“All the way around back. You have the farthest to travel, so use a temperate speed coupled with your light feet.”
“Got it,” I say.
“And Clarissa?”
I turn around as I slowly back my way into the shadows.
“Keep your head up,” Hiro says.
I nod and vanish into the crowd, calling on my Cat abilities to get me around back. It takes me no time to find the door he’s talking about, but it does take my Wolf strength to open the door. I’m worrying about the creaking sound it’s making. If it’s supposed to be unguarded, then that sound can alert Primals around me that something is wrong. I shut it calmly behind me and stick to the wall, my eyes darting around for the red stripe.
It takes me a few corridors, but I find it. Then, I train my ears to try and find Hiro’s voice. I catch footsteps and the scurrying of little feet. Whispering voices and a bit of laughter, but no Hiro. I slide along the wall, keeping quiet and camouflaging myself as I turn down the hallway. The building seems endless.
Like a maze meant to disorient. I focus on one hallway at a time, my hand grazing along the red stripe as I creep.
Slip.
Tip-toe and crawl.
I pass guards and servant staff. Giggling women and drunk men. A curious place for something that was supposed to be formal.
My ears are perked, and my heart is thundering loudly. My mind is trained on the task in front of me as I turn down what I hope is the last hallway. I’m growing bored with the creeping. I’m ready to be in front of these Primals so I can finally have some answers. Avenge my dead mate. Question them about Lord Wesley’s ties to cats and figure out why the hell Primals were sent to kill Kyle and not me.
But the
moment Kyle enters my mind, my camouflage is compromised.
My scent fills the hallway and my footsteps echo off the walls, and guards descend onto my body. Pulling me in all different directions and pinning my neck to the floor. I can feel teeth hovering over my neck, a Wolf ready to strike me dead if I fight back.
They pull me off the floor and toss me down the hallway, running after me and throwing me again. I fall to the floor only to be picked up again. Crashing and lifting. Heaving and hoeing. My face is bruising, and my bones are cracking, and I’m trying to listen out for Penny. Or Hiro.
Or anyone who sounds familiar.
“Someone. Anyone. Help me, please.”
My body is tossed down more hallways than I can recall scaling.
And soon, my face hits the cold pavement of a jail cell. Bars come crashing down, locking me into a small dungeon with nothing but a metal toilet in the corner to clean myself with. The guards are staring at me. Mocking me. Taunting me and poking their spears at me. I fight them off, snarling as anger fills my veins.
I can only hope Penny finds me.
I can only hope Hiro gets answers.
Because I don’t see a way out of this.
I don’t see myself getting out of this alive any longer.
Chapter 24
~ Theo
“A re you sure that’s what the prophecy says?” I ask.
“I’ve told you all I can. When the wind calls to you, you answer, Theo. You always have.”
“But that changes everything. I need to be sure.”
“I can only pass on what I have been told,” he says. “The rest is up to you.”