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ChapterThirty
The tunnel was wide,the ceiling high, and those same blue lights fell over the concrete surrounding me. My footsteps echoed in my head, and my breathing was heavy, but I was prepared. I went deeper and deeper, turning corners and expecting to be jumped at every second. My arms still hurt from the wounds of those cuffs and the magic. Those damn guns were Desert Eagles, way too big for me and heavy as hell, but I still held them up. If someone stepped in front of me, I was going to shoot first, ask questions later.
I must have walked for over five minutes in that maze before I heard the sound of a ringing somewhere close by. The tunnel finally ended with a big round hall, and there were three double doors on the other side of it. The ringing was coming from the one on the right.
Suddenly, the last one opened, and I pressed my back against the wall of the tunnel again, holding the guns to my chest.
The sound of footsteps said that two people came out of that door, and I held my breath, expecting them to walk into the tunnel. Instead, the door from behind which that ringing was coming opened, and a second later it closed again. The ringing stopped.
Silence in the hall.
I peeked out again, and when I saw all the doors closed, I moved for the one on the right. The metal of the handle was cold against my elbow, and I struggled to push it down, fearing it was locked. It wasn’t. The door pushed back soundlessly, showing me a well-lit room that wasn’t made of concrete but white tiles. The right wall was full of metal shelves, all of them completely empty. I closed the door behind me slowly, then made for the other across from it. Memorizing the way I was taking wasn’t an issue—I couldn’t forget it if I tried. Hopefully, when I came back this way, I’d be with ODP agents and guns and more magic than those high fae could handle.
The door on the other side was unlocked, too. It made me wonder again about what this place was. And the narrow stairway going up on the other side told me that we were underground.
Looking up the stairs, I didn’t see anyone coming down. By then, my heart no longer raced, and I was more in control of my body. I didn’t hesitate to take the stairs two at a time until I was a floor above, and I saw the guards on the other side of the wide hallway, talking to each other, never even looking my way.
I froze in place, my fingers on the triggers, and I scanned the area around me. Windows showed the darkness of the sky outside but not much of what surrounded us. On the right, there were more of those wooden doors like the ones that led me here. On the left, there was one set of double doors made of metal, and my instincts said that those would lead me out.
“Hey!”
My heart fell all the way to my heels when I realized that the guards had spotted me.
They looked confused for a moment before they launched themselves at me, but they were too far away, and by the time their guns were in their hands, I’d already shot two bullets.
Both of them fell on the shiny grey tiles at the same time, and now that I’d actually aimed the gun, they both had identical holes in their foreheads.
“Told you I had good aim,” I mumbled to myself—and to Dominic, who couldn’t even hear it.
Then, I took off running.
Voices behind me. My heart was in my throat, and I no longer tried to keep silent. My feet slammed against the tiles, and people called to me to stop. I reached the doors and pushed down the handle on the right with all my strength, but it didn’t budge.
A look back said that five more guards were already there, and while two were kneeling near the bodies of their dead friends, the others were already drawing their weapons.
“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon!” I chanted and tried the other handle.
It gave.
Cold air filled my nostrils just as the first gunshot reached my ears. The door closed behind me, and I ran without really seeing anything.
Wherever we were, this place was deserted. The large wall that surrounded the building I’d been in didn’t let me see anything outside, though bright lights were mounted at the top of it every few feet, showing me the dry land, the wooden gates, and the SUVs lined in front of the wall to my right.
Gunshots in the air. I ducked down on instinct and went straight for the gates. The large lock was bigger than my whole head, and I shot it twice before I accepted that it wasn’t going to give.
“Damn it!” I shouted and turned to see the guards already on me, shooting their guns while they ran.
My only choice was to hide behind the cars, so I turned right and kept on running, squatted over to hopefully avoid the bullets. In those moments, I didn’t feel like me at all. I felt like I was running in someone else’s shoes, like I finally caught a break from Theodora De Ver, and though I was scared shitless, the excitement bubbling in my veins kept me moving. I jumped behind the SUVs, and the bullets kept on coming. Magic made the metal of the cars groan, but the sound didn’t scare me. I kept on going. I would until I dropped dead—or got out of this place.
An animal’s roar made all the hair on my body stand at attention. People screamed, and the gunshots stopped for a second before they were aimed elsewhere. I wanted to stop and see what was happening, but my body now had a mind of its own, so I kept going until I reached the twentieth and last car in the row. More concrete wall. There was another gate on the other side that I could barely see—and one side of it was wide open.
My heart leaped in my chest. Only thirty feet away. I could make it. I could run right out of there, and I could find a phone, call this in, get an army of ODP soldiers here within the hour.
“I can make it,” I promised myself breathlessly and ran faster than I ever had before in my life.
The growling reached my ears again. It was so close, and the panic it brought made my feet trip all over themselves. With a scream, I fell forward, rolling on the ground with my guns still in hand, dirt sticking in my mouth and nose.
I jumped to my feet as soon as I slowed down and aimed both my guns, ready to shoot whatever beast was coming for me.
