Page 4 of Beg the Night

All right, all right.I took one last gulp of fresh air, then forced myself to take the first step into the underground. A string of dim, orange light lit the way as sunlight disappeared behind me.Deep breaths, Athena. This is totally normal. The men are following you, and surely they wouldn’t come down here if you were going to be buried alive at any moment.

The pep talk did little to settle my nerves.

At the bottom of the steel staircase, I scanned my surroundings, realizing only then that it was an entire underground compound. The light expanded ahead, exposing a massive hallway with dozens of steel doors on either side. Damn, this must have taken up miles of space beneath the forest floor.

“This way,” one of my captors ordered. The guys flanking me gripped my arms again and roughly guided me down the dark, oddly sterile hallway. They didn’t speak, and with each step we took, the air grew more and more still. My dirty boots clicked against the floor, matching the deep thud of my heart.

From what I knew, the Ministry had slowly been taking over the continent of Ashora for years. They were a virus, seeping into city after city, wreaking havoc as they went.

But all my life, they’d been nothing more than a mystical force in my mind. The subject of many, many cautionary tales. My parents had done an exceptional job keeping us separated from the world. They told us enough to keep us safe, to keep us fearful of the Ministry.

Rather than fight in the war with the other earthlies, we had stayed hidden. Quiet.

I much preferred living in that delusion.

This was them in the flesh. Pure evil, brute force.

And I hated them with every ounce of my being.

Outside the last door, we stopped. One of my captors knocked once with a solid fist. I would have flinched if I wasn’t too damn stunned to react.

The door ahead of us opened. More men filled the small space,go figure, but there was someone else inside, too.

A woman.

She sat on the far side of a long table, leaned back in her chair with her arms crossed over her chest. Her flaming red hair was pulled into a tight bun that didn’t leave a single piece out of place. Her makeup was perfect, her body lithe and strong. Her black gear matched that of the men, though she wore no weapons or tactical vest. Her smile, though. Her smile was just as dangerous.

And she was zeroed in on me. “Welcome,” she said.Was she talking to me?“Come in.”

The men shoved me forward, but didn’t follow. The others moved to the perimeter of the small room as if they wanted to stay as far from me as they could.

“Leave us,” the scary woman said without diverting her eyes.

The men immediately rushed out of the room, and when it was just the two of us, I suddenly felt as if I were in more danger than I’d been in the van with those freaks. Especially when that heavy metal door clanged shut.

Yep. I was certainly better off dead.

The woman shifted in her seat, head cocked to one side, and gave me a thorough once-over. I fought the urge to cover my tattered white shirt and loose trousers. Did I look my best? No. But it’s not like I expected to be meeting strangers within minutes of burying my dead sister.

If I had, I definitely wouldn’t smell this bad.Could she smell me? That was me, right?

“Have a seat, please.” Her voice was smooth and alluring, almost calming.

I obeyed, moving to the chair across from her and easing into it.

She didn’t speak at first. Just sat there, staring at me. I could only imagine what I looked like, with messy hair and dirt caked into my fingernails. But I pulled my shoulders back and met her stare.

The woman’s eyes were bright, but her smile faded. “What’s your name?”

“Athena.” I cleared my throat.

She hummed and dipped her chin. “Hello, Athena. My name is Sandra, but people around here call me Director.”

My heart stopped.Thiswas the leader of the Ministry? The commander of all these evil, brainless, manly robots?Thiswas the person leading the wars and massacring thousands of innocent people?

Clearly sensing my confusion, she clasped her hands on the table in front of her and said, “I’m sure you have questions, and you likely have concerns, but I can assure you, Athena, that you are in good hands here.”

I shifted. “What do you want with me?”

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