“I think I will. Thanks,” Ez said before heading down the hall.
Ivy broke down into tears. “Thiscan’tbe happening. I can’t believe she’d—”
“Shh,” Chancey said gently, and Ivy whimpered.
“At least the Warden released you from the Games,” I said half-heartedly.
“He had no choice but to cancel the Games after the cave-in,” Chancey told me. “If he let kids out of the Institute after that, there’d be an investigation. He’s doing everything he can to cover his ass.”
“Ava saved all of us,” Ivy added with a sniffle. “The Warden planned on sending us into the Games with noxite still in our system. He wanted us dead, but she stopped those Games from happening.”
“But everyone’s okay, right?” I asked.
“Everyone but Eddie,” Alistair replied sadly.
My stomach hollowed. I felt awful that we hadn’t found Eddie. “There has to be something more we can do.”
“We might still have a chance,” Alistair said. “Kallie and Marcus told us everything. I can’t believe you guys are demigods.”
“I sometimes can’t believe it either.” I turned to Kallie and Marcus. “Have you heard from your parents? Did they make it off campus before…?”
“Yes,” Kallie said. “Both of our parents are safe.”
“We went to Hemlock,” Marcus blurted.
My heart leapt a little. “Can she help us?”
Nobody answered for a beat, until Kallie spoke. “She’s informing the Demigod Guardians of what happened. There’s nothing else we can do. It’s in their hands now.”
My teeth gritted. “We have to dosomething. The Warden could reopen the Underground at any moment.”
“He won’t do that,” Chancey said, sounding certain. “He has nowhere to hide it anymore.”
“We don’t know that. And what about the detention camp?” I challenged. “We don’t know what he’s doing to Eddie and the other Elves out there.”
“What are we supposed to do?” Kallie asked. “We’re trapped in here. We can’t leave. We can’t fight back.”
“The Warden willneverbe held accountable for what he did!” I snapped, before lowering my voice. I didn’t want to attract any attention from the staff. “Wehaveto be powerful enough to get out of here.”
“As long as the Warden has those crystals, we’re not going anywhere,” Kallie insisted. “All we can do right now is sit tight until Hemlock tells us what to do. This is out of our hands, Charlie.”
“So we go through the motions and hope we survive,” I growled. That wasn’t good enough for me.
“Wehaveto,” Kallie said. “The Warden won’t touch us right now, because he has nowhere to take us. We’ll be safe until we can make a move.”
“And how long will that take?” I demanded. I wanted to shake the earth, to bring this whole place to the ground. I wanted the Warden topay. But even my demigod powers didn’t stand a chance against the Institute, not with inferichite surrounding the property. The Warden had made sure of that.
Marcus placed a hand on my shoulder. “Focus on your wife, Charlie. We’ll figure the rest out in time.”
Time. Fuck that. Kallie had the power to manipulate time, and even that couldn’t save us. We were totally screwed.
I raked my fingers through my hair. “Maybe you’re right. I just need to focus on Ava right now.” Honestly, I couldn’t take anything else. “But I’m glad you’re all okay.”
I couldn’t bring myself to mention Eddie. I was almost certain he was still alive, but I couldn’t think about what they might be doing to him, or the other Elves, at the detention camps they’d been sent to. And there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to stop it.
“I’m going to head back to Ava’s room,” I announced. “I need to be there when she wakes.”
I’d already been away from her for too long.
