36. Chapter 36 #2
“I stumbled upon a boarded-up door a couple days ago by accident. It’s well hidden behind a bookcase in the basement. They must have used the entrance to bring in the dead years ago.”
This just might work.
“Can you get us in?”
Olli nods. “I think so.” He sticks his head out the window and gives Cas instructions to take us down a narrow, dark alley on the church’s western side.
“This is it!” Olli hits the cab ceiling and hops out in one fluid motion. He rushes to the stone facade and brushes his hands against the building. If there’s a door, it’s invisible to the naked eye.
Ines mutters something under her breath and I know we’re running out of time to save her.
Olli stills. He tucks his fingers into the stone and tugs, opening a hidden door and revealing a flight of stairs leading deep beneath the church.
I don’t hesitate. I slip my arms beneath Ines’ neck and knees and carry her down the cobweb invested tunnel.
Cas has Rogelio draped over his shoulder and follows me, Carmen and Olli in tow after closing the door and shrouding us in darkness.
When we reach the bottom of the staircase, Olli squeezes past me to slide the wall to the side. We empty into one of the purification rooms.
“This way.” Olli places the secret entrance back in place and heads for the door.
Leaving the room, we head down the long hallway, skulls fashioned in the walls our only companions, until we reach a locked door at the end. Olli pulls his keys out of his pant pocket and unlocks it for us. Another long staircase greets us and the further down we go, the colder it is.
Ines shivers in my arms and her breathing slows.
Fear grips my heart and constricts. She doesn’t have much longer. We need to speed up.
Boots scuff the stone steps as we descend to a wooden platform with a gondola tied, bobbing in the water.
It’s a tight squeeze, but all of us fit. Cas lays Rogelio down gently and Carmen cradles his head in her lap.
Olli unties the boat and hops aboard in the same breath Cas takes the oar and propels us down the waterway.
I haven’t been down here in months, but Cas and Olli are frequent visitors, bringing supplies and resources to our people hiding downstream.
The arched ceiling is low and at times Cas ducks his head to avoid clipping his forehead against the stone masonry. It’s a claustrophobic journey for a few minutes until we reach the mouth of the tunnel.
A groan draws my gaze downward, but the sound doesn’t belong to Ines. I twist toward Carmen and watch Rogelio’s eyes fly open and terror quickly overtake him.
“Where am I?” he sits up and startles when he sees Carmen. “Who are you?”
“Hush!” she hisses, pressing her index finger to her lips. “We’ll be there soon.”
Rogelio whips to lock eyes with me. “You kidnapped me?”
“Temporarily borrowed you.”
“My father – “
All threats suddenly die on the tip of the heir’s tongue when we sail beneath hundreds of chandeliers of varying size and metallic finish. I’m so used to our only source of lighting beneath the mountain I forget how magical and impossible it must seem to an outsider.
Rogelio stares upward in awe. “Where are we?”
“The City of Dreams,” Olli says, pointing ahead to the shoreline where dozens of winged men, women and children await our arrival.
“Venturans?” Rogelio gasps before focusing on me. “How is this possible? I thought my father executed all of them.”
I splay my wings and he lurches backward, finding himself tucked against Carmen.
“Not all of us.”
“You’re a Venturan?”
He has questions, and I don’t have time to answer any of them. I remind myself he is a problem for later.
“Olli and Carmen, take him to Bram. Cas, you’re with me.” I disembark our gondola the second it slides up next to the wooden platform. I sense Cas on my heels as we weave through the Venturans gathered around the dock.
“Where’s Alba?” I call out, knowing she’s more than likely making her rounds through the catacomb city.
A little girl, no older than six, points me in the right direction and I nod my thanks before marching away.
If I let myself dwell on the thought the girl was born down here and has never seen the light of the sun or what life above ground entails, I will completely spiral and lose myself.
She, and the rest of my people, motivate me to succeed.
“Alba!” I yell, scanning beneath the canopies of the stone archways for the healer’s familiar face.
I nearly trip when the tip of my boot catches on one of the hundreds of rugs covering the hard, cold stone pathway but Cas grabs the back of my shirt and keeps me upright.
“Alba?” I cry out again, desperation overtaking me.
“Remus? Cas?”
I turn and catch sight of her and exhale a sigh of relief.
Alba Silvanus comes from a long line of healers and learned herbology from Pillar Ollivander. She’s the sole reason our people have survived below the surface for as long as we have and right now, she’s my only hope in saving Ines.
Cas marches up to her and whispers something in her ear before planting a gentle kiss to her temple.
Determination settles across her tawny-brown features when her gaze fixates on me.
“Alba, I need your help.”
She wipes her bloody hands on her apron and approaches me fast.
“What happened to her?” she asks, pressing her palm to Ines’ paling forehead.
“She was stabbed.” I swallow, reserving the details for a later time.
Alba’s calculating brown eyes meet Cas’. Once their engagement was announced a year ago, it seemed they developed an entire language that could be deciphered in one look. From the sadness they exchange, my stomach flips.
“She’s cold,” Alba says, turning on her heel. “Bring her in here.”
We hurry down the main street and enter the tent she uses as a hospital. There are a few sick Venturans lying in cots, but she bypasses them as her staff care for them.
“Over here.” She motions us to the back where a wooden table sits empty, as if Alba was prepared for her day to take a tragic turn. “Lay her down.”
Alba grabs a knife mounted on the wall and slices through Ines’ clothing to see the wound. When her abdomen is exposed, Alba stops, her hands already coated in Ines’ blood.
“Tell me you can save her, Alba!” I yell when she remains motionless. “You have to help her.”
She glances up at me, sympathy in her gaze. “Rem – “
I shake my head. “No! Don’t tell me you can’t do something! You have to save her. You’re the only one who has seen an injury like this before.”
“Remus, she’s lost a lot of blood – “
“Alba, please!” I beg, grabbing her bloody hand, as I hold back a flood of tears. “Please.”
Alba’s eyes soften. She retrieves her hand from mine and pulls her long curly hair back into a ponytail. “I will do all I can for her, but you will need to leave.”
“Alba – “
She doesn’t give me a second to protest. “Cassias.” With just his name, he jumps into action and grabs me by my shoulders and drags me out of the medical tent.
“Alba!” I cry out, but fighting against Cas’ iron grip is futile.
She is already moving swiftly around the operating table, barking out orders to her staff. One of those orders being for them to close the curtains, cutting me off from Ines completely.
“Quit fighting me,” Cas hisses before he wraps me in a hug I can’t escape.
“Remember who you are,” he whispers. “You are our general. Our people cannot afford to see either one of us despair. Alba will do what she can for Ines. There’s nothing to do except wait.
" I abandon my struggle and nod in agreement. He’s right.
I need to compose myself. But how can I do that when my entire world is shattering before me?
“They’re going to execute my mother,” I say softly, and the unexpected change in conversation spurs Cas to pull away from me.
“Your mother is dead – “
“My mother has been held captive in a prison in the mountains for fifteen years,” I interrupt. “And during the Soberano’s jubilee, she will be executed.”
“Shit.”
“And I have to figure out what to do with Rogelio.” I rake my hands through my hair, taking a deep breath in attempts to quench the rising panic attack. “Tell me what to do, Cas.” I’m on the verge of breaking and he can see it. “Tell me what to do,” my voice shakes.
His eyes water. “I don’t know.”
And that’s the problem.
For the first time in years, I feel lost. Helpless.
“We’ll figure it out,” he offers but it does nothing to soothe me.
I glance back inside the tent.
She has to make it.
She has to make it.
She has to make it.