Chapter 12 Escape
Chapter twelve
Escape
Bash
Newgate keeps its prisoners the way the Deep keeps its dead: none escape by will alone. Freedom comes only to the fortunate, the wealthy, or the doomed.
— The Mysterious Deep: A Comprehensive Understanding
These four walls were closing in every day I stayed in this hellhole, knowing Edmonds was set on Rose.
“If you don’t stop pacing, I’m actually going to lose my mind,” Oscar whispered, from where he was propped up on his refurbished bed with a leather-bound book in his hands. The candlelight from the nightstand cast shadows around our cell, which laughed at my helplessness.
“It’s been days, and I haven’t seen him once. That means she’s at risk,” I snapped.
Oscar sat up and snapped his fingers, bringing one finger to his mouth in warning. “You will wake up Kit,” he whispered.
Fuck if I cared.
The gentle sound of breathing next to our cell was all I needed to know that the boy was sleeping soundly. Two days and he’d already gained more color in his cheeks. The paleness from lack of sunlight and nutrition faded slightly under decent nutrition and actual sleep.
“Do you not understand the gravity of the situation?” I snapped, though truth be told, it was more of a whisper this time.
It wasn’t the boy’s fault I’d fucked up.
Oscar sighed, setting down the book.
“You know I understand. She’s my fucking sister, Bash. I just know that there is nothing we can do from here and that Oliver is working on it,” he said.
I blew out a frustrated breath, continuing my pacing.
“Oliver Bailey is a politician. He is the least helpful human being at the moment,” I said.
“Then we have to trust that Rose can handle herself.” He coughed as the statement ended.
Oscar loved Rose, but he didn’t see her as capable as I did. The problem was that she was new to this game, and Edmund was always three steps ahead.
“I’d say she’s more than capable,” a voice that shouldn’t have been said.
Oscar stood, his book thumping to the ground loud enough to wake the rats sleeping nearby. His face was slack, all color leached from it, like he’d seen a ghost.
I turned and there, against all odds, stood a tall woman in a wide-brimmed hat that shielded half her face. A face I knew well.
“Inu,” Oscar said her name like a prayer.
Her lips pulled up a fraction, but the real tell was how her hand shook just slightly as she turned the key in our cell door.
Oscar didn’t wait for the click of freedom; he braced his hands around the cell bars, and the moment they gave way, he pushed them only to envelop Inu in a hug that probably stole her breath away.
Everything in me said this was a trap. Even if it wasn’t my imagination playing tricks on me, there was no way Inu, despite how clever she was, could free them from Newgate. Which meant this was a trap, but to what end?
“You are a fucking idiot, Oscar Bailey,” Inu said with her head buried in his neck.
“Don’t I know it,” Oscar said, voice shaking. “I’ll even let you tell me in great detail, but first we need to get out of here.”
She lifted her head, nodding once before Oscar captured her lips with his in a brief kiss.
“This is a trap,” I said, as they broke apart.
Inu turned to me, her head raising and falling in agreement.
“It was too easy. Most of the guards were passed out,” she said.
“Maybe we don’t question it and just get the fuck out of here,” Oscar said.
Inu met my gaze, waiting for the order. She wouldn’t leave Oscar here, but I had a choice to make. If Edmunds wanted me to escape, that meant I needed to think really fucking hard about why.
“Where is Rose?” I asked.
“At the Siren and the Kraken meeting with Edmunds. Val is with her,” Inu said.
That was what Edmunds spoke of when he said he’d received an invitation. Rose was in danger. I trusted Val, but Edmunds was far too clever.
“We need to go now,” I said.
“Finally,” Oscar groaned, pulling at Inu.
I made it two steps out of my cell before Billy spoke.
Trap or no trap, we both know he’s yours now.
Except what kind of life awaited a boy on a pirate ship, because if he went back on the streets, he would only ever end up back here.
Aye, I asked the same thing when I brought you, but now look at you.
I shook my head. I’d given Billy countless headaches over the years, none more than the last when I courted the noose as an eager suitor.
And I’d do it all again. Every time.
My eyes burned as I stared at the boy curled up on the poor excuse for a cot and a thin blanket. Even in his sleep, he shivered in the cold night.
“Time to go, Bash,” Oscar hissed.
“Give me the keys, Inu,” I ordered.
She said nothing as she came back and placed the keys in my outstretched hand. That was who Inu was. Quiet and resilient. Fiercer than any man I’d ever known.
“Who is he?” she asked as I unlocked the cell.
“Just a boy,” I said.
I handed her back the keys and stepped into the cell, crouching before the boy.
“Boy,” I said.
As gentle as a bull shark in a reef.
Billy’s chuckle was an echo in my mind as I shook the boy awake as gently as I could manage.
He opened his eyes and rushed to the corner of his bed, breath coming heavy as he searched for the threat. It was enough to make me consider bringing him to the rotunda and asking him who I needed to fucking kill.
“Sir?” he asked when his eyes cleared.
“We are leaving, and you are coming with us,” I said, my voice harsher than I meant it to be.
He rubbed at his eyes that boasted dark circles beneath them.
“Leaving, Sir?” he asked.
It was as if he were still dreaming, unable to comprehend the reality evolving around him.
“We have to go, Bash,” Oscar called.
So we did.
I stepped in and held out my hand to the boy, trying to soften my voice.
“We are breaking out of the prison. I can’t promise you a good life, but I can promise one better than this hellhole,” I said.
Billy used to say that there was a single moment that crowded all the rest in his mind.
That even when he was old and gray and couldn’t remember his own name that he would remember that moment in perfect color and detail.
The fact that his last words were that he was glad he gave me that piece of bread made me wonder if that wasn’t true after all.
As the boy pressed his tiny, frail hand into mine without a moment of hesitation, I knew what Billy meant.
As we left Newgate prison amidst sleeping guards and the quiet drip of damp water, I knew that I was now responsible for this child who put his faith in me.
Even if it was a terrible decision, I would see it through.