Page 113 of Sawyer

“Sin, keep her tucked in the cave. If her fever spikes again, give her another elixir,” Rumor directs him.

The tired alpha just nods and grabs the walkie before sauntering off. Neither of us can smell him, but my gut isn’t happy with his appearance either. “Withdrawal,” I mutter to Rumor.

“He should have told us how bad it had gotten,” Rumor says. “They are going to have to rest for the day.”

“It could take him hours to get past this. He’s going to need an elixir himself.” I curse again, a habit I’m not fond of that’s happening more often. “I bet that’s why he stole extra.”

“Leave it.” Rumor adjusts his guns, checking his ammo and fiddling with his belt. “We need to find a way in.”

I look back once more, hoping we are leaving them safe in the cave. Sin is capable of so much more, yet he’s allowed himself to fall into addiction. I don’t blame him for his reasons, but I blame him for allowing it to get this bad and to go on for as long as it did.

He’s better than this, which disappoints me more than it should.

Turning away from the cave, we make our way into the forest. Visibility is high, which means we need to be careful that no one else can see us, and they can. It’s slow going, and we pause every few feet just to listen. Several times, we pass the webs of the deadly spider that bit Sawyer. Some rest in the center of their clear webs, black as night with long spindly legs, appearing as though they are just floating in the air.

I hate and respect them equally.

We slow our pace once we come up to a dirt road. This is how we get out. An escape plan has slowly been brewing in the back of my mind, staying loose just in case something goes wrong.

We creep along the road, checking for cameras as we go, but there aren’t any, which is foolish on their part.

Ahead of us is a small, camouflaged guard station in front of a chain-link fence. Rumor and I pause, crouching low. The road leads right to the fence with a gate. Unfortunately, whoever built this did it with intelligence.

“Do you see a way in?” Rumor questions me.

“No.” I point to the mountain they built the facility in. “It looks like they carved out a cave and built in it. The fence runs from curve to curve.” The cave opens in an arched pattern, with the fence linked to both ends.

“We could go spelunking,” Rumor suggests. “But there’s no telling if we will ever make our way into that cave system.”

“How do we get in?” There is no actual building. It looks as though it’s built into that cave. “There has to be another exit,” I mutter. “Otherwise, it’s a safety hazard.”

“I’m not so sure they care,” Rumor says. “There is another way in.”

“And what’s that?” I ask, not sure I want to know where this is going.

Rumor presses a small device into my hand. “What the fuck is this?” It looks like an earpiece.

“Hide that.”

“Why?”

“It’s a mage comm. Stick it behind your ear.” He grabs one and presses it behind his own ear.

“We could have used these earlier.” Annoyed he’s been keeping secrets, I stick the device behind my ear and look at him. “What’s the plan?”

“You won’t like it,” he says, but for some reason, he’s excited, like an adrenaline junkie anticipating a hit.

“I already don’t like it. You’re right.”

“Get ready,” he warns.

“For what?”

He glances at the gate. Following his gaze, I see a guard coming out to unlock the fence. “This,” Rumor says a moment before pushing me into the middle of the road. “You get caught.”

Son of a bitch.

Sawyer

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