Page 103 of Inextricably Tied

“Enough.”

“Can you see me?”

“Yeah.” His throat sounds stuffed with cotton — or her ears do. “Chains staked into the ground around your wrists and ankles. Don’t see your helmet anywhere.”

“Figures. The rest of the room?”

His eyes swivel, wincing when they twist too far. “A dirt cellar. Tree roots in the far corner. Concrete stairs a few yards in front of you, to your right. Couple of support beams throughout. Shelf near the stairs. Walls look like rock.”

Harbinger’s gloved hand slaps the ground. “Fuck!”

“We need to —”

The footsteps above quiet them. Her heart pounds as locks and chains shift at the top of the stairs, scraping against the metal double-door before it swings open. Harbinger squints against the light. It doesn’t reach far, but she can make out Flint’s face in the corner, caked with something dry and brown…

Blood.

Her fingers clench into the dirt.

“They’re awake,” Char calls back up the stairs. He flips a switch on the wall, casting dim light through the room from one naked bulb. “How was your rest?”

“Fuck off.”

Char clicks his tongue. “Touchy.”

The woman descends the stairs behind him. “No service on the phone, but we’ll take it and the vehicle to Conifer territory to set the scene.”

Harbinger’s stomach sinks. Poe and Omen won’t expect to hear from her for a while. The Timbers are busy with their own issues. It’ll be weeks before the OID catches up to them, if ever. There’s no one looking for them.

Except —

She makes a panicked grapple toward Agony’s connection, but her head swims when she gets close. Whatever toxin the woman injected them with fucks with Harbinger’s head, overwhelmed by the flood of information from the dirt.

“Sorry about the darts.” The woman doesn’t look sorry at all, feathers ruffling. So that’s where they came from. “But you weren’t drinking anything, and we made that lemonade special for you.”

“How could you have known we’d show up here.” Dirt scatters from Harbinger’s breath. “We didn’t even know.”

“Let me rephrase; that batch is for any visitors.” The woman’s cold eyes linger as Char moves toward Harbinger. “But we knew you’d end up here.”

“How does that —”

Another dart pricks into her. Flint fights his chains as the room tilts around her, and Char’s face contorts into a smile.

“That’s enough questions for now.”

Then he flicks off the light, plunging them back into darkness.

Harbinger goes to the clawed forest again, but it’s wrong, dimensions skewed and colors painted where they shouldn’t be. She can’t keep her eyes on anything.

Harbin! Tell me where you are…

Her mouth opens, but only foam comes out, drifting to the tops of the trees. She tries to scream, but all she hears are bubbles popping in the distance.

Waking is as bad as the first time. Groggy, head lolling, thoughts scattered to the wind. Red eyes watch her from across the room.

“I can’t reach Agony.” Her forehead presses to the ground. “My head is all —

“Harbinger.”