Chapter 48
Reid and I are both at the gates in seven minutes, not five, because another thing we seem to have in common is chronic lateness.
We hurry across the snow-tipped campus lawn, the sun looming over the hunched mountains in the distance.
Through the brickwork wall denoting Old Campus and over the rocky shores of Lake Hellebore.
We don’t speak a word as we pass a hollow, eerie greenhouse where a figure moves inside before we come to the edge of campus. A vast, gnarled wood spreads in every direction, thick ponderosas and towering spruces draped in fresh white snow. In the distance, the spires of the Citadel loom.
We’re feet from the Citadel hunters who stand before the Fickle Thicket, stoic guards fitted with silver weaponry of every kind, when Reid’s hand wraps around my wrist, grave concern twisting in those blue eyes. “Viv, there’s something I…”
But his words are lost to me as a watery, echoing voice sounds in my ears. Someone screaming for help. I hear it like a record on a loop, blasted at full volume.
“What the—” I whirl, looking for the source. Reid only stares strangely at me as the screams warble in my mind. My blood freezes along my bones.
“Let go of me!” Penny shrieks. “Don’t you— What are you doing— HELP!” Sobs break from her in ravaged waves, as clear as if she were standing right before us.
My legs nearly give out in the middle of the snow. Reid’s jaw goes rigid as he watches me press my hands to my head. What is it? he mouths. He can’t hear her. Only me.
He might even ask the question aloud, but all I can hear are the sounds of a struggle, men grunting, and Penny screaming bloody murder until someone muffles her mouth with something soft.
“They took Penny,” I breathe to Reid over the transmission in my head. “I gave her the lure. I can hear everything. They took her.”
Reid looks like he’s going to be sick. “What? Is she—”
“She’s alive. We have to go.”
Now, now, now—
Nothing else matters. Not the Citadel, not Harker, not Reid.
Reid’s shoulders stiffen. “We have to go to the Citadel first. We need the Elders.”
Amid more muffled cries from Penny, I hear the crash of waves against wood and the desperate squawking of seagulls drawn to the scuffle. If my blood was frozen solid before, it shatters at the sound. “The docks. They have her at the docks.”
By the time the sounds subside, my heart is slamming in my chest. It has to be Edgar who’s gotten to Penny. But how did he know we were onto him?
“They can help us. They can…” Reid’s jaw tightens as he thinks. He runs a hand through his hair, dusted with snow.
“There’s no time!” I’m already moving back in the direction of Old Campus. “You’re either with me or you’re not.”
“Fuck.” But whatever he sees in my face—resolve, terror, riotous unchecked aeon fury—seals the deal. “I’m always with you, Viv.”
I can hardly think around the searing panic as we leap from the cab. My feet are moving, legs pumping, before an onslaught of horrible memories sends me stumbling.
Reid catches me around the waist. “You all right?”
This place—somewhere I vowed to return to only in my nightmares—hasn’t changed at all. What hits me first is the scent of the sea. Astera’s peninsula juts into the unruly pitch-black ocean, and I tense against the particular blend of brine, oil, and old, wet wood.
Reid looks around at the stretch of rickety dock.
Moored yachts and ocean liners hem the pier, some spewing hot exhaust into the frigid morning air, others long dormant—relics of the old passenger ship terminal this place once was.
Ghosts of a different kind of Astera. Now massive industrial structures have been built along the run-down waterfront marina: grim covered piers that have been turned into warehouses and decrepit stages for productions, and a maritime center that I’m certain is a front for some South of the Chasm gambling ring.
No wonder the Brood loves the spot. It’s down below the Chasm, surrounded on all edges by a merciless, untraceable sea…
“She’s here,” I tell Reid. “If Penny’s alive, she’s here.”
Reid scans the docks, winter wind whipping at his curls of chestnut hair. “It’s a big place.”
“This way.” I stalk past those large industrial shipping containers I’ve avoided for more than a decade and allow my hunter instincts to guide me.
The sound of the ocean beating against the pier fades away, as does the howl of the morning wind and the honking horns of the city in the distance.
I close my eyes as I walk and listen for something, anything, that could help me find—
There, in the distance—a handful of deviants, smoking cigarettes and playing cards around a weather-beaten bench. Guarding a white shipping container. And inside it, a muffled shout.
It’s as if I’ve stepped back in time. It could be me inside that shipping container, wailing for my dad. “Did you hear that?”
“Go get Penny.” Reid looks pale and uneasy. “I’ll draw them away.”
“You can’t fight ten Broods. They’ll kill you.”
Reid’s voice is rough as he says, “They can try.”
I open my mouth to protest, but he presses his lips against mine in a searing, pained kiss.
It feels like an apology—the worst kiss we’ve shared, because I know there’s a chance it’s goodbye.
I can hear the agony in his heartbeat. Can feel the panic in his hands as he wastes precious time touching the skin of my cheek, the length of my neck.
It’s over before I can memorize every curve of his lips, every point of pressure.
Whatever was twining us together is being split like shears tearing through vines.
It’s enough to crack me open. That, and the wetness in his eyes when he pulls away, fingers still lovingly wrapped around a lock of my hair.
But then he’s hurtling toward the group, black claws bared.
I know they’re Broods and not just sailors or crooks because of the way about seven sets of eyes blink bloodred when they spot him.
Demons, all of them. Except for one I assume is a vamp, were, or turned warlock, lower in stature and cast to the side, cleaning the other demons’ knives.
Even he looks up and snarls at Reid before taking off in his direction.
Which means I’ve got to move too.
I race around the other side of the dock to reach the back of the white container where Penny’s held. I shove the door up and open with my shoulder until it burns.
Footsteps thud on the rickety wood of the pier from the other side.
I know I have less than a minute to get Penny out.
Reid can’t keep them away from us forever.
I slam the door back down, and only then do I realize why there was no dead bolt on the outside.
I hear the snick of an automatic lock. The shipping container locks from the outside.
Same way it kept me inside all those years ago.
I’m drowned in darkness, adrenaline coursing through me, begging me to get out, get out, get out—
But I need to stay calm. I’ve been here before. I’ve lost someone here before.
And I won’t again.
Fishing in my pocket, I yank out my phone and turn on the flashlight. The sight before me twists my stomach into hideous knots.
Amid a clutter of wooden boxes and crates, a woman sits against the wall, tied at the wrists and ankles, black hood over her head. I mutter prayers to everything and anything in gratitude that those shaking Keds sneakers and blond curls are indeed Penny’s.
“Penny,” I hush, dropping to my knees beside her. “It’s Viv. I’m here.”
I yank the dark canvas off her head and exhale in a mighty rush. She’s alive. Uninjured. Gagged but in pretty decent shape, all things considered. My fingers pull the cloth from her lips and begin to work at the knots at her wrists.
“Viv,” Penny gasps. Her voice is a mere husk of her usual singsong tune. “Thank god. Oh my god—”
“What happened?”
“These men, they”—she sucks in a huge breath—“grabbed me on my way to work.” Another breath. “I thought they were going to—”
“I know.” These knots are too fucking tight and the footsteps are thudding closer and closer. “But nobody is going to hurt you. You’re going to have to trust me.”
“How are you here? Where are the police?”
I whip out my dagger and begin to saw at her restraints.
Penny’s eyes nearly fall out of their sockets. “Is that a knife?”
“Have you seen any other girls?”
“No,” Penny says, watching me untangle her.
My brain is trying to piece a lot together in mere wisps of time.
Driscoll must have found out somehow that I was onto him and took Penny to lure me here.
But how did he even know who she was or what she meant to me?
And worse, where are Lyra and Kitty? I swallow against the grief that’s seized my limbs. My body knows the answer.
Finally, Penny’s hands snap free, but not fast enough to avoid whatever Broods are looking for us. Voices call to one another right outside the crate. I can’t protect her and fight them at the same time.
This is the worst plan I’ve ever thought up, but it’s all I’ve got. “Tie me up,” I instruct as quietly as I can, holding out the sliced rope. Despite the season, a fine mist of sweat has gathered at my brow and in the crooks of my knees. There’s no fucking air in here.
Penny rubs her wrists in disbelief. “What? Are you crazy?”
“Do what I’m telling you to,” I say as quietly as I can. “Tie me up lightly and put the gag in my mouth and the hood on my head.” I take a seat against the wall where she was and thrust my wrists out. “Hurry, and then go hide under the crates.”
She shakes her head. “You can’t take my place. I won’t let you.”
“Penny. I know I’ve told you a lot of bullshit over the years, but I just need you to do what I’m saying. I have a better shot of protecting myself than you do. I’m trained for it.”