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“Do the best you can,” he told me, glancing up at the swaying light fixtures. The place was becoming rapidly more unstable. Every moment we stayed upped the chances of our getting killed by falling debris before the place could crush us to death. “And make sure you keep back enough energy to get yourself out of here, if this goes wrong.”
“Sure, because it’s not like any of this was my fault,” I said sarcastically.
He grabbed my arm hard enough to hurt. “I mean it.”
I blinked at him, taking in the tense set of his jaw, the tight press of his mouth and the more-than-slightly-maniacal gleam in his eyes. I’d never tell Pritkin this, but there were times when he really reminded me of a vamp. He had the same way of flipping into the scariest person in history, and then flipping right back out and never noticing the difference.
“Okay,” I said meekly.
He nodded curtly and moved to the cell with the tattooed man. He started on the wards and I went to work avoiding them. The tiny hops, only a few feet at a time, didn’t take much energy, but there were a lot of cells. And no matter what I’d promised Pritkin, I couldn’t look into people’s faces and tell them, Hey, sorry you have to die, but I’m getting really tired.
By the time I reached the end of the row, I was soaked in perspiration, my skin was a sickly white and my hands were shaking violently. I leaned against the wall and watched Pritkin release another person the old-fashioned way. Together, we’d freed about thirty people, most of whom were lolling drunkenly against walls or sprawled unconscious on the floor.
Pritkin glanced at me and frowned. “Take a break,” he said curtly.
“How? We aren’t even halfway yet.” And I hadn’t seen what was on the next corridor.
Pritkin’s eyes moved from me to the cells to the half-unconscious young man who had just fallen into his arms. He had wavy black hair pulled into a short ponytail, pale skin and an athlete’s body. He looked to be around thirty. Pritkin propped him against the wall and shook him. The young man stirred, blinked his eyes open and looked up groggily. Just in time to get slapped hard across the face.
“What are you doing?!”
“Bringing him around. Some of the prisoners are war mages—or used to be. They can help open the cells.”
“What are war mages doing in here?”
“The current ad
ministration has a habit of locking away those who get too vocal against its policies,” he said shortly.
Two more blocks burst from the wall before I could comment. The once orderly pattern was starting to look like a toddler with missing teeth. “There’s another cell block beyond this one,” Pritkin said. “Although with any luck, it isn’t fully occupied. Can you finish here?”
I nodded and he slipped around the corner. I stumbled down the corridor and knelt beside the mage. “Wake up! We need your help!”
He looked up at me with bleary eyes. They were a weird color, almost no-color, like rocks viewed through river water. I took another look at the number of cells remaining and then pulled my arm back and slapped him as hard as I could.
“I’m awake!” he said heatedly, his eyes sharpening up fast. “What’s happening?”
“A ley line ruptured, destroying most of MAGIC. We’re trying to get everyone out, but a cave-in cut off the passageway from the prison wing. We need you to help release the rest of the prisoners while we look for a way out!”
“There isn’t one,” he said, sitting up with his hands on his head, like a hangover victim. “It’s a prison. It’s supposed to keep people in.”
“If you want to live, you’ll help us think of one,” I said grimly.
“The Circle will rescue us.”
“The Circle evacuated an hour ago!”
“I don’t think so,” he told me nastily. “We’re war mages. We don’t simply abandon our colleagues.”
“Then what are you doing in here?’
He glared at me. “That’s none of your concern! The point is that you’re wrong.”
“You’ll figure out otherwise in about twenty-five minutes,” I said. “But it’ll be a little late.”
“Fuck that.” The red-haired woman I’d noticed earlier had come around. She crossed to the other side of the corridor and started working on the ward imprisoning a tall Asian woman. “I’m not dying today.”
The corridor shook again, and the war mage gave a start. He noticed the missing blocks, and for some reason, they seemed to shake him. “The external wards are down. Why?”
