
“Gedeon.” He graced me with a smile. “Though you should probably know that my subordinates don’t call me by my name.”
Paying no attention to the twinge in my abdomen, I widened my stance. “I’m not your subject.”
“For now.” Adder plucked a white tablet off the table, and the device instantly came to life. Before I could begin to wonder what his plan was, a faint beep echoed in the room, and my handcuffs loosened. “Here. We can talk like equals now.”
I tossed the pair of shackles onto the table. “We will never be that.” The rattle of metal striking metal reverberated, forging a symphony of uncertainty and peril.
“I see you’re not one for introductions.” The Head of Ardaton rubbed his dimpled chin, his appearance more rugged than what it had been in the broadcast. “But we can skip that part. I believe you have already figured out where you are.”
“Ardaton’s prison. Underground.” The most logical conclusion was typically the right one.
