Page 80 of Son of a Witch

Vivid blue eyes begged me to take her with me. I fought my demons, wanting to protect her, shield her, surround her in cotton fucking wool. Impossible when we went out on missions and resided in this shit hole.

Astra’s fingers curled tighter over my muscles. “Knoxe. It’s Ben. Friend, not foe.”

Fuck. I hated this idea. But she was right. No other way to face her fears than meet them head-on. Take the plunge and come with me. If I sensed danger, we would turn back.

I got up close in the guard’s sweaty face. “Ben, if you’re leading my girl and me into a dangerous situation and she gets harmed, you’re not leaving the prison alive tonight.”

Ben nodded stiffly, and a knot formed in my stomach. “You’re wasting time, asshole. Get a move on.”

Coldness injected into my veins as I clasped my girl’s hand and tracked out of the cell behind the guard, forcing her in line beside me. Every step on the stone floor thudded like a warning drum. The knot in me tightened and I struggled to breathe. Watchers twisted their necks to observe us, the grating of stone like a blade sharpened on stone.

My stomach exploded with acid as we rounded a corner into the dark spot, an infamous spot in the prison, out of sight of cameras.

I jerked Astra to a halt. “I don’t fucking think so, Ben.”

The sentry nudged me with his spear. “Don’t give me fucking more heartburn, Knoxe. Enter the laundry before I make you.”

Someone in a shabby, tattered, mud-brown wool cape crept from out of the blind spot, waving at me to follow. When I didn’t move, he pulled back the hood to reveal pale skin, a scruffy beard, and hooded brown eyes. Shock stole the warmth from my blood. Astra gasped and covered her mouth.

Now I understood the reason for Ben’s jitters. Why he made such a big deal about coming and not having much time.

I inched closer with Astra tight to my side. “Warden?” I glanced over my shoulder. “What are you doing here?”

Vartros’ gaze snapped left and right. His face wore the heaviness of his years and dealing with Guild politics and prisoner bullshit.

“Thanks for meeting me, Knoxe and Miss Nomical. This way.” He steered us into the laundry where steam from the laundry machines shielded us from the cameras.

Plenty of beatdowns went on in this room.

He popped a pill from a medication container and swallowed it dry. Heart medication. Fuck. He was still unwell. “As you can appreciate, I don’t have much time.”

Vartros reached out and clasped my wrist with one hand, opening my palm with the other, depositing something small into it. A USB storage device.

“What’s this?” I turned the black thing over in my palm.

The warden’s palm came to my shoulder. “You have good instincts, Knoxe. A smart head on your shoulders. You were born to do this.”

Riddles and secrecy. Great. Reminded me of the thief avatar and his bullshit clues to decipher.

The warden scraped his beard. “Like you, I’ve suspected someone screwed with the prison for a while now. I couldn’t wrap my mind around how the vampires kept evading capture. How they magically cleared out before your team arrived. How the hell they obtained Guardian weapons.”

That tied me in knots too. The only answer I could figure out was the fact that someone within the ranks provided it to them. Someone with access. Sentries, perhaps. Possibly the warden.

Thinking that, my gut cramped, and I curled an arm around Astra’s waist. Precaution in case I needed to throw her out of the way of an ambush.

Vartros rubbed his wrinkled brow. “Then they just let you trap and capture them in the subway.” He shook his head. “It didn’t make sense and aroused my suspicions.”

Something scraped and we both fell silent. A watcher. Fifty feet away in the next junction of halls. Stony wings fluttered and clawed feet shifted.

Ben went to investigate, checking around the corner, signaling us to continue.

The watcher had settled back into place on the wall.

The warden leaned in and whispered, “Initial estimates indicated the vampires siphoned the magick from the prison walls, unlocking the captive gantii cages and freeing them.”

Fuck. This was huge. I think I understood where he was going. My fingers dug into Astra’s waist, and she squirmed. I relaxed my hold on her a little. “Someone within the prison coordinated the breakout?”

“It appears so.” Vartros looked even older and haggard. “We checked the locks on their cage, and they were all manually disengaged.” He let out a long, drawn-out sigh. “You were right, Knoxe. Someone fucked with us both.”

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