Page 168 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

A few hours later, Troy comes inside, bringing food. His clothes carry the scent of both new people in this place.

He stops when he sees Riley.

‘You shaved.’

Riley nods, having heard Troy coming from far away, so he’s already on the bed, covers rumpled over his feet to hide the boots, pretending to read.

‘Felt like it.’

Troy sets down the tray. There’s food on there for the whole day. Granola bars, fruit, sandwiches wrapped in plastic.

‘Well, good. You look much better.’

‘I heard noise downstairs,’ Riley intones, still not looking at Troy, needing to seem disinterested.

‘Just business.’

Lie.

Sickly, rotten lie.

Riley won’t let it happen to someone else.

Not that beautiful little girl.

Not his own brother he can sense nearby.

Awkward silence stretches between them until Troy breaks it, says, ‘All right, we’ll talk later,’ and leaves.

Both bars and door lock behind him at the bottom of the stairs.

Once the sun sets, Riley will test them, see if what Mimi said was true and then, hopefully, get hold of a phone… somehow.

He tries not to panic about the fact he doesn’t know how to use a phone, has only seen Troy and others using them from time to time. He could maybe use a landline, how hard can that be? The problem is he doesn’t know who to call, but he’ll figure it out because he has to.

Riley eats what he can of the food, needs the energy.

He waits for the sun to set.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Riley has never been so clear-minded in his life. Not when he killed D’Angelo for a favour that never came, not when he plotted to escape, not even when he would fantasise about killing Troy.

The sun has barely set, but he can’t wait anymore.

He touches the wall, closes his eyes.

‘Um. Open, please?’

To his astonishment, both the bars and steel door slide obediently into the wall.

She is a Brightling.

Magical little cub.

Riley creeps out, scanning around.

It’s been so long since he left here and the storage room is exactly the same; musty, dark and full of webs. He touches the wall again, bids the doors to close and they do. The dust muffles his footfalls, but Riley has always been a natural sneak anyway and he ducks quickly to the left once out of the storage room, taking the old, unused stairwell instead.