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“And no one alerted us?”

The doctor frowns, his caterpillar eyebrows drawing together tighter, and I can tell he’s unconvinced, too. He doesn’t know what’s going on.

He shakes his head. “I’m sure we’re just running some kind of operations test or—”

A low steady drone screeches across the air.

Jenkins gasps. “It’s the siren!”

The doctor’s eyes bulge. “It can’t be.”

They scurry, knocking over a table in their haste, sending tools clattering, and leaving me strapped to the gurney. Anxious voices fade away, collide with others in the hallway, and then I’m all alone, stuck to a table, unable to even turn my head.

Great
.

Soon I can’t even hear voices in the distance. Just the siren. An automated voice fills the air, speaking over the unremitting wail.
All personnel evacuate through the stairwell. Proceed with caution
.

I surge against my bindings. Hopeless. My gaze fixes on the glass room where my audience once stood. Empty now. Several of the chairs are toppled over; the door of that room yawns open. Tantalizingly close, and yet I can’t get there.

Over the siren’s wail, I hear a sound. I strain to listen, thinking it’s running feet. The swinging door behind me gives the slightest thump—like a hand pushing against it—and then a faint creak of hinges.

Someone’s entered the room. I hold my breath, almost afraid to hope …

“Jacinda?”

Even as I recognize Will’s voice I hear the fear, and realize he can’t see my face. I’m lying as silent as stone. He probably thinks I’m dead. I moan against the tape covering my mouth and squirm my body to let him know I’m alive.

Then he’s in front of me, Cassian and Tamra right behind him. Only my sister is manifested. Not Cassian.

I surrender to my relief—and get a hot surge of Cassian’s relief, too. Coupled with my own, the emotion overwhelms me and I sink deeper onto the gurney.

“Jacinda!” Will’s there, surrounding me with his warmth. It hasn’t been that long, but it’s like seeing him with fresh eyes, devouring the sight of him with a hunger I’ve never felt before. Not until I was lowered into this abyss.

As Cassian and Tamra work at the rest of my straps, he tears the tape from my mouth. I hiss involuntarily at the pain, but it doesn’t really bother me. I’m free. I’ll never look at anything the same again, never take anything or anyone for granted.

Will winces and brushes his thumb over my raw mouth, pressing a quick feverish kiss to my lips. He clasps my face in both of his hands, his eyes searching and hungry at the same time. His bright gaze lands on my bloodied strands of hair and he peers closer at the wound there. “What did they do to you? Are you all right?”

“It’s not that deep. I’m fine,” I say, knowing, of course, he can’t understand me. I’m speaking draki.

“She’s fine,” Cassian answers, his dark visage glowering in the crimson light as he sweeps me with his purply dark gaze. “Quick. See if she can stand.”

Will’s eyes flash, revealing only a flicker of irritation at Cassian’s tone. Ever the prince.

Will’s hands move fast, unbolting the last strap, and in seconds I’m free, sliding off the gurney into Will’s arms.

Then I’m in Tamra’s arms, wrenched into her embrace with more strength than I realized she possessed. She steps back to look me over. “This has had to be the worst day of my life.”

I almost smile, thinking it probably doesn’t compare to mine.

Cassian studies me but doesn’t move to hug me. His face is a stiff mask. It reminds me of everything that’s happened before this moment. Even though we came here together to rescue Miram, even though we’re bonded and as close as two draki can be, emotionally linked, we’re not …
together
.

Not the way he would have us be.

As I stare at him, it all washes over me again. That I’ve chosen Will. Instead of him. Instead of the pride.

Cassian looks from me to Will and back again, and his irritation crawls over my skin like a living thing. His dark gaze flashes purple, vertical pupils quivering. He blinks and the annoyance fades from his eyes, but I still feel it lingering in him. In me.

“Where’s Miram?” he asks, all business now.

I nod once, refocusing. “Follow me.”

We rush through the swinging doors, but I stop as I confront Tamra’s handiwork. Her mist lingers, drifting over the bodies of fallen enkros. Maybe only half a dozen litter the floor. The ones that didn’t make it out.

At my glance, she shrugs, the tips of her shimmering wings bouncing up over her shoulders. I push on, stepping around the bodies, leading them down corridors to the tune of the incessant alarm and automated voice advising all personnel to proceed with caution.

My ears prick, detecting running feet in the distance. Apparently Tamra’s sleep-inducing mist didn’t infiltrate every corner of the facility.

The echo of steps fades off the hollow space of the corridors, and I guess that it’s the last of the enkros fleeing.

We don’t see anyone else about, and I’m hoping, fervently, that all the draki are still inside their cells and haven’t been moved in the mass exodus. The enkros didn’t pause to bother with me, after all.

Relief rolls through me when we reach the prison block. They’re still there. Some standing, some pacing the small cells, all clearly freaked out from the alarm. They watch us with wary eyes as we enter the room.

Cassian sprints ahead to the front of Miram’s cell. He touches the Plexiglas, presses one large hand to the barrier as if he can reach her.

I run to the observation table and study the panel with all its monitors and gadgets, trying to figure out how to open the cells.

Tamra walks slowly up and down the row of cells, examining all the other draki. She stops before the cell with Lia. It’s my first good look at her, too. She’s just a girl—the smallest draki I’ve ever seen—and I know Tamra is taken aback to see one so young here.

“Jacinda, I think I got it.” Will’s voice draws my attention. He points to a row of switches, each one numbered. He flips number three. The cell Cassian stands in front of slides open.

Miram steps out and falls into Cassian’s arms, sobbing. I smile, lightness spreading through me as I watch Cassian lift her off the ground in a hug. Cassian’s happiness trips through me. It’s impossible not to absorb his absolute joy at finding her alive.

“Jacinda.”

I look up at Tamra. She’s turned toward me, but motioning to Lia’s cell over her shoulder. The message in her frosty eyes is clear. She wants to free the girl.

I’ll do more than that. With a nod, I use both hands to flip up every switch all at once. All the cells slide open.

They don’t wait for an invitation. Draki dive out simultaneously. Several fly past us without a word, intent only on escape. The one I assume is Roc, an onyx, winks and nods his thanks as he wings past us.

Lia lingers, her large blue eyes staring from me and Tamra and back again, uncertain.

I move away from the panel and approach her. “C’mon. You should stick with us.” I didn’t realize I was going to say that until it falls from my lips, but it’s so obvious to me. Of course I’m not leaving her alone.

Suddenly the automated voice changes its tune, becomes a new mantra.

Warning. Retreat to stairwell immediately. Operation Lilith will commence in five minutes
.

Operation Lilith? The enkros must have safely evacuated and moved into plan B. Whatever that is, it can’t be good for us.

“I think it’s time we get out of here,” Will announces.

I nod and we all rush for the doors, ready to head for the stairwell since there’s obviously a reason no one is using the elevators. Even if they work, it’s probably not a great idea in an emergency. If the power went off, we would be stuck inside.

“Wait!”

We pause, watching as Lia hurries back to the control frame. She glances at the open cells for a long moment before considering the panel of buttons.

“Come on!” I call, thinking those five minutes are fading away quickly.

With a firm nod, as though reaching a decision, she hits a switch.

The back wall of the cells slide open, exposing the lush green of the simulated forest.

I rush forward. “What are you doing?”

She grabs my wrist, stopping me from hitting the switch again to close that wall—to shield us from that world …
from him
.

“We can’t leave him in there,” she says solemnly. Her big eyes, so like Az’s, peer up at me,
into
me, seeming to know just what to say to affect me.

“He’ll kill us.” Even as I utter this, I’m not totally sure. If he’s free, I doubt he’ll care enough to come after us.

She shakes her head. “I don’t think so. He’ll focus on escaping, just like us.”

I angle my head, studying her. For one so young, she’s wise.

“He’s crazy,” Miram whispers fervently to Cassian.

“What’s she talking about?” Cassian demands.

“There’s another draki in there …” My voice stops. I stare into Lia’s eyes, the vertical pupils shuddering with intensity. She’s determined to help the gray one … and I don’t really disagree with her.

He doesn’t deserve to be a captive any more than any other draki. Any more than I do.

I glance back into the pulsing world of green, so at odds with the rest of this sterile, cold underworld.

“Jacinda.” Will tugs my arm. “We have to go.”

“Fine,” I say, “let’s just get out of here before he realizes the doors are open.”

We flee the room. No one asks for further explanation, and I guess everyone is just satisfied that we’re finally on our way out. I slide Cassian a glance. He runs with one hand wrapped around Miram’s arm, as if he’s somehow afraid he might lose her again.

Then an awful screech tears through the air. It’s a sound I recognize. Was it only hours ago that I heard that sound, convinced I might die?

The gray one is free.

“This way!” Will shouts without having to be told that the unnatural sound comes from a creature we do not want to face.

We run down another corridor, feet and shoes slapping hard on the tile. I glance at Tamra. Her white hair looks red in the glow of emergency lights suffusing the air. The way it used to look. The way I look.

Ahead there’s an open threshold and just beyond it a set of wide concrete steps.

“The stairwell,” Tamra shouts, a smile splitting her face. The first one I’ve seen from her since I persuaded her to join us on this journey.

I smile, too. We’re almost there. We’ve made it.

Then the alarm cuts off, along with the automated voice blaring from above. An eerie silence descends—the only sound that of our crashing breaths as we near that first bottom step. The first step to our freedom.

The sudden plunge into quiet forces us into slow motion, makes us all pause. I hesitate, looking around uncertainly.

A mistake. Suddenly a large steel door slides shut before us, walling off the stairwell.

And sealing us in.

6

I
t seems that no one says anything for quite some time, but it can’t be more than thirty seconds. We just stare in a sort of stunned disbelief at the spot where there once were stairs. Stairs that are supposed to lead us out of here.

“Where’s the elevator?” Tamra blurts, spinning around, her gaze searching as if she’s going to suddenly find it right behind us.

It’s the only reminder we need. There’s another way out of here. Risk or no risk, climbing into an elevator is our only chance.

We hurry down the wide halls, our shadows dark and fluid shapes on the red-tinged walls. Draki and human—the combination strikes a chill to my heart, especially in this environment where draki and human don’t blend.

And then I feel guilty, because I know what I am. I know what Will’s not. And I already decided it didn’t matter. I believe that.

I shake my head and concentrate on the path before me, the steady pound of my feet, ignoring the whisper in the back of my head. The voice that reminds me those five minutes are almost up.

We pull to a stop at the elevator. The doors are shut, the silver panels sealed tight. Will pushes the button, hitting hard two times. Nothing. No light. No sign that it’s working at all.

“They’ve locked the place down,” Cassian announces grimly.

“What do you mean? What are you saying?” Tamra looks wildly at each of us. “We can’t get out? Like … ever?”

“It must be procedure to shut everything down when something goes wrong—like us infiltrating,” Will explains. Even without understanding Tamra, he can guess the gist of our conversation.

“So we’re stuck?” I ask, shaking my head, refusing to believe that. “For how long?”

“They don’t want to risk any of us escaping,” Lia announces.

I growl with disgust. We shouldn’t have gone back for the gray one. We would have made it out of here like the other draki, all of whom are probably flying home right now. If we had just kept going, we’d be free. But now we’re stuck down here. With
him
.

The flesh at the back of my neck prickles and I shiver, glancing around as though he were there. Ready to pick up where we left off. It’s all in my head. There’s nothing behind us but a hazy red-infused hall. When I turn back, my gaze finds Lia.