Chapter 24
MADDISON
I wake up with a simple opening of my eyes with no grasp of what I was dreaming about; however, I get the oddest sensation that something woke me up. A noise perhaps?
Finn’s lean arms are still circled around me, and his face is close.
We left the light on when we dozed off, so I get a clear view of his closed eyes, slightly parted lips, and the way his solid chest rises and falls with each breath he takes.
He looks peaceful, and that makes me not want to wake him up.
So, as carefully as I can, I lift his arm off of me and roll out of the bed.
I head over to the fridge to get something to eat.
A couple of nights ago, a huge supply of food was slid through the compartment, so everything is fresh.
I grab an apple, a bottle of chocolate milk, and a yogurt. I’m preparing to sit down at the small table that’s in the corner near the window when a loud boom echoes from outside.
My eyes widen, and I nearly drop the food I’m carrying because I recognize the sound.
I heard these noises all the time growing up, so there’s no mistaking what it is. A gunshot.
Finn sleepily rouses from his sleep, rolling over and blinking at me. He’s half out of it, and the way his eyes glaze over, and his lips quirk into a smile when he sees me causes my stomach to spin in the most confusing way.
“God, you’re so pretty,” he murmurs, not quite awake yet.
I drop my food and drink onto the table and hurry over to him. He reaches for me and sketches his fingers across my cheek, something he’s started frequently doing.
I capture his hand and softly squeeze it. “You need to wake up, okay? All the way, because I just heard a gunshot outside.”
He rolls his eyes a few times, then sits up. I let go of his hand, and he rubs his eyes and scans the room.
“You heard a gunshot?” he asks as he throws the blankets off him.
I nod. “About a minute ago—”
Another gunshot goes off.
Finn’s jaw drops in shock, then he bolts out of bed, strides to the window, and throws up the curtain. Bro has no survival skills, so I sprint over to him, snag the sleeve of his shirt, and yank him with me as I crouch down.
“Dude,” I hiss. “You can’t stand in front of a window when someone is shooting up the place.”
“How do you know that’s a gunshot?” he whispers. When I give him a really look, he says, “You heard a lot of them in northside.”
I bob my head up and down. “You were at northside a couple of times to race. Didn’t you ever hear them?”
He lifts a broad shoulder, shrugging. “I don’t know. That boom sounded like fireworks to me, so I could’ve heard them but just didn’t know what they were.”
“Well, those are for sure gunshots.” I sit down on the floor, noting it’s dark outside.
Is it the next night? Did Finn and I sleep through the entire day? If so, Aiden should be here soon to get us out. That is, if he was telling the truth in that note.
Finn sits down on the floor beside me. His blond hair is sticking up all over the place, and the t-shirt and pajama pants he’s wearing are wrinkled. It’s the most disheveled he's looked, and it’s annoyingly sexy because I find myself wanting to run my fingers through his hair.
I force the thought from my mind the best that I can. “We should get dressed, since it’s the next night.” I give him a pressing look.
He quickly catches on, and we get up, making sure to stay away from the window, as we grab some clothes to get dressed. I head into the bathroom while Finn stays in the room. I pull on a pair of baggy sweats and a shirt, but we’ve never been given any shoes. If we have to run, that’s going to suck.
Although I do miss the days of running with the cool breeze gusting through my hair.
I suddenly want to cry at the memories of what might never be again.
But I suck it the hell up, find an elastic in one of the drawers, and put my hair into a ponytail.
When I return to the room, Finn is dressed in sweatpants and a grey shirt.
He’s sitting on the floor in front of the foot of the bed with his legs bent and a quizzical crease between his brows.
I kneel down beside him. “Is everything okay?”
He has his arms draped over his knees, but shifts, lowering them and stretching his legs out. “I’m fine. I’m just thinking about a lot of things.”
“What sort of things?”
“Things I’ll tell you about later.”
The need to press him tugs inside me, but I assume his evasiveness has to do with not wanting his father to overhear him.
“We should eat.” I start to get to my feet when I hear another explosive gunshot.
Finn springs into action, curling his body proactively around me. “Did that just come from the hallway?”
“I think so.” I’m trembling, partly from the gunshot and partly over the fact that he’s protecting me.
Every time River or Finn has done this, it throws me off. I want to protect him, too, though. I’m about to declare this when the door to the room opens up. For a faltering moment, we both freeze, half expecting it to be Mr. Averson and the society. But Aiden is standing on the other side.
He’s dressed head-to-toe in black, he has a gun in his hand, and blood droplets cover his face. He looks like some sort of godly warrior who’s in the middle of a battle.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Finn breathes out as he takes in the sight of Aiden.
“Let’s go,” Aiden barrels into the room, grabs the scroll and book from off the table, and stuffs them into a backpack he has slung over his shoulder. “We don’t have much time.” He bolts for the door.
Finn and I hesitate for like a split second before I jump into action, leaping to my feet and running after Aiden.
Finn snags my hand, though, and stops me. “Do you think we can trust him?”
I carry his gaze. “We don’t have another choice. It’s either trust him or stay locked in this room until I’m bred.”
With a nod, Finn and I rush after Aiden.
Since we were unconscious when we arrived here, we never saw what was on the other side of the door.
It’s a wide hallway with black-and-white checkboard floors, dark purple walls, and chandeliers.
I had expected some kind of dungeon-like area to be on the other side, but nope.
It’s a space that belongs to royalty, which makes me question if Finn and I were being held in a panic room.
Aiden nods for us to follow him as he jogs up the hallway. Finn holds my hand the entire way, staying close.
When we reach the end of it, Aiden halts. “Keep your heads low.” He waits for us to nod, then leads us out into a spacious ballroom with a wide stairway and paintings that cover the walls. It’d be a pretty room if dead bodies didn’t cover the floor.
Finn stiffens, his eyes widening as he stares at one of the bodies on the floor. They’re wearing the same outfit as Aiden, and blood is seeping out of gunshot wounds.
Snapping my fingers in front of Finn’s face, I yank on his arm. “Just try not to look at them.”
With a shaky breath, he nods, then keeps his gaze fixed on me as we follow Aiden.
Gunshots are ringing in the air along with shouting as we weave through hallways, duck through doorways, and then enter a secret corridor hidden behind a shelf, much like I had questioned the Royal Academy Library to have.
Behind it is a narrow, dark tunnel, and Aiden has to whip a flashlight out of his pocket.
Holding his gun in one hand, he shines the light down the tunnel, and then we’re on the move again.
Water is dripping from the brick walls, and puddles cover the concrete floor.
The air smells muggy and has a nip to it.
I shiver, and Finn wraps his arms around me, holding me close to him as we follow Aiden.
No one speaks. I’m too afraid to. Aiden seems content with the silence, but I wish he’d give us information about what we’re doing. Like, how are we going to escape? What’s on the other side of this tunnel—
We reach the end and stumble outside. Since night is plaguing the land, it’s hard to see anything beyond what the flashlight is illuminating, which is a thick forest.
We run into them with the sounds of shouts chasing after us.
Branches snap under my bare feet and cut the flesh, but I disregard the pain as I jog after Aiden with Finn right behind me, clutching my hand.
And then Aiden begins to slow down as his light shines on someone I’ve longed to see for a month now.
Brown hair, eyes like mine, and she’s wearing a pair of sweats. Ellie, my real mother. I start to run to her when I hear a burst of air, then a metal object pierces my arm. My vision swims with blurriness as my head fills with the roaring of my blood.
Then I black out.