“Okay...” Jean furrows a blond eyebrow at her.
“When you say you see stuff happening to us at night, do you mean...” Awan cringes and stops himself from finishing that thought.
“Ugh, no!” Cami shivers as disgust rolls over her. “Nothing like that. I guess I only see you when you’re in distress.”
Vanessa ducks under the low-hanging upper bunk and sits on Cami’s mattress. “It’s Seff, isn’t it?”
Cami swallows and nods. “He’s in trouble.”
It’s at that moment that the door swings open, and Eddie and Charity storm inside.
“Everyone all right?” Eddie asks as his eyes sweep the room. “What happened?”
Cami takes them both in. “I’m sorry. I had a bad dream...vision thing.”
Recognition flashes on Eddie’s face. “Your mother used to have those when the circle was bound. What was it?”
“Trouble in Elmwick,” Cami says. The gravity of what she’s seen must have fully sunk into her, because she pushes me and Vanessa off the mattress to get out of bed. “We need to leave right now.”
“What about the banshees and the clue they might have?” Zach asks.
Cami folds her arms around her, at a loss. “Things in Elmwick just escalated way out of control. I lost the dream before I could see more, but Seff went to Fiona Davis. They figured out the powder he found squeezes a wolf’s poison out of him. And that’s how the wolf probably dies in the undoing of the joint spell. But when they tested it on Seff, he lost it. Like, completely lost it.”
She grabs her duffel bag and stuffs her clothes and hairbrush inside. “Pack your things. We need to go. Seff has basically attacked Fiona, all the hunters are after him, Bryar had to shoot him so he wouldn’t chew through Fiona’s throat, and he summoned all the wolves to help him. Even though it’s not a full moon, they can do plenty of damage when they wolf out.”
“This is war,” Eddie says in a low, grave voice.
Trembling, Cami nods. “If we don’t return at once, who knows what will happen.”
“Even if you return, you can’t stop the fight.” Eddie glances at the members of the circle in turn. “It’s already begun. Your circle is unstable. Every conflict will bring a new outburst until the hunters trap and kill one of you to make it all stop.”
We freeze, shooting uncomfortable glances at Charity.
“The only way to truly end this is to stabilize the circle.” He addresses Cami alone now. “I really think you can do it with a charm.”
But I don’t want to get into that discussion again. “Or with the banshee clue Cami’s grandmother has.”
Charity nods at her father for the first time since their reunion. “We’ll go back to Elmwick. We’ll keep Seff and each other out of trouble.” She turns to Cami and me. “You can go find the banshees.”
Nervously scratching her chin, Cami mulls this over.
“Zach and I will take you to them,” I propose.
Zach places one hand on my shoulder and another on Cami’s. “Yeah, we’ve got you. A smaller team will be harder for the hunters to detect anyway. It’ll be a stealth operation.”
I can read the fear this nightmare vision has left in Cami by the sunken look in her ocean-blue eyes. “We can do this, Cami.”
She finally looks up at me with determination. “All right. We’ll split up, but we all have to go right now.”
IT ONLY TAKES US A few minutes to change and gather our belongings. Cami apologizes for blowing most of the light bulbs overhead, but Eddie brushes her off. We stack up on vending machine sandwiches, then the members of the circle—minus Cami, plus Eddie—get into Jean’s car and depart for Elmwick.
Cami breathes a deep sigh as she watches them drive away in the early morning air. Zach and I, caps on to hide our faces from street cameras, usher her to the nearest bus stop. Crowds should make tracking us harder, so we opt for the most cumbersome way to travel.
After taking three different buses, we’re in the vicinity of The Hunters’ Den. Thanks to a broken lock on a nearby building, we climb up to the rooftop for a better vantage point.
“What’s the plan?” Cami asks, her expression still blank since her troubling dream.
“We can’t march in during the day,” Zach says. “It’s best to wait until nightfall.”
I unzip my bag and check the supplies we have on hand. To keep our disguise as hunters, we only brought weapons against the legacies, so we have limited gear on hand—binoculars, crossbows, silver bullets and guns. The latter might be made for wolves, but they’ll work reasonably well against hunters too.
I snatch a pair of binoculars and scan the entrance to The Hunters’ Den up close. “Zach’s right. This place is teeming with hunters.”
Through the thick lenses, I monitor the hunters’ movements in front of The Den. The hunters are busy packing gear and loading truck after truck.
Zach gets another pair of binoculars and follows my lead. “Looks like they’re going somewhere.”
Cami rubs her eyes, the lack of sleep catching up to her. “Let me see.”
I hand her my pair of binoculars, and she takes my place, leaning low so only the top of her head pokes up above the concrete rooftop ledge. While she takes stock of the hunters’ numbers, I scan the rooftop.
We blocked the door, so no one should bother us up here. We have enough food and water for the day. And even though this isn’t the most comfortable place to sit all day—these red bricks will no doubt absorb the early summer heat around midday—we won’t find a better option.
“Oh, no,” Cami whispers. “I think they’re going to Elmwick.”
She ducks, crouched down, and lowers the binoculars. Cami adjusts to sit with her back against the ledge, which is barely tall enough to hide us.
“The circle will handle it,” I say with as much certainty as I can muster.
Zach spies for Cami’s reaction with concern. “He’s right. We can’t worry about anything but our task. Otherwise, it’ll all be for nothing.”
Cami takes a sip from her stainless steel bottle, looking like she’s trying to swallow her objections along with the water. “All right. Then, what’s our plan?”
Zach pokes his head up to check on the hunters again before returning to the conversation. “I can’t go anywhere near there. They’ll all recognize me as they’ve seen me plenty of times. So, I guess I’ll have to be the one to draw their attention away from here so you two can sneak inside.”
“Won’t they recognize me?” I ask.
“Maybe.” Zach peers into my eyes, considering it. “I guess we’re lucky they’re going to be understaffed after most of them leave for Elmwick. Plus, you haven’t shaved since they last saw you. That’s roughened up your look. And the cap should help.”
“What about me?” Cami’s fingers drum against the bottle in her hands.
The sun is rising fast, a gleam bouncing off the silvery surface of the bottle.
“You’ll be the prisoner,” Zach says it like that was clear all along. “What better way to find where they keep the banshees than to make them take you to them?”
Zach’s plans are as masterful as always, but I can’t help a frown. When the plan is so simple, many things usually go wrong. But as we sit, frying in the midday heat, I try to feed off the nervous expectation coursing through me.
Apart from creating a gag for Cami, which both looks legitimate and is actually easy for her to get out of on her own, there’s not much other prep we can do. Zach murmurs under his breath as he lists the places he could hide once he’s created a commotion to draw out the hunters. And Cami keeps quiet.
Her mere presence is a balm to me. I reach out to take her hand as we sit, backs against the side of the concrete ledge. When our fingers interlace, fitting perfectly together, I wish we were alone again.
ONCE THE SUN SETS, Cami and I exit the building, swerving around the corner to set up our ruse. Zach invested the better part of the hot afternoon studying the fire e
scapes of all nearby buildings, as well as fashioning a zip line that would help him cross over and shake any hunters on his tail.
My disguise consists of a baseball cap, clothes different from the ones I wore when I last came here, and my three-day stubble, which apparently has the power to alter my entire look.
“Ready?” I ask Cami.
She licks her lips but then turns around for me to tie the gag we fashioned out of a spare t-shirt. “Ready.”
I pull it through her mouth and tie it as loosely as I can around her head. She should be able to spit it out when needed. With a second t-shirt woven like a rope, I tie her hands behind her. That restraint is loose around her wrists, so she’d be able to wiggle out of it.
With nothing to delay us, I lead Cami in front of me, hoping that will take the hunters’ attention away from me.
Unfazed by the sight of us, the guard at the door asks for the password.
“I don’t have the new one,” I say with surprising confidence.
I push Cami toward the door. She does her part to struggle and whimper, enough for his eyes to focus on her.
“I’ve got someone Oggy will be extremely happy to see. Let me in.” No idea if I’m pushing it, but I’m trying to make my voice rougher. Some people recognize voices even easier than faces.
“Hold on.” The door opens with a slam, and the guard grasps Cami by the chin. “You look familiar. Cami, is it?”
It takes everything in me to suppress the fiery wave roaring in my chest. “That’s right. I’ve got the banshee. She must have caught wind of the ones we keep here,” I say in that forced rough voice. “Snatched her sneaking about. The rest of her circle might be nearby. Hurry!”
“I thought her circle was in Elmwick?” The guy glances at me, finally dropping Cami’s chin.
“From what I heard, no one but the wolf has been spotted there. Now, come on.”
My explanation suffices, apparently, because the guard waves me inside. I push Cami, who does her best to stumble and struggle to sell the ruse.
Right on time, a rock bursts in through the window. Zach.
“Legacies!” I shout. “They’re coming for her.”
The hunters remaining at Oggy’s aren’t many. Only six play cards, and one is behind the bar. They mobilize quickly, though.
A side panel swings open from the wall, and they each grab a crossbow. In perfect formation, the first four shoot out of the room and spread out. The other three lock the door.
I prod Cami deeper into the room. “Let’s take this one to the others,” I say to no one in specific, hoping the statement covers up the fact that I don’t know where they keep the banshees.
I feel one of them hovering over my shoulder, so I step aside to let him pass without chancing a glance at him. Stubble or no stubble, I doubt they’ll be fooled once they take a good look at me.
Cami’s shoulders tense while the hunter swipes a card and inserts a code. She’s the one responsible for remembering the code while I sneak a peek over my shoulder at the other two hunters. And regret it immediately. One has already taken aim at my back, and the other lifts his crossbow when I move.
I recognize their faces from that day I fought the wolf in the underground ring.
“Say, how about you take off that cap, boy?” says the eldest of the two, to the left. “’Cause I’ve got the feeling I may have seen you around before.”
I decide to play it dumb, even if that will only give Cami a second or two extra time. “Doubt it. The cap is kind of my thing.” I pull it down rather than lifting it to show my face. “I rarely go anywhere without it.”
The hunter closest to us has opened the door, but Cami freezes at the doorstep, digging her heels in. She squeezes my hands in warning, but I let her go.
I hope she can read the situation for what it is. I’m going down, but she doesn’t have to. She can still find the banshees and, once they’re together, use their help to break out of here. All I’ll have to do is get the hunters to chase me, thinking she’s all tied up and unable to run.
My lame excuse has just confirmed the hunters’ suspicions.
“Get him!” shouts the one on the left again.
Trusting that Cami can handle herself, I sprint for the door, but my sudden speed is meant to keep the hunters’ attention on me. It isn’t smart for me to flee into the street, where I’ll run right into the other four. But the three opponents in front of me haven’t made sense of it all yet. I need to shut them up before they can call for backup.
I duck around the first one to reach me. His swing was good, but he’s no match for a nimbler target like me. I shift my weight and sweep a leg under him, sending him crashing on top of the nearest table. The other two try to kick me as I keep low, but I block and jump up.
Instead of trying for a punch, I grab their weapons, one crossbow in each hand, and tug them down. The arrows whistle and strike the floor. One of the hunters screams, but I have no time to check where the arrow hit him. I punch the other one right in the throat, making him cough and turn red.
Unfortunately, the commotion has been anything but quiet. The steps of the hunters outside sound closer, intermingled with their confused chatter.
I glance back at Cami, who’s by the door frame. That momentary distraction costs me. Hands grab me from behind, knocking my baseball cap off. They tighten around my neck and squeeze. I guess the hunters don’t need much of an explanation, seeing their injured friends.
Cami’s ocean-blue eyes sweep over me like a wave of fury.
No, don’t! I want to shout at her, but I struggle to take in enough breath.
Cami makes a quick circle with her wrists to free them and pulls the gag off like it’s made of toilet paper. The hunters holding me get no chance to let go of me and deploy their weapons. Cami’s scream comes fast and hard, slamming into us like a tornado. In a jumble of limbs, we all fly out of The Den, taking the door with us.
Chapter 25. Cami
My scream blows Mason and two of the hunters out of the room. The third one isn’t fast enough to grab me. I whirl around, stepping behind the door. When I see his hands trying to push the door toward me, I let out another vibrant scream. It smacks the door over his fingers, and he screams in pain.
I take the opportunity to close the door and target a scream at the electronic lock. It breaks and flickers under the pressure. I guess I’ll have to find another way out, but at least they won’t be able to come after me now.
I rush down the spiral staircase, if you can call such a flimsy, shaking metal contraption a staircase. In front of me is a door that, according to Mason and Zach’s briefing, should lead to the underground boxing ring. If I’m trapped inside with any hunters, they’re probably there. My fingers itch to help me guide a scream to its electronic lock as well, just to make sure no hunter will burst out of there and come for me, but my only way to the banshees might be through there.
I turn around, studying the dark, dusty corners of the room. There’s another door, without an electronic lock this time. Hoping it’s not a cleaning supplies closet or a restroom, I push down the handle.
The corridor behind the door is narrow and dimly lit. The only sound grazing my ears is the barely audible rumble of the ventilation system. I walk at a brisk pace, half wondering if I should run back and destroy the keypad on the other door, but if this leads nowhere, I’ll only be making things worse, so I press my lips into a thin line and push the door at the end of the corridor open.
All at once, my banshee senses tell me this is the place. Bright white panels above illuminate the next corridor, which is lined with heavy metal doors. Cells, I guess. Each has an elaborate locking mechanism—a lever and a keypad.
Good luck getting through any of these, Cami, I think to myself with a frown.
My heartbeat turns wild as I evaluate my options. In sync with it, the rhythmic thumping of approaching steps sends adrenaline coursing through me. My only consolation is that whoever is making the noise isn’t
in the corridor behind me, but directly above me.
I concentrate, listening. The person above doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Perhaps the thumping isn’t even steps. It’s deliberate. It’s a signal for me.
I ball my hand into a fist and lightly slam the wall between two cells, matching the thumping from above. It takes only a few times for it to work. The noise from above stops, then a panel on the ceiling moves, leaving a gaping hole. Through it leans a girl with bright red hair in a pixie cut.
“Tasha?” I blink at her—the living embodiment of Zach and Mason’s descriptions.
“Hello, Cami,” she whispers. “What are you waiting for? Get up here.”
I’M FAR FROM A NINJA, but thanks to the levers on the doors, I manage to get a foothold and push up. Tasha does the rest, pulling me into a small corridor on the level above, which must still be below the ground floor. I guess the spiral staircase took me more than one level down.
Tasha closes the opening before signaling me to follow her. She keeps glancing at her wrist monitor every few seconds. I narrow my eyes to make out the sound wave reading on the tiny screen. She’s making sure we’re keeping quiet as we walk. Or spying for the noise any hunters after us would make.
The hallway is empty but barred in almost every direction. Tasha seems to know her way around the secret panels, though. My intuition tells me that banshees like her may have been the ones to create this over the years. Panel by panel—a route to freedom.
My heart squeezes at the thought of them trapped here for years, but I don’t dare distract Tasha with any questions.
We crawl through a panel on the left wall, then jump down through a panel in the floor back to the level I was originally on. But it isn’t the prison-like corridor that greets us. It’s a plush dining room.
I don’t know what I expected to find behind the heavy, maximum security doors, but it wasn’t this comfortable, large space, rimmed with fluffy couches, pouffes, and a table about to crack under the pressure of the food on it.
Heritage: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Elmwick Academy Book 3) Page 18
