Page 91 of Dead Wrong

“This way,” said Kaine, moving away from the entrance and further into the barren space.

“What are the chances we’re about to be murdered by this guy?” Bastien whispered as we begrudgingly followed at a distance.

“Definitely not zero,” I replied, clutching my fist over the stone embedded in my palm, even though it was most certainly drained of magic. Would Bastien be able to fight Kaine off if he turned coat? He’d probably never used his magic to defend himself before. I would have to show him the basics sometime. That was if we survived our trip to Paradise.

Kaine came to a stop near the center of the warehouse, four structural pillars surrounding us but nothing in between. He knelt, brushing aside some scraps of newspaper to reveal a small silver handle embedded into the concrete floor. As he pulled on the handle, the floor creaked and groaned but gave way, a panel of stone coming up in the shape of a hatched door.

“You must be joking,” I said, peering down into the darkness of the opening. The rungs of a ladder disappeared in the pitch a few feet down.

“You didn’t think we’d be hiding out in the open, did you?” Kaine asked, raising an aqua-colored brow.

He had a point. But it didn’t alleviate the twist of anxiety in my gut. If he meant us harm, there would be no better place to commit it than in a hole under an abandoned warehouse. But I had to remind myself that Azrael trusted this man. Enough that he called him a brother. That had to count for something.

Summoning my courage, I crossed over to the hatch, lowering myself down onto the first rung.

“Careful now, Greene. It would be a nasty fall. Even if you are already half dead.” He gave me a wink and I contemplated giving him a finger, but decided I needed all ten if I was going to survive my descent.

Once the light vanished from above, it felt like I was alone in the dark, even though I could hear Bastien and Kaine above me. The descent was slow going, as I had to grope around for each wrung before I could put my whole weight on it, and my shoulder still ached something terrible. When my foot finally collided with solid ground, it was such a shock that I stubbed my toe hard enough to provoke a yelp.

“Found the bottom, did you?” Kaine teased from above.

“What do I do now?” I asked, still clinging to the ladder. I could have been standing on the edge of the void and not know any better. “I can’t see a thing down here.”

“Back up a few steps and make room,” Kaine ordered with a grunt.

I did as he instructed, keeping one hand on the side of the ladder as I took two steps backward. My muscles stretched to keep me attached to the metal tube, but I wasn’t willing to let it go yet.

Once I heard Kaine hit the ground, he muttered something under his breath, and a deep violet light burned into existence in front of his face. The magical flame flickered, throwing wild-looking shadows against his face in a way that set me on edge.

Kaine stepped back from the ladder, eyeing my hand still clinging to the side, and chuckled. “Almost there,” he called up to Bastien, and we watched as he descended the final stretch of the ladder.

We’d climbed down into a tunnel, as far as I could tell from the strange purple light that stretched on further than I could see. The walls were a cool concrete, stained with time and untold layers of grime.

“What now?” I asked as Bastien’s feet hit the ground beside me.

“There’s only one way to go,” Kaine replied, pointing down the tunnel. “Now, let’s get a move on, or we’ll be late for dinner.”

I looked back at Bastien, who rolled his eyes. “Well, we can’t be late for dinner, can we, Bastien?”

The tunnel continued in one direction for what felt like half a mile before making an abrupt turn to the left, followed by a fork. Kaine showed no hesitation taking the path to the left and was just as confident at the next fork. Before I knew it, we’d taken half a dozen turns, and the tunnel still stretched ahead of us, seemingly endless.

“What are these?” I asked as we rounded another curve of concrete. “They’re not sewer channels.”

“They’re left over from the mortal wars,” Kaine answered, still leading the way by flickering violet light. “A network runs under Brierwood above and goes for miles. Not really sure what they used them for, and a couple of branches have collapsed from age, but don’t worry your pretty little heads. You’re safe as long as you stick with me.”

Somehow, his words didn’t make me feel that way.

“How did the Rebellion find this place?”

Kaine didn’t answer, as we’d come across another branch. He stared at the diverging paths, hesitating for a moment.

“Everything okay?” I asked him.

“Yeah, it’s just difficult to see this one. You’ve got to really know what you’re looking for.”

“Whatareyou looking for?”

Kaine walked forward, nearly colliding with the wall of the tunnel, but his head never made contact with the sloped surface as his form movedthroughthe wall of stone and disappeared. The glow of his violet light illuminated the space around us still, shining through the cracks in the concrete.

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