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I couldn’t care less who was in charge. All that mattered was getting to Axel and getting out of there safely.
A makeshift stairway had been crafted from the rubble. The others went straight to it, picking their way down slowly into the dark. I shifted my weight impatiently, peering over the edge. There was a faint light far down below, but I couldn’t make out much more.
“I’ll go ahead to make sure the path is clear,” Cupid volunteered and flapped his wings.
Charlie planted a kiss on his cheek. “Be careful.”
“Always,mel meum.” Cupid spread his wings, took to the air, and dove into the base, carefully avoiding all the metal and debris jutting from the sides of the cavern. He was gone for a few minutes before reappearing. “There are two ways down, but the most direct route is blocked by several locked doors. The stairway continues down, and seems clear, but it may take longer.”
Everyone looked at Phoenix. “Trying to break open those locks will take too long. We take the stairs,” he said, and they all started forward.
I snorted, sniffing around the opening before digging my claws into the metal wall. If I was careful, it would hold my weight. Using my tail for balance, I carefully began the long climb down, weaving around the others as they crept down the stairs.
Have to hurry, I thought, wishing I had a way to track the time. In any other situation, twenty-seven minutes would have seemed like an unbearable amount of time, but with my mate’s life hanging in the balance, it didn’t feel like nearly enough.
“Something is wrong,” Robert whispered.
“Shhh!” I couldn’t tell whose voice that was. Ziggy, maybe?
“I’m just saying,” Robert continued. “We’re what? Halfway down? Shouldn’t we have run into guards? A trap? Something?”
A flashlight beam cut through the darkness, falling on nothing. It was attached to the top of Phoenix’s weapon. “Everyone be on alert.”
The silence stretched on, interrupted only by the sound of shuffling feet and the distant beating of wings. While I’d made it a little further down than the others, I still felt no closer to the light at the bottom. There had been no sign of Papa or Axel.I hadn’t even smelled either of them since we’d arrived at the base.
What if we were wrong? What if Papa didn’t bring him here? They could be anywhere, and we could be wasting our time while Papa was hurting Axel. The thought made a growl slip from my lips.
I scurried down the wall faster.
Above me, a stranger’s voice rang out, “Freeze!”
Someone—I think it was Honor—let out a loud curse before gunfire erupted. I froze in place, looking up at the narrow stairway the others were using to descend into the base. Muzzle flash lit up the darkness a few meters further down from their position, blocking their way forward. In the darkness, it was impossible to tell how many there were. More footsteps hustled into the open space and a dozen more flashlight beams lit up the dark from behind where Honor, Phoenix, and all the others were.
“Freeze! Don’t move! We have you surrounded!”
They were trapped, unable to go forward or backward without running into Papa’s guards.
I stifled another growl and let my veil fall into place, going invisible.
Red laser beams danced over Ziggy’s furry striped chest, and all over Ollie. “Throw down your weapons and surrender or we’ll open fire!”
I glanced between the people on the stairs and the light below. Axel was below, waiting on me, and the clock was ticking, but if I abandoned the others… They were outnumbered and trapped on the stairs with no way out. I couldn’t just leave them.
But every minute I spent on them was one less I had to get to Axel, one less to escape.
I cursed myself silently and carefully crawled through the dark toward the stairs. Axel would be sad if I let anything happen to his friends.
“Weapons down! Now!” one of the ESCU soldiers was demanding.
A flashlight swept through the dark, snapping in my direction. “What was that?”
“I didn’t hear anything,” said another soldier.
“I swear I heard something…” The flashlight went directly over me, but didn’t stop. I was still invisible, still creeping toward them.
“This is your last warning,” shouted one of the soldiers. “Lower your—”
His demand ended in a desperate scream as I shoved my claws through his squishy belly. I let my cloak of invisibility fall and snapped my jaws at the next nearest soldier to get him to back up. Instead, he opened fire.
