The crowd started to move, though I didn’t think it was on their own accord. We were crammed closer into the corner.
“Seminary kids, let’s get moving!” a guard barked.
The guards are on the move,Oberi said.
“They’re going to lock us up!” Opal panicked.
“We have to make a break for it,” I stated in a low whisper.
“We can’t leave Hemlock and Takahashi behind,” Ava argued. “The Warden must have them detained somewhere.”
“We may not have a chance to save them,” I told her quickly. “The last time we tried to save people, we went to the Underground, and we didn’t all make it out alive. We can’t risk that again.”
“We may have already lost our chance to escape,” Marcus whimpered. “Kallie can’t portal from anywhere in the Institute— she needs my art to do it, and I don’t have time to paint another door. We have to use the one in the Lair.”
Ava hesitated. It really fucking sucked to talk about leaving people behind, but at this point, we had no time to lose. We couldn’t go through a repeat of what happened in the Underground. If we didn’t make it, it wasn’t just our lives on the line; it was the fate of the world. Ava and I still had a prophecy to fulfill, and we couldn’t do it under the Warden’s torture. We had our chance to leave…
And I feared we might’ve already missed our window.
Ava’s thoughts slipped through our bond, and I knew she was warring with herself. She didn’t want to leave anyone behind, but we’d run out of time. We had to get out of here, and nothing could slow us down.
Takahashi and Hemlock would want us to run, I told her through our thoughts.They’d tell us to go.
Mentally, I felt her reserve crack and break. It was such an odd feeling, to experience Ava give in, that it made me ill. Ineverwanted Ava to give up, to break her spirit. But we’d run out of options.
“There’s no choice,” Ava finally said. “We get the key, and then we run.”
“The guards are coming,” Ivy warned.
“Ez, take the keys,” Ava whispered. They clinked lightly as she handed the magical keys to her brother. “The Warden will be watching me. He can’t find these keys on us.”
“I’ll keep them safe,” Ez promised.
The guards’ footsteps came even closer. I knew I needed to give orders now, before they overheard us.
“No matter what happens, we all have to find a way outtonight,” I said to the others quickly. “Break out anyway that you can. We’ll meet in the Lair.”
“You got it, boss,” Alistair replied, then he was smart enough to shut up— we all were.
There were screams around us as inmates were cuffed and taken away. The Mission kids cheered, like they werehappywe were getting dragged off to ancestors only knew where and forced into The Mission’s indoctrination.
They thought they were saving our souls. They didn’t realize we were all being played.
“Get your fucking hands off me,” I heard Chancey say, and he shoved at a guard. He tried to fight back, but I heard his voice carry off as a mess of guards yanked him away.
Marcus and Kallie stuck with Ava and me, but I heard the rest of our friends being forced in different directions, and taken to opposite holding cells.
I knew this was it. We either broke out of this prison tonight, or we’d be dead by morning. I refused to let myself be a pawn for the Warden and brainwashed into his mad crusade for power. If I had a choice to join him or perish, that decision would be death.
I knew the Warden would make good on that promise.
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
AVA-MARIE
This was bad. No, it wasworsethan bad. We were in some deep shit, and if we didn’t figure it the fuck out, it was all over from this point.
The guards took the four of us, along with about fifty other inmates, to some sort of storage room that they were using as a holding cell. Bunk beds were packed inside, but that was the only furniture in the blank space. The walls smelled like they’d just been painted, a morbid color of gray. There were a couple of empty wooden boxes in the corner, and a glass wall at the far end of the room that was on our level, but that was all I saw. Worried conversation and a few suppressed sobs filled the room as the doors slammed shut behind us.
