AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Clear this hallway and get everyone around the corner,” I told Tremaine, who jumped to obey. Damn, I could get used to this.
A couple minutes later, we were ready to make the attempt. I was crouched around the corner with most of the prisoners, while Pritkin’s crew positioned themselves at the end of the first passage. I’d assumed he was going to do a countdown or give some kind of warning, but I’d barely gotten into place when a massive explosion rocked the floor beneath our feet and brought half the ceiling tiles down on our heads. Somebody screamed and someone else cursed and I knew this was the end.
Only it wasn’t.
The rocks behind the ceiling tiles remained in place, the walls continued to bow but not break and there wasn’t even that much dust in the air. I peered cautiously around the corner, leaving sweat-smudged fingerprints on the concrete, expecting the worst. What I saw instead was a huge hole in the once solid floor.
Pritkin hopped up out of the hole, covered in red dust like an Indian in war paint. “Again,” he ordered. I drew my head back just as another huge explosion rent the air.
The reverberations from it hadn’t even worn away when a mass yell came from his group. “We’re through!” I heard someone say, and then I was hugging the wall to keep from being trampled as the crowd surged forward.
“Cassie!” Pritkin’s arm found my wrist and jerked me around the corner. “Hurry up! Even if Caleb succeeded, we’re running out of time!”
“Exactly what is he trying to do?” I asked, but didn’t get an answer.
Everyone was shoving and jostling, and those getting stepped on were screaming. Some of the tougher crowd were literally running over the older and weaker prisoners in their way. And that was a problem for more than one reason. Because the hole the mages had cut was big enough for only two, maybe three people at a time. And a logjam caused by line jumpers could block the whole thing.
Pritkin pulled a gun and fired a couple of shots at the remaining ceiling. “In order,” he barked.
Most people stopped and looked up, the terror fading from their eyes slightly at the sight of someone taking charge. But a big guy in the middle of the line wasn’t so docile. He had a red ponytail and beard stubble that almost matched his florid face.
“I helped cut that thing!” he told Pritkin. “I’m not waiting in line to see if I live long enough to use it!”
“Don’t,” Pritkin warned him. The man’s response was to throw a slighter man out of his way and start pushing forward, sending the crowd back into panic mode. And Pritkin shot him.
I didn’t even realize what had happened for a few seconds. Until the man stumbled and fell to one knee, a bright spot of color appearing on the tail of the white T-shirt he was wearing. Then he slowly toppled over onto his side.
“I said, in order,” Pritkin repeated calmly. The crowd quickly rearranged itself into a nice, straight line.
I stared at the fallen man, stunned. No one tried to help him, and a few people even stepped over him so as to not lose their place in line. I started to move forward, but a heavy hand fell on the nape of my neck.
“Shift out of here,” Pritkin told me. “Now.”
“I—I don’t know that I can make it quite that far,” I admitted. Unless the surface was a couple feet away.
Pritkin swore and jerked his head at Tremaine, who was already on his way toward us through the crowd. “Take her to the front of the line,” Pritkin told him, handing him a weapon. “Get her out of here. Shoot anyone who tries to stop you.”
“What?” I pushed a matted clump of hair out of my eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not going without—”
“I could stay,” Tremaine offered quietly.
“Did you not hear me, mage?” Pritkin’s voice didn’t get any higher, but Tremaine snapped back to attention.
“Yes, sir!” His hand clapped onto my shoulder and Pritkin let go.
I caught my crazy partner’s arm. “What do you think you’re doing?”
P
ritkin hadn’t met my gaze since he’d hauled me out from around the corner, but he did now. His eyes looked strange, but maybe it was the lighting. “You’re one of the most adaptable people I’ve ever met. You’ll find your balance,” he told me apropos of absolutely nothing. I was starting to think he’d been hit in the head by a rock.
“Pritkin! What the hell?”
He didn’t answer, or if he did, I didn’t hear him. Because Tremaine was already pulling me through the crowd, gun in hand. No one tried to stop us.
“I’m not going!” I said as we reached the gaping pit in the floor. With its red, jagged rocks next to the pale concrete, it looked like a hungry mouth.
“The commander said—”
