Page 179

I smile. “Come closer.”

She doesn't come closer. Smart girl. Her gaze shifts past me toward Selena. My smile disappears as I growl, “Don't.”

Candice looks back at me. “You remember what I told you.” For several seconds, neither of us moves. Candice wipes the blood from her mouth, but she stays exactly where she is. She can hate me all she wants. As long as she's afraid enough to leave Selena and her baby alone, I don't give a damn.

A howl tears through the camp. My heart pounds as everyone looks toward the ceiling. Another howl answers the first, followed by shouting and the pounding of feet overhead. Something crashes hard enough to shake dust loose from the ceiling.

One of the guards turns toward the stairs. “What the hell is happening?”

Another howl rips through the camp, and my wolf surges forward stronger than she has since the dart hit me.

Mate!

Darian. He's here. Candice spins toward the guards. “Go! Find out what's happening!”

One takes off toward the stairs. The other hesitates until someone above us starts shouting about Silver Moon, then he runs after him. Silver Moon found us.

Candice starts barking orders as rogues race through the corridor, but I stop listening. My eyes move around the cell while memories from my first life come rushing back. I know these walls. I know this cell. And I remember what I hid inside it. A skeleton key. Behind me, Selena pushes herself up from the cot. “Stay there for a second.”

“Arlene?”

I look toward the place where I remember hiding the key as another crash shakes the ceiling. The guards are distracted. Candice is distracted. Fighting is spreading through the camp, and somewhere above us, my mate is coming.

My wolf pushes against me again. Mate.

"I know."

I turn toward Selena. She looks at me, waiting. I smile. “It's time to get out of here.”

44

Arlene’s POV

The second Candice disappears up the stairs, I move.

“Come on.”

Selena pushes herself off the cot while I drop to my knees beside the wall. The fighting above us grows louder by the second. Howls shake the ceiling, followed by shouting and something crashing hard enough to send dust falling around us. I run my fingers along the bottom of the wall.

“What are you looking for?” Selena asks.

“A key.”

She stares at me. “You have a key?”

“Hopefully. The night before Darian, the kids, and I escaped this place, I hid skeleton keys in every cell I could reach.”

“Why?”

I keep searching along the stone. “Because I knew I wouldn't be here anymore. If someone else was captured after we escaped, I wanted them to have a way out.”

Selena grows quiet behind me as my fingers catch the edge of a loose stone. “There.”

I pry it away and reach inside. For one horrible second, I feel nothing but dirt. Then my fingertips brush cold metal, and relief rushes through me as I pull out the skeleton key.

Selena smiles. “Looks like you ended up saving yourself too.”

“Yeah.” I slide the key into the lock. “Didn't see that one coming.”