Chapter 39 #2
Half the overhead lights were on, leaving the large space in semi-darkness.
Clustered in the center of the arena floor were six temporary holding cells—rectangular metal boxes with chain-link sides, each one ten feet wide and twenty feet long.
Inside them, the SI’s prisoners sat on the concrete floor or leaned against the chain-link walls.
There was a porta-potty in the corner of each one.
Six guards lounged in comfy camping chairs around a folding table, watching something on a tablet while they played a card game. A radio sat beside the tablet.
I wanted to shove their heads into the portable toilets and watch them asphyxiate.
Aaron started down the steps between rows of seating, keeping low.
We’d come in at the perfect spot—above the guards where it would be impossible for them to see us unless they craned their necks back.
The Pandora Knights split off from our group, creeping toward the main bowl seating where they could take the stairs down to the arena floor.
Our team reached the edge of the tier, and Gwen, Venus, and I lined up at the railing, our paintball guns in hand.
Two shots each to take down all the guards. Our potions would knock them out even if they were dosing with universal antidotes.
We took aim.
The rest of our team slunk to the opposite side of the bowl from the Pandora Knights. Once in position, Aaron gave the signal.
I pulled the trigger. The potion ball exploded against the cheekbone of an agent as he held up a card from his hand, and he keeled over backward. My second shot hit his buddy in the mouth, a spray of red mixing with the taupe-colored potion. He fell sideways off his chair.
The other four agents collapsed, splattered with potion. The Pandora Knights sprinted down the steps and jumped to the arena floor. Aaron, Ezra, Drew, and Zora entered from their side, Venus, Gwen, and I running after them.
The prisoners were on their feet. Some of them started to shout—calling out for help—and others tried to hush them, but the noise level was rising.
I wanted to scream straight into their brains—be quiet!
I knew they were scared. Some of them had been trapped here for weeks.
But noise was dangerous. We didn’t have long.
We leaped over the final barrier and dropped down to the concrete one after another. Two Pandora Knights mages checked the unconscious guards, and the rest were at the first holding cell.
Aaron, Ezra, and Venus ran to the second holding cell, Venus pulling potions off her belt while Aaron ordered the people inside to back up. Gwen, Zora, and Drew stationed themselves as lookouts.
Kai and I ran to the third cell.
“Quiet,” Kai ordered. “We’ll get you all out, but you need to stay quiet.”
I scanned their faces. When I didn’t see Sabrina, I kept going to the fourth cell.
“Keep quiet,” I called to them, my stomach knotting at the bruises on their faces. “You’ll be out of there in no time. Let’s not draw the attention of those assholes, okay?”
I almost lost my composure when I spotted a girl who couldn’t have been older than twelve amidst the adults. But I kept going, searching every face.
“Sabrina!” Her name escaped me in a gasp when I saw her—pressed against the chain-link wall of the fifth cell, only a few other mythics locked in with her.
I ran to her, tears of relief stinging my eyes as I curled my fingers over hers.
“Tori,” she whispered as the others crowded behind her. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
“We’re going to rescue you,” I told her, twisting to see where Venus and her lock-melting potions were. “We’ll have that door open in—”
“No.” The harsh word came from a man beside Sabrina. “Get out before it’s too late.”
Meeting the man’s eyes, I recognized Agent Tim, the telepath Captain Blythe had asked us to find. Bruises darkened one side of his face, and his lower lip was split and swollen.
“You’ve walked into a trap,” Sabrina said urgently. “You can’t fight them. Not yet.”
Dread plunged through my middle like a spear of ice.
I spun on my heel, my gaze skimming the immediate area—the Pandora Knights gathering prisoners from the first and second cells together, Aaron and Ezra waving mythics out of the third cell, Venus joining Kai at the fourth cell.
There wasn’t a hint of danger, of a trap, of more SI agents.
I looked back at Tim and remembered what Captain Blythe and Agent Park had said about Tim knowing key information. This wasn’t a guy I should ignore.
“Aaron!” I shouted.
His head whipped toward me.
I pointed at the largest group of freed abductees. “They need to go now! Get them out of here!”
Aaron didn’t hesitate. “Pandora Knights, get them to the rendezvous point! We’ll bring the rest!”
Their team leader shot him a frowning look, then called out orders. Six mages formed up around the prisoners while two more ran ahead to open a gate into a tunnel beneath the stands.
Kai and Venus forced the fourth cell’s door open with a grinding sound—but an even louder noise followed. The metallic rattle echoed through the arena, so loud that I froze in place.
Below the raised tier of seating from which we’d shot the six guards, a huge overhead door lifted, and harsh white light flooded in. Countless silhouettes swarmed toward us—SI agents wearing armored vests, too many of them to count, magic flaring over their weapons and artifacts.
“Get out of here!” Tim yelled at me.
“Go!” Sabrina echoed, her voice cracking.
I wrenched on the door of the cell, but it was still locked—and Venus wouldn’t make it over here with her potions.
The Pandora Knights and their charges had disappeared into the tunnel, and Gwen and Drew ran with the prisoners from the fourth cell, half-dragging the slowest ones, racing to get them out.
Aaron, Ezra, Kai, Zora, and Venus weren’t running.
They’d formed a flimsy line between the oncoming rush of agents and the escapees.
Fire blazed over Aaron’s sword, and electricity crackled up Kai’s arms. Magic shimmered down Zora’s blade, and Venus had her paintball gun in one hand and a fistful of potion bombs in the other.
Ezra stood with his feet planted wide and a short sword in each hand.
I unholstered my paintball gun.
“Tori,” Sabrina said, a sob catching in her throat.
I pushed my numb legs forward, running toward my friends. My family. Hell would freeze over before I fled without them.
There was no escape—not for us.
The agents reached my friends before I did. Magic and violence exploded around them. I emptied every paintball in my magazine into the agents, threw my gun aside, and yanked potion balls off my belt. I hurled the glass spheres, but it was like throwing a rock at a mudslide. It made no difference.
When a trio of black-clad agents came at me with cruel grins, I didn’t get a chance to pull out my brass knuckles. Their barrage of attacks hit me so fast and hard that I couldn’t even tell what magic was pummeling me.
The last thing I heard was Sabrina screaming my name before everything went dark.