“We should get this one home,” Sun said, nodding at Henry, who was hugging himself and looking longingly after Anastasia, who’d been his anchor.
“Henry?”
“I’m fine,” he murmured, not seeming altogether present.
“Yeah,” I said to Sun. “Let’s go.”
Grace was standing with her head bowed, eyes closed.
“Grace?” I said, tentatively touching her shoulder. “We have to get going.”
Sighing, she pulled herself from the wall and joined us.
Now to find that escape ladder.
Sun Wukong gave the monster’s body one last, sad look before leading us down a different hallway than the one we’d come from or the one the others had left through. We continued on in semidarkness. Our lantern seemed to grow dimmer, and the shadows more pervasive. I reached, and found Ben’s hand reaching for mine. We walked together, shoulder to shoulder, as wolves do. Cormac kept glancing behind us.
Finally, Sun stopped and put his hand on the rusted rung of a ladder climbing up toward a grating. What do you know? An escape ladder.
I regarded it wryly. “Can I have a pony, too?”
“She doesn’t want a pony,” Ben said.
I frowned. “Why can’t I have a pony?”
“What are you going to do with a pony?”
Eat it? Wolf helpfully contributed. Maybe Ben was right.
“The grate should pop right out,” Sun said. “Here is where I leave you.”
“Just like that?” Grace said.
“I’d have thought you’d have had enough of the tunnels,” he said.
“Yeah, and my whole life I’m going to wonder when someone else is going to come along needing a guide. Don’t send them to me, okay?”
“I can’t make that promise,” Sun said, grinning.
“That’s it, I’m out of here,” Grace said, and started climbing.
We waited until she got to the top, and as Sun had said, the grate swung up on well-oiled hinges, and Grace pulled herself to the sidewalk, where she was lit by the orange-ish glow of a streetlight.
“Henry?” I said.
He still looked far too pale, even for a vampire, but he set his jaw, nodded, and started the climb. I turned to Cormac next, but he shook his head.
“I’ll cover the back.”
That was his role—watching our backs. I would never be able to argue him out of it.
I looked at Sun. “If you give me a phone number I can get you your shirt back.”
“Keep it. Consider it a souvenir,” he said. So much for my underhanded attempt to find a way to track him.
Next he held his hand out to Cormac and said, “But I will be taking back that crossbow.” Cormac just stared. “It’s a priceless antique,” Sun said. “I can’t let you keep it. Sorry.”
“Priceless?” he said.