The ease he’d said it with sent tingles all the way to my toes.
“Arlo also warned me of your threats.” The flashlight flickered. “Piece of shit.” The man banged it against the shaft. “I’m Rowan, by the way.”
“Well, Rowan.” Ava tapped her boot on the edge of the hole. “Arlo seems to have missed one important detail: Zion also follows up on his promises.”
“Yeah, yeah. We’ve all heard of what goes down in your basement,” our contact groused as the stream of illumination vanished and then reappeared again. “Now, are you planning to climb down or not? I don’t have all day.”
“He’s right.” Done pulling out a few flashlights, Eli fastened his backpack. “Let’s move.”
Ava passed one of the electric torches to me. Dressed in a standard Ilasall’s soldier uniform, she clipped her own portable light to the waistband of her black, fitted cargo pants. “What’s up your ass today?”
Eli threw the pristine brown leather bag over his shoulders. “I want to get back as soon as we can.”
“I can agree to that.” Rowan’s distorted remark floated out of the pit.
“Just so you know, we’re not done,” Ava told Eli. “Iwillfigure out why you can’t seem to stop sulking today.” She zipped up her teal puffy jacket—perfectfor blending in—and plunged her lower body into the shaft. “Be careful, the ladder’s slippery.”
Zion jerked his chin at Eli. “You’re next.”
“See you down there.” He re-secured his ponytail, prompting me to do the same with my high bun, and gracefully began his descent into the tunnel.
Following him, I positioned my flashlight between my teeth and gripped the first bar of the ladder.
And immediately regretted not wearing gloves.
The slimy layer coating the rusted metal erased any hope of friction. Freaking mold, of all things, was about to end me. If I slipped and free fell the forty feet to the bottom, my skull would probably explode on the impact.
A dull thud signaled the first of us had finished the descent.
“Name’s Ava. How did you discover this tunnel?”
“These used to be catacombs—something like an underground burial place. For some reason, our ancestors wanted to preserve their skeletons. But Ilasall has turned the maze into functional passages.” Rowan’s calm explanation beckoned me like a beacon—down, down, down, all the way down. “They’re rarely utilized, except for the Matchings, transport of prisoners, covert movements of the military and such. If you know where to turn, you can walk under the whole city undetected. We have a map, but it’s a work in progress. It takes a while to find new paths.”
Unbeknownst to Ilasall’s citizens, a city of the dead resided right under their feet.
“What about the tunnels going outside Ilasall?” Ava asked.
“Dozens of them lead beyond the gates, but all we’ve located so far are blocked. This is the first open one we’ve discovered,” Rowan said as the pool of white light below me flickered. His flashlight must have malfunctioned again.
“I have some batteries to spare,” Eli offered, and a thump signaled he’d safely reached the bottom. “Here.”
The light below me disappeared, leaving the flashlight in my mouth the sole illumination, drawing my attention to the spiders and…other creatures crawling along the walls, some of them damn too close to my hands.
A ball of bright light exploded below me, and I squeezed my eyes shut to will away the spots dancing in my vision.
“Much better,” Rowan noted.
As I neared the bottom, the trio huddled away from the ladder to make space for me and Zion. The instant my feet touched the ground, relief coursed through me. Ripping the flashlight from the trap of my teeth, I slurped down the drool pooling below my tongue and wiped the handle on my black cargo pants, part of my soldier’s uniform.
When your goal was to awaken all rebels in Ilasall from their slumber, inspire them to follow you into war, a potential doom, you had to look the part.
Dressed for battle.
Ruthless.
Cold.
Carrying not a shred of mercy or doubt.
