by Anni Taylor
“We should begin the ceremony, Sister Rose.” James cast his eyes over the crowd of Saviours, a growing impatience evident on their faces. “We’ve already had many delays. My wife and Jennifer can perhaps discover all that they wish to know in the speeches.”
Sister Rose nodded. “Yes, of course. We should begin.”
The four mentors made their way to the opposite side of the cenote.
The handsome, olive-skinned man standing beside James led the hundreds of assembled Saviours into a song that sounded like a Gregorian chant—the deep tones of hundreds of voices vibrating through my teeth and bones and echoing into the dark reaches of the hexagonal cavern. The sounds were ancient and surreal, with an edge of savagery in the way the voices relentlessly pressed into the air.
James strode to a podium. All faces looked to him.
The chant came to an end.
James leant his hands on the podium, reminding me of so many speeches he’d given at business and charity events. His stance and the expression on his face were exactly the same.
“My brothers. My sisters,” he began. “We are, once more, in the final hours of the challenges that we hold to commemorate the history of Yeqon’s Saviours. We begin the ceremony in our traditional remembrance of our origins. We do not pay homage to the order of monks who built this monastery, nor do we speak their names. These monks of the twelfth century held the belief that they could heal the mentally ill through a direct line to God. The monastery was to be the treatment centre. Built on a system of God’s holy numbers, all rooms hexagonal. And in the exact centre, a cenote, to remind the unfortunates who would come there of the depths of God’s soul.” He paused. “The good monks then set about trying to cleanse the addled minds of the afflicted. On this day each year, we remember the torture of these unfortunates. The monks treated the unfortunates by locking them in cages and thrusting them in and out of the cenote. And they would wake them every midnight to force them through sets of cruel challenges. They kept metronomes running day and night in an attempt to push out supposed demonic possessions and insane thought and allow the minds of the unfortunates to be restored. The worst of the afflicted were kept in metal cages and chains down in the cellar, and the monks would drill holes through their skulls to release their madness. When all failed, the half-dead unfortunates were left out on the hill with the belief that God would save any that deserved saving. The birds would tear at the flesh of those who died on the hill. They all died, of course. These people were then buried out there on the hill, with gravestones that marked not their names but their supposed crimes and afflictions. After decades, the afflicted could take no more.”
James lifted his arms to the ceiling. “Brothers and Sisters, the afflicted rose up and took vengeance on their tormentors, throwing them into the cenote to drown.” I could barely hear his voice now over the erupting cheers. “The afflicted took control of the monastery. Forever more to be in control. They wore the garb of the monks and pretended to the outside world to be the same order of monks. And so we endured. And will continue to endure. The monks had no idea what they were fooling with when they built this monastery with all its mathematic precision. The order of Yeqon’s Saviours is a creation of the monastery itself. It brought us together and brought us into existence. The monastery became a beautiful mind, free of all pretence.”
I stared at James. All the pieces of my life, of James’s life, of Kara’s life, and the long history of this place and the Saviours were a jagged whirlwind inside my head.
73. I, INSIDE THE WALLS
I WATCHED MY MOTHER AND THE tall woman get taken to the remembrance hall. It will be the last place they go.
Wait, Santiago, we can’t follow her in there.
There are two things I must do now.
I stole along the passageways and into the control centre for the camera network of the monastery. It was the only place here that wasn’t watched by cameras, aside from the hidden passageways.
There are desks of computers here, too. Brother Harrington has one of the computers open, typing up replies to one of the prisoners’ profiles on a sex workers’ website. That was one of his jobs. To pretend to be the prisoner, as though she is free and happily living her life. When someone notices that she’s missing, the police find her profile and think she merely doesn’t want to be found.
I love red wine and red stilettos and Latin dancing, Brother Harrington wrote on a woman’s profile, all the while humming as if he were writing a letter to his grandma. Her name was Greta. She’s dead now. I saw her, during Challenge Two, desperately trying to signal us from the remembrance room. The Saviours thought they’d tortured her to death—they were about to dispose of her body in the cenote when she struggled and broke free.
But her freedom didn’t last long.
I hate it—the desperation in their eyes when they know they’re about to die.
But the numbers are clear.
The numbers led them all here, to the island.
While Brother Harrington wasn’t watching the cameras, I set the cellar surveillance footage onto loop.
74. EVIE
A SAVIOUR CALLED MY NAME AND came rushing to me.
Kneeling before me.
How does he know my name? Why does he sound so anxious? So . . . human?
“You don’t know me, do you?” His voice soft now as he stared at me strangely. “What did they do to you?”
I let my eyes focus on the Saviour.
“Gray . . .” The word dropped from my tongue before I realised that I really did believe this person was my husband.
Gray, with suddenly dark hair and stubble. His familiar features forming an expression that I’d never seen them form before.
Gray, in Saviour’s clothing.
Here.
My mind searched for explanations but found none.
His arms were around my body, cradling me.
I touched the gown with stiff fingers.
“No, I’m not a Saviour,” he told me. “I’m with you now, Evie . . . I’m with you now.” He kissed my forehead.
A gasp tore through me. He wasn’t a trick of my mind.
Three men moved into position behind Gray. Two Saviours that I’d seen earlier—Lewis and Valdez—and another in handcuffs.
Valdez rubbed his scarred temple, a glint in his black eyes. “This is too perfect. This man has come in search of his wife, only for her to watch him die.”
I clung to Gray, burying my face, the scent I knew so well warm on his neck. He’d come in search of me? He shouldn’t be here. He couldn’t die. He was meant to be at home, safe with our daughters.
Tears wet my cheeks. “How did you get here? How?”
“Sage would want these two delivered to him,” said the one named Lewis.
“We’ll take one of them to Sage.” Valdez shrugged.
“Brother Sage shot Marko when he went after that Saul guy. Marko didn’t get any second chances,” said Lewis.
“Marko broke the rules,” Valdez retorted. “He set the guy free so that he could hunt him through the monastery. We’re not breaking rules. These two came to us.”
Now I knew what had really happened to Saul.
The man in handcuffs gazed down at Gray with soulful eyes. “This didn’t go well, my friend. We tried and we lost. I’m glad you found your wife.”
Gray gave him a tense nod.
All breath left my chest as Valdez pulled a large knife from inside his robes. “Lewis, undo Yolanda’s chains, move her, and chain up this guy here next to his wife. After that, go hang the Greek guy up in the other room while I play with this one. Evie can hold him while he suffers.”
Gray’s eyes switched back to me. I saw a goodbye in his expression. I saw regret and love and Willow and Lilly’s features.
“No . . .” The word tore from deep within me.
“You bastards will burn in hell,” came Cormack’s voice.
“I don’t believe in hell,” said Richard, staring at Val
dez with glazed, savage eyes, “but may a thousand hells find you in this life.”
“That sounds very Scottish,” called Cormack.
“Told you I’d turn Scottish before this night was out,” Richard quipped, a tight rasp in his voice.
Valdez’s face warped into a grisly, dismissive grin as Lewis carried out his requests.
The handcuffed man was taken into the room where the Saviours kept their victims hung on rope hoists. I heard the man cry out something in Greek. I turned my face, not wanting to see Duncan’s body still hanging there limp and dead on the hoist.
Valdez stepped in front of us then crouched to the ground and drew the point of the knife along the stone floor, making a chilling sound. “Who goes first? Maybe her? Yes, I think so. Something to break the ice. You’re both so . . . tense.”
Instinctively, I put my arms up to protect myself.
I felt quick, sharp cuts to my flesh.
Beside me, Gray yelled and tried to grab at Valdez. But the chains held him back.
Between my arms, I watched a figure move from the dark recesses of the cavern. A figure dressed in black pants and a long-sleeved black top. A hood low over their face. Their body slightly built. Slowly, silently stealing forward. How long had they been there in the shadows? Were they stealing out now to watch Valdez hurt us? Or join in?
Valdez didn’t have time to completely turn around before the other Saviour plunged a knife into Valdez’s back.
Valdez jack-knifed up, letting out a pained roar. The other Saviour backed away, but Valdez was quicker and gave them a violent shove.
I saw Kara’s face as she crashed against a wall and her hood slipped back.
Valdez staggered forward to hit Kara again. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He looked back towards the torture room. “Lewis! Get this knife out of me and get this crazy little bitch sorted.”
But the man who emerged from the other room wasn’t Lewis.
75. GRAY
“SETHI!” I BOOMED, YANKING AGAINST MY chains. “He’s going for his gun.”
Sethi ran hard at Valdez, knocking him flat to the ground before he’d had a chance to retrieve the gun from his pocket. The knife, still in Valdez’s back, penetrated deep from the force of his landing. Valdez’s head lolled to one side, his eyes deadened. Bright blood seeped out on the floor.
Without missing a beat, the girl crouched beside Valdez’s body and whipped out the gun from his pocket. She pointed it at Sethi. “Who are you?”
Sethi frowned for a moment, then recognition seemed to enter his eyes. “A friend of your mother’s.”
“Kara,” Evie breathed beside me.
Every prisoner—every conscious one—began yelling and pleading for their chains to be unlocked.
“Quiet!” I called. “You’ll have every Saviour running in here.”
Kara stared at Sethi with anger on her face. “My mother shouldn’t be here. I don’t want her here. She shouldn’t know any of this.”
“I didn’t say she was here,” said Sethi, his voice pulled taut.
“You don’t need to lie to me,” Kara told him flatly. “I’ve followed the four of you since you arrived on the island.”
“Do you know where they are now?” Sethi questioned.
“My mother and another woman were captured by the Saviours. They’re in the remembrance hall right now,” Kara answered.
Sethi’s chest sank inward like he’d been punched.
“She’s one of them. A Saviour,” cried the girl named Yolanda. “You can’t trust her.”
Sethi’s expression changed to stunned disbelief as he stared at Kara. “You’re a Saviour? Tell me that’s not true.”
Kara’s expression turned stony. “Yes, it’s true. I’m a part of the monastery.”
Sethi put the palms of his hands up. “Would you agree to put the gun away and let me get the chains off these people?”
“There isn’t any point.” Kara raised the gun higher. “I came down here to kill all the prisoners. So that their deaths would be quick and none of them would have to suffer. Then I’m going back to do the same for my mother.”
I heard Evie’s sharp intake of breath beside me. “Please, Kara. Let us go. I know you’re trying to help us. Just . . . let us go.”
Kara shook her head at me. “They’ll only capture you again. And your deaths won’t be as easy as they could be now. I tried to take you all down to the beach before. So that you could die with the sound of the ocean in your ears. Instead of in here, upon the cut of a Saviour’s knife. Not one of you is going to leave this island. You all signed your death warrants the moment you stepped foot on the island. The Saviours have everything. Every weapon you can imagine. And my stepfather has put new safeguards in place over the past few years. There is no escape.”
“Your stepfather?” Sethi’s shook his head in confusion.
“The man who heads the Saviours is married to my mother.” Kara’s voice thickened with loathing.
In shock, I immediately pictured Constance. Her husband was the head of the Saviours?
“You won’t get near him,” Kara added. “There are hundreds of Saviours here right now in the monastery. Minus a few.” She glanced briefly around the room. I guessed that Sethi had killed Lewis, too.
“Please,” called a young guy with straggly black hair, his face angular and handsome. “Kara, let us choose. If I’m going to die, I choose to die on my feet.”
“You don’t understand what you’re asking, Cormack,” she replied, her hands curling into loose fists by her sides.
But desperate cries echoed around us.
Letting her head drop, Kara silently nodded. She shoved the gun into a back pocket. “If that’s what you want. But I warn you, the death you face might be brutal.”
Sethi found the keys on Valdez’s body and raced around undoing every lock.
Evie stood, trembling, her eyes filled with fear and shame as she gazed at me. “I’m sorry, Gray. So sorry. You shouldn’t have come.”
Her body was tense and rigid as I brought my arms around her and held her close. She felt cold, and smaller than I remembered. She asked about Willow and Lilly, and I answered as best I could, telling her they were safe and loved. She didn’t need to know about Lilly—it would only wound her. “I love you,” I said, knowing that was inadequate. There wasn’t time now to tell her everything I wanted to say. There might never be a chance.
“Kara,” said Sethi. “All that just happened would have been seen on the cameras, yes?”
“No,” she answered. “I put the footage on loop. If anyone looks, all they’ll see are the prisoners sitting there chained up. Prisoners don’t move much. There’s not much that changes from minute to minute.”
I blinked my eyes tightly in relief. That bought us some time.
Everyone made quick introductions—just their names and nothing else.
“What’s going on here?” demanded Richard, a small, blonde man with a goatee. “How in the hell did everyone’s relatives suddenly turn up? If my father is about to walk in here, too, I want some warning.” There was an ironic, harsh edge to his voice.
“The door!” said Yolanda, ignoring Richard and pointing to the other end of the cellar. “Kara would know how to disable the alarm and unlock it. It leads straight outside.”
Kara ran her lip across her bottom teeth as she eyed Yolanda. “Yes, I do. But the Saviours know that there are intruders on the island. And there are Saviours running all over this island right now. With AK-47s. If you want to be shot at like it’s duck season, go for it. You’d just want to pray they kill you dead and don’t just maim you.”
The room fell into silence.
The slight sway of the enormous cage with its macabre collection of dead bodies captured everyone’s attention.
“That’s where we’re all ending up, no matter what we do now,” said Richard. “So why not fight? I’ll take as many of the bastards with me as I can before I die.”
&
nbsp; “I’m with you.” Cormack shook back his mane of black hair.
Yolanda and Hop went to stand beside Richard and Cormack. “I know how to shoot,” said Yolanda darkly. “And I’ll start with the mentors.”
My mind roared. Fighting all of them was certain death. Maybe it was all we had left. But I refused to give in yet.
“Sethi,” I said, my jaw rigid. “Can we talk for a minute?”
Sethi nodded.
Taking Evie’s hand, I crossed the room with him, keeping out of the glaring lights of the cenote. We stopped near the three-screen display.
“Sethi, I want to try to figure out a way off here. You’ve got grenades and guns. We’ve got to try.”
“Please,” said Evie. “Gray and I have children. If we try to fight them, neither of us are going home to them.”
Sethi expelled a stream of air. “I’m afraid to say Kara’s right. Planning an escape is a fool’s mission.” He bent his head. “Even if it were possible, I couldn’t leave Jenny and Constance here. The best I can offer you is that I’ll create a diversion—and let you and Evie run as far as you can get.”
Evie shook her head, her eyes huge.
Heart beats pounded in my chest. “No.”
“There isn’t anything else. There’s too many of them.” The shadows and ripples of the cenote set ghostly lights in Sethi’s eyes.
With anxious steps, Kara made her way over to us. “They’ll be coming to get the prisoners soon. The six for the cenote. You’d better make a decision on what you want to do, or the Saviours will make that decision for you. I’m going to head there now and slip in while I can. My mother won’t see me, and she won’t feel anything when I fire my gun. I’ll make sure of that. She’ll die instantly.”
Evie shivered. “They’ll hurt you, Kara.”
