I still had my bag, so they didn’t take our stuff, just put us in a place where we were confined. The moment we entered, I immediately felt sick. There was inferichite inside the walls of the room, and wards alongside it, coupled with noxite… and inferichite. My powers felt heavily suppressed.
“Listen up! None of you kids are getting out of here unless you convert to The Mission!” the guard boomed. “The rest of you are stuck here until you comply, or you’ll be sent to conversion therapy first thing in the morning. Might as well get comfortable!”
A couple of students called out swear words and weak threats, but nobody dared to attack the guards. A small group hurried toward the guards and agreed to join The Mission, and they got to leave, but the rest of us stayed back. I heard the doors to the room lock, sealing us in.
“We can’t let them take us to conversion therapy. They’ll separate us, and who knows what they’ll put us through to get us to convert,” I whispered to the others.
“But how are we supposed to get out of here?” Kallie asked. “You guys can feel it. There’s inferichite all around this place!”
“Where are the guards?” Charlie asked.
“Two are guarding the door. The rest are on the other side of a glass wall,” I said glumly. “It’s some type of observation room. They can see us, but we can’t get into it.”
“There are a set of keys hanging on the wall in the observation room, over a desk, which probably opens the door out of here,” Marcus added. “But there’s no way we can get inside. There isn’t even an entrance to the area from this room.”
“I can’t pick these locks open, even if the guards got out of the way,” Kallie said. “I can sense that they’re locked down with magic. Maybe I could overpower it, but it would take time, and we’d be caught by the time I broke it or Ava melted the locks.”
“Can you reverse time?” Marcus asked Kallie.
Kallie pulled at her hair. “I can, but I don’t want to unless it’s a last resort. There are too many potential consequences, especially around inferichite. We can’t afford to go back and fix anything if we mess up. We need to get out cleanly on the first try, and that’s just too difficult with time travel.”
“Can you paint a door if Kallie conjures some paint, Marcus?” Charlie asked.
“No. The guards are going to notice. I can’t do it in secret, it would take too long, and it’s too dark in here to paint well. I have to make the painting as realistic as possible for us to use it as a portal,” Marcus replied.
“Then we’re going to have to find another way,” Charlie said. “Perhaps we can use the darkness to our advantage. We can create a distraction.”
“No,” I said firmly. “If one of us causes a distraction, then that person would have to be left behind, and we’re not leaving the Institute unless it’s together.”
“We also can’t be detected,” Kallie added. “Otherwise, they’ll follow us to the lake.”
“There’s too much inferichite in here. Magic isn't going to get us out,” Marcus said. “The only thing that's going to get us out of here is the real thing— the key hanging in the observation room. But without magic, we can’t get to it.”
A snarl across the room broke off our discussion. “What right do you have to keep us here?” a shifter boy demanded. He was facing off with the guards at the door, backed up by a couple of his big friends. “Let us out, before things get ugly!”
“I’ll only give you one warning to stay back,” a guard said as they raised their weapon.
“I’m going to call my parents and tell themexactlywhat’s going on here,” the shifter snarled. “And you’re not going to stop me!”
The shifter started forward with his fists raised. There were a couple of loud shots—actualgunshots, not just the whooshing sounds of noxite darts. My breath caught in my throat as I watched blood spray as the shifter went down. Screams filled the room, and the faces of his friends went white. A pool of red flooded the floor, before the shifter took a gasping breath and died.
Holy shit.I felt my body shake as I processed what had happened. Terrible things went on at the Institute all the time, but the guards never actuallykilledsomeone out in the open like that.
“Take the body out,” the guard ordered, and the shifter was dragged away, leaving a blood trail. The guard rolled his shoulders and added, “Anyone else got some funny ideas?”
Nobody said a damn word. My blood became frozen at the same time my mouth went completely dry. These guards weren’t playing around anymore.
“We can’t get caught,” Kallie hushed. “They’ll shoot us, too.”
Rishi meowed and pawed at Marcus’ leg. Oberi tilted his head and said,I believe the cat has an idea.
“I’m not sure what he wants,” Marcus said. “But just act natural.”
Marcus took a seat on one of the bunk beds by the wall, while Kallie leaned against the railing. Charlie stood next to me, always on the alert to take action in case another crisis went down.
I tried to keep my hands steady, but they were shaking. I’d seen people die in front of me before, but I hadn’t been expecting the guards to do that. There was no preparation time— he was here one minute, gone the next, just like Monica.
A long time ago, Charlie had said he was a damn good con man, but he couldn’t outtalk a bullet. That’s exactly where we were at right now. There wouldn’t be any more negotiating with these people. They’d kill us the second we stepped out of line. It was dangerous to leave, but at this point, staying was even more dangerous. We had to get out of herenow.
