She took his hand, because she needed to, and started toward the door. “I like the idea of freedom. Let’s try and get out of here before someone comes.”
He walked slightly behind her, his fingers tight around hers. For all the ugly history between them, they were still family. “I didn’t hear anyone out in the hall. But who brought us down here?”
“Down here?” Eliana glanced back, still making a beeline to the door.
“No windows. I think we’re in a basement.”
“But are we even still at the Reverence Sisters community?” She stopped at the exit.
He shook his head. “I guess we’ll find out.”
Neither of them moved.
“Well…” She hesitated. “I’m not going first.”
Carlos huffed, almost a laugh, and pulled his weapon. “Once we get topside, I’ll call for backup.”
She didn’t want to know how long it would take the police to reach the compound. Assuming that’s where they were. It might even be the Illinois State Police who responded, and that could take even longer than city response times.
Still, she wanted to see the flashing lights and know there were cops with badges here to keep her safe. To find out what happened. All so she could be at peace that it would never happen to her again.
Sometimes fear felt like a king tide, trying to suck her under. There was nothing to do but let it take her down. Fighting only burned the energy she’d need to fight her way back to the surface. Even that had a slim chance of working, so why not give the battle everything you’ve got? But gut reaction wasn’t always the best idea. Like when she ran in her dream, racing away from the threat, and tripped. When Cabot ran too far ahead and Eliana lost sight of her.
Save some energy and come back swinging.
Eliana had so many Zeyla-isms in her vocabulary that she could publish a book of them. But no one wanted a collection of random things that popped into her aunt’s head, most of which were about fighting.
Carlos squeezed her hand. “Stay behind me?”
She nodded, and he stepped through the door. Gun first.
Eliana wanted to thank him for coming with her, but she was the one who’d come with him—and neither of them had expected this. After finding that room with the gowns, the goblets, and the blood, they’d been zapped. A stun gun, or stun doorway.
The long hall stretched in front of them, the lab door behind her. Yawning darkness ahead, and the only light at her back.
Cabot.She had Carlos, a trained police officer with a gun. Only in her dream did she draw strength from her favorite animal.
It wasn’t like that had happened in real life. The hooded lady and the dark woods—that was only a nightmare. A way for her mind to play tricks on her and keep her captive to fear.
Kind of like this dark hallway.
She held tight to the back of Carlos’s jacket as they ascended a small stairwell, each step barely wide enough for two people to pass each other.
Through the door at the top, the temperature dropped.
She shivered. “It’s colder up here.”
Carlos looked out. “It’s gone dark.”
She followed him through a small foyer, just a hall and the door to the stairs, and a mat by the door to wipe feet. Outside, into the night where shadows played between the buildings of the Reverence Sisters’ compound. “How long were we down there?”
“No clue,” he said. “At least we know we weren’t driven somewhere else.”
“At least we woke up at all.” Eliana wasn’t going to let go of his jacket. In fact, she moved closer to his back—after all, he was warm. “What happened to us?”
“I’m more interested in who did it, and where they are now.” He readied his gun with one hand and dialed on his phone with the other, identifying himself and asking for the police.
Eliana looked at the building where they’d found the abandoned belongings. She glanced over her shoulder at the foyer behind them, through the glass of the door.
