Page 195 of Stormbreaker

“What are you talking about?”

“I don’t have time to explain everything—”

CRASH.

The corner of the building smashes apart. We both duck under a hailstorm of brick and cement to find a group of Guards running toward us.

“This way!” Rook shouts, and then we barrel across the plaza. It’s a sight of chaos, and we lose ourselves in the mess, bursting through the doors of Amery.

The hall is empty, eerily quiet but for the muffled sounds of confusion bleeding in from outside. We won’t have long before the Guards find us.

Rook cocks his head, and we turn left, heading down a deserted hallway. I’m still having trouble arranging my thoughts into coherence as our soft footfalls echo in the silence.

“Here,” Rook whispers. “I think this hall leads toward our room.”

Our room.

The place where Rook made me feel safe when Amery became a viper’s den.

Where he read to me. Where we kissed. Where he . . .

I shake my head, even as my cheeks heat at the memory.

Maybe all of that was a lie, too.

We round a corner, keeping close to the walls. I keep seeing Raine’s body. Rook running onto that screen. Trinity giving me up to the Extinguishers. The moment when she uttered my name.

My mind is liquid, melting through my pores. There’s too much to process.

I wonder where she is and if I’ll ever get the chance to confront her.

A door slams in the distance, and we both stop, our eyes meeting as we wait in stillness. When nothing else happens, we proceed down the hall, turning another corner.

Everyone has hidden away, seeking shelter from the storm. We’ve been lucky so far—if you count any of this as luck—but we shouldn’t remain exposed for too much longer.

I peer down at my feet, covered by the now-dusty edges of my skirt, wondering where my parents went. Did they get to safety?

I watch Rook’s back as we snake through the corridors. I have at least a thousand questions for him, but now isn’t the time. Am I really thinking of leaving with him? Where would we go? To his home? Through the Wastes?

If I don’t, then what will happen to me? Everyone knows what I am now thanks to Trinity. Even if The Shield didn’t already know the truth, I broke into their headquarters, and they would find me. I’d be questioned, and it wouldn’t take long to reveal everything.

“Almost there,” Rook says softly as we round another corner and enter a wide hall.

We’re deep enough inside the building that I can’t hear anything happening outside.

Rook stops suddenly, his hand reaching out to block me. I stop, wondering what’s set him off. Then I hear it. Footsteps. Several sets.

We tense up as someone rounds the corner.

Rook appears ready to bolt, and I’m about to follow when I see who it is.

“Knox?” I ask as he appears with Jackson, Sal, and several other guys I recognize from House Fiama.

“We’ve been looking for you.” Knox sneers. He approaches on casual steps, his fingers tucked into his belt loops like a complete jackass. “I always knew you were a freak, Poet.”

Despite everything, I roll my eyes. “We really don’t have time for this,” I say. “Get out of the way.”

But they close in, surrounding us, forming a wall of losers. Knox stands at the head of the circle between Jackson and Sal. “I don’t think so. You’re a Keeper, and the Extinguishers want you. Finally, that Robins was good for something.”