“Maddox?” I said gently, and she jerked her head up to look at me, her eyes haunted. I stopped, suddenly uncertain as to what I should say, what I even could say. She’d just lost her mother.
“We have to keep moving,” Grey added, and I shot him a grateful look before glancing around the room to see where we were exactly—another relay hub, but one of the vents had been pried from the wall.
“Do we need to go through the vent? Is that where we’re going?” I asked.
“I want to go to Sanctum,” Tian sniffled, and Zoe reached over and took the young girl’s hand, holding it firm. Zoe met my eyes, and I could see that the guilt was weighing on her too. But it wasn’t her fault. It was mine. I had led Devon back to them. I had thought I was smart and clever, but I wasn’t. I hadn’t been from the start.
“The safe room’s through... through these ventilation ducts,” Maddox choked out. “Mom... She made sure... There’s supplies...” She broke then, and began to cry, long, slow sobs that seemed to twist out of her against her will. Her hands immediately went over her face, like a shield to try to push everything back inside, but it was impossible—the dam had been broken.
“It’s a tight fit,” Quess managed, his arms around Maddox and Tian both. “It’ll be difficult to get some of the bags around the corner.”
“We’ll figure it out,” I said. “Let’s just get somewhere fast.”
Quess gave me an angry look, his eyes jerking down to Maddox and Tian, both of them crying hard. I understood—I really did.
Kneeling, I placed one hand on Tian’s knee and one on Maddox’s, and began slowly calling their names in a calm and even voice. It seemed to work, because after a few tries, they had pushed back the fog of grief some, and were looking at me.
“I know you need to cry right now, and I understand that, but we have to keep moving, okay? Once we’re inside the safe place, we can mourn... but Cali would’ve wanted us to keep moving.”
Maddox stared at me stonily, and I hated myself for saying it, even though it needed to be said.
“Come on, Tian,” the statuesque girl said hoarsely, her voice raw and bearing the weight of crippling exhaustion and shock. “Liana’s right. We have to go.”
The little girl nodded, her blue eyes vacant, and then sat up shakily, as if she were a ninety-year-old woman. “’Kay,” she whispered, heaving herself onto her feet and swaying slightly, teetering on the precipice of breaking down.
“It’ll be okay,” I told her, the lie like ash in my mouth. She sniffled as she moved toward the vent, taking a light that Grey handed to her. We all got one, myself included.
The vents were tight, but manageable, and I brought up the rear, which meant replacing the grate from the inside of the vent. It took me a minute or so to get it done, and by the time I looked up, Grey’s legs were disappearing around the corner some twenty feet ahead.
I exhaled and began pulling myself forward, using my palms and arms. My arms were exhausted after all the lashing I’d done, and were now starting to shake from the exertion, but I kept moving forward, not wanting to lose anyone. I clenched the light that Quess had handed me between my teeth to illuminate my way, and hurried to catch up.
I made up the distance quickly, and then slowed to a crawl. Moving the bigger bags took time. Maddox was using her lashes to help, but it was stop and go, as she had to move, then retract the lashes slowly, dragging the oblong bags forward. On corners, Eric had to go up and help shift them around before we could start all over again.
Every time we stopped, I remembered the look on Devon’s face as he disconnected Cali’s lash bead, and immediately was ill, wracked with guilt, terror, and horror. It took everything I had not to vomit at the fact that he had just done it—like it was nothing, like she wasn’t a mother or a person who took care of the people who needed it most.
Each time I had that thought, it grew harder and harder not to break down right there in the ventilation shaft. The only thing that kept me going was the fact that I owed it to the people here to keep it together. So I did.
I couldn’t say how far we had gone or how long we’d been crawling, when I suddenly tuned in to a noise.
There were lots of noises in the ducts, generated by all of us, but this one caught my attention.
“...—ere...”
It was so soft that it would be so easy to excuse it away as a figment from on overtired and emotionally overwrought mind.
“...—low...”
I closed my eyes and exhaled, trying to stay perfectly still, and listened intently.
“...—am...”
It was a voice. Coming from a vent opening just behind me. I looked back over my shoulder, the light still clenched between my teeth, and searched, half expecting to see Devon right there, grinning like a madman with the promise of death in his eyes. But the vent was empty.
The sound came again and again, and after a minute of wrestling with myself, I slid backward. The convoy was moving so slowly, I was certain I could catch up to them quickly, after I’d figured out what the strange noise was.
I slid into the vent and followed it, the voice growing louder. There was a junction ahead, and I paused, waiting. When the noise came again, I took the vent shooting left, and followed it until it dead-ended at a grate. I slid my fingers through and pushed the grate off, lowering it to the ground, and then stepped into the room beyond.
The room was decidedly out of place for the bottom of the Tower. Soft fabric covered the floor—a bright blue color—with two sofas set up, facing each other. A low table sat between them, while a heavy wooden desk took up the other side, a single chair behind it. A thick layer of dust coated everything in the room, which, given the atmosphere regulators and how aggressively they filtered the air, meant no one had been in this room for an extremely long time.
The voice had stopped as soon as I’d entered the room, and I looked around, trying to search for the source. Suddenly I felt uncertain, wondering if I had imagined the voice.
“Hello?” I said softly, stepping farther into the room and shining my light around. “Is anyone here?”
“—’m here,” the voice replied, and I jumped straight into the air, my hand going to my chest. I moved the light around, searching for the person I had overlooked, but finding nothing.
“Hello?” I repeated, my heart pounding faster and faster. “Who’s there?”
“...here!” This time the voice was cut off with a burst of electronic interference, causing there to be a strange, tonal sound at the beginning of it. “—an you... me?”
“I’m sorry,” I said, bending over to check under the desk. “But I can’t understand you.”
There was pause. “—ow about now?”
“That’s better,” I said, smoothing my hand over my pants. “Are you an undoc?”
“—m not sure. —at is it?”
“How can you not be sure?” I asked, alarmed. “And where are you hiding?”
“—m with you... in the room,” the voice replied calmly, and I looked around again, searching.
“I’m really not seeing you here. Are you sure you’re in here?”
“—m on... desk.” I looked at the desk, but the only thing on it was a computer, a coffee mug, a few file folders, and an inch of dust.
“Okay, let me try this one instead. What’s your name?”
The answer brought me up short.
“My name is Scipio. Pleased to meet you.”
“Of course it is,” I muttered, unable to feel surprised at anything right now. I wondered how much worse one day could possibly get—and how much time we had before the Knights found us and killed us all.
Ready for the next part of Liana’s story?
Dear Reader,
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I’m excited to announce that Book 2 of the series, The Girl Who Dared to Stand, releases September 18th, 2017.
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Love,
Bella x
P.S. If you’re new to my books or haven’t yet read my Gender Game series, I suggest you check it out. It is where the Tower’s story began and is set in the same world as The Girl Who Dared series—the two storylines complement each other.
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Read More by Bella Forrest
THE GIRL WHO DARED TO THINK
The Girl Who Dared to Think (Book 1)
The Girl Who Dared to Stand (Book 2)
THE GENDER GAME (Completed series)
The Gender Game (Book 1)
The Gender Secret (Book 2)
The Gender Lie (Book 3)
The Gender War (Book 4)
The Gender Fall (Book 5)
The Gender Plan (Book 6)
The Gender End (Book 7)
THE SECRET OF SPELLSHADOW MANOR
The Secret of Spellshadow Manor (Book 1)
The Breaker (Book 2)
The Chain (Book 3)
The Keep (Book 4)
The Test (Book 5)
A SHADE OF VAMPIRE SERIES
Series 1: Derek & Sofia’s story
A Shade of Vampire (Book 1)
A Shade of Blood (Book 2)
A Castle of Sand (Book 3)
A Shadow of Light (Book 4)
A Blaze of Sun (Book 5)
A Gate of Night (Book 6)
A Break of Day (Book 7)
Series 2: Rose & Caleb’s story
A Shade of Novak (Book 8)
A Bond of Blood (Book 9)
A Spell of Time (Book 10)
A Chase of Prey (Book 11)
A Shade of Doubt (Book 12)
A Turn of Tides (Book 13)
A Dawn of Strength (Book 14)
A Fall of Secrets (Book 15)
An End of Night (Book 16)
Series 3: The Shade continues with a new hero…
A Wind of Change (Book 17)
A Trail of Echoes (Book 18)
A Soldier of Shadows (Book 19)
A Hero of Realms (Book 20)
A Vial of Life (Book 21)
A Fork of Paths (Book 22)
A Flight of Souls (Book 23)
A Bridge of Stars (Book 24)
Series 4: A Clan of Novaks
A Clan of Novaks (Book 25)
A World of New (Book 26)
A Web of Lies (Book 27)
A Touch of Truth (Book 28)
An Hour of Need (Book 29)
A Game of Risk (Book 30)
A Twist of Fates (Book 31)
A Day of Glory (Book 32)
Series 5: A Dawn of Guardians
A Dawn of Guardians (Book 33)
A Sword of Chance (Book 34)
A Race of Trials (Book 35)
A King of Shadow (Book 36)
An Empire of Stones (Book 37)
A Power of Old (Book 38)
A Rip of Realms (Book 39)
A Throne of Fire (Book 40)
A Tide of War (Book 41)
Series 6: A Gift of Three
A Gift of Three (Book 42)
A House of Mysteries (Book 43)
A Tangle of Hearts (Book 44)
A Meet of Tribes (Book 45)
A Ride of Peril (Book 46)
A Passage of Threats (Book 47)
A Tip of Balance (Book 48)
A SHADE OF DRAGON TRILOGY
A Shade of Dragon 1
A Shade of Dragon 2
A Shade of Dragon 3
A SHADE OF KIEV TRILOGY
A Shade of Kiev 1
A Shade of Kiev 2
A Shade of Kiev 3
BEAUTIFUL MONSTER DUOLOGY
Beautiful Monster 1
Beautiful Monster 2
DETECTIVE ERIN BOND (Adult thriller/mystery)
Lights, Camera, GONE
Write, Edit, KILL
For an updated list of Bella’s books, please visit her website: www.bellaforrest.net
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