Time to go.
I pulled on the thick fleece hoodie that came with my uniform, tugged the hat low over my ears. It did little against the chill that crept through these halls, but it helped me feel smaller. Less noticeable.
The door clicked shut behind me, louder than I’d hoped. I winced, holding my breath.
Next door lived Pike. My shifter sparring partner. Wolf, I was pretty sure. And if the way he looked at me wasn’t enough to confirm his hatred, the way his ears twitched when I so much as breathed too loud certainly did.
I moved fast and light, every step measured. The halls stretched out in eerie silence, and I prayed the shadows I couldn’t summon would still find a way to keep me hidden.
I’d memorized the layout by now. Being marched up and down the corridors every morning by Phoenix or Leo had burned the directions into my brain.
So when I spotted the lift at the end of the hall, I didn’t hesitate—though I still hated the damn thing. Every time thosemetal doors slid shut, it felt like the air thinned, like the walls pressed a little closer.
But this was for Finn.
I jabbed the button for Level Three and flinched as the lift shuddered to life beneath me, humming like it had secrets.
I shut my eyes and held my breath. Just a few floors. Just a few seconds.
Then I’d see him.
I realized my mistake the moment the lift doors slid open.
The mess hall was alive with chaos. The tables had been cleared away, and a small bar had sprung up along one wall, bottles glittering under the harsh light. Strobe lights flashed erratically, casting sharp shadows over the crowd. Music blared from the speakers, thumping in my chest as people danced in the centre of the room.
But it wasn’t the new trainees like me. No, these were the older ones—dressed for something that felt more like a party than training. Dresses, skirts, suits, and glitter. They were letting loose, celebrating, like the place wasn’t a prison at all.
“What the fuck?” I muttered under my breath.
A loud, raucous laugh pierced the noise, and I winced, instinctively pulling back into the shadows.
There, sprawled across a velvet couch like he owned the damn place, was Leo, dressed in an open white shirt that revealed his tanned, muscular chest. Women—at least ten of them—clung to him, each one feeding him grapes or handing him drinks, their adoration practically palpable. It would have been laughable if it wasn’t so damn unnerving. I didn’t see Phoenix or Thorne in the crowd, but Slade was impossible to miss. He stood along the far wall, his figure a dark silhouette against theflashing lights, surveying the room with that cold, calculating gaze of his. He didn’t move—just watched.
When a woman approached him, smiling like she was about to flirt, Slade’s eyes narrowed, his jaw tightening. He didn’t speak, but there was a palpable tension in the air, and the low growl that rumbled from him was barely audible, yet it sent a shiver down my spine. It was a warning. She didn’t need to hear it to know she was trespassing.
She backed off almost immediately, and Slade went back to his silent vigil, unmoved, as if nothing had happened.
I ducked back, pressing myself against the wall, praying they wouldn’t sense me. The bathroom was near the end of the hall. Head down, I slipped through the thinning crowd, each step measured, careful, invisible.
I stepped inside the stark white room, with its multiple stalls stretching down the end of the room. At the end, one door was almost closed, but that wasn’t what drew my attention. On the top corner of the door was a small picture. A mouse.
Little mouse,
“Finn,” I breathed.
I hurried to the stall and opened the door, only to find it empty. Instead, on the floor was a grate, barely wide enough to fit my knee.
Where is he?
A strange knocking sound caught my attention. I paused. It was coming from the grate. Then the barest whisper.
“Elle?”
I crouched down beside the grate, my breath coming quick and shallow, heart racing in my chest. The quiet of the bathroom seemed to magnify the intensity of the moment. Ididn’t know what I’d expected to find, but I didn’t expect this. I whispered into the dark, barely able to hear myself over the ringing in my ears.
“Finn?”
For a long, agonizing moment, there was nothing. Then, his voice came through the grate, softer than I’d expected but full of relief.
