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The last time I stood here was when Ares had purchased me. Avery had taken my hand and then we were shuffled off to an unknown future. At the time I thought I would die that night.
I take a deep breath and shake off the feelings of panic. With my eyes adjusted, I slowly begin to see the details of the inside. Dome lights illuminated a long hallway. Along the sides are several doors but only one red one. That has to be it.
I zero in on it and let my feet glide soundlessly over the plush carpet underfoot.
Hugging the walls of a softly lit hallway, it seems to take forever before I stop outside the red door. I listen. Nothing.
The handle gives when I twist. Their arrogance of never locking a door is their weakness and my benefit.
I step inside and the second my feet hit rough cement I travel back to my ten-year-old self.
“This is not like that,” I whisper. “Polaris needs me.”Polaris needs me.I repeat silently and take one step then another until I stand at the bottom of twenty-three stairs. A cold sweat trickles down my spine. My vision dims and the white dots dulling my vision threaten to overtake me.
I close my eyes.
Inhale. Exhale.
Pause.
Inhale. Exhale.
There’s another hallway here stretching to my left and right. Instead of warm lighting like upstairs the feel of white overhead bulbs bright above me gives off institutional vibes—cold, sterile and void of life.
Whimpering catches my attention and I shove my past back in its vault and bolt to the left and back in the direction of my one-time prison.
I grip the bars clanked shut over darkened holes for doorways. “Polaris?” I gruffly whisper. No answer. I run to the next, and then the next. “Polaris,” I try again. But none of the women inside have the same jet-black hair and blue eyes I’m looking for. It kills me, but I move on vowing to return for every single person in these cells.
“Polaris?”
Instead of an answer, I’m looking for, I hear shuffling of feet over cement. Big feet. Only it’s not coming from the cells in front of me, but from behind me. And suddenly I’m left with two choices: fight whomever I hear coming down the hall or hide.
Since I can’t help anyone when I’m dead, option two seems the smartest choice. To my left and to my right there is absolutely nothing I can use to conceal my presence.
A cell stands open a couple of paces down a cold hallway. I jump inside and tuck around the ledge of a support beam. It’s not much in the way of a hiding place but it’s better than standing out in the middle of the passageway.
Two men I recognize shuffle past. Beast One and Beast Two. Bile rises to coat the back of my throat.
I wait until they are out of sight before I make my way back to the cells.
“Polaris.” I keep my voice low.
“Nova?”
I spin around at the sound of a weak, broken voice.
“Oh God, thank you! Polaris. Polaris. You’re alive.” Overwhelming relief makes my knees weak and my hands tremble when I reach for her.
“Nova?”
I grip the bars to my sister’s cell. It’s bare of anything of comfort. Only the cold floor and a pot in the corner. No bed, no mattress. Just the bruising floor.
Immeasurable rage fills me. Thirst for violence never sat well with me before now, but I want blood for the sins committed against my sister.
Her chest is heaving, her eyes so big and the amount of fear coming off her makes tears water my lashes. Her innocence and youth. The glow on her cheeks and the smile on her face are gone.
Someone will pay for this. I wrap my fingers around the bars and curse not having a tenth of the strength Ares has and the fact I don’t have a gun. Because right now I would use it and not stop until they either put one between my eyes or I did the same to them.
“We have to hurry.” I cast about for cameras tucked into corners and sure enough the red blinking lights telling me someone is watching is there.
