Page 158 of Ashes of Honor

“And you can get me to Ronan?” I asked, narrowing my gaze. Coincidental, how it was all working out.

She nodded, the dry strands of her midnight hair fell over her shoulder as she glanced down, calculating. “There are tunnelsbeneath the building. They run to other stuff nearby, Governor’s Mansion and the Pocahontas Building specifically. Some of it was open to the public at some point. But if I had to guess, they’re underground in one of the hidden rooms in between.”

“Secret rooms, that you know about?” I asked, a slight edge to my words as I sheathed the blade.

“I found them by accident. A lot of the staff kids would play hide and seek here … before Ronan.”

Good enough, I suppose. No time better than the present to have a little faith in someone’s morality. “Show me,” I said, gesturing for her to lead the way.

We crept from the dusty sitting room and I kept her pace through the winding hallways. The stale cool air wrapped around us once we hit the passageways. Shadows drifted unnaturally, darting in and out of view, always at the edge of my vision. The first sign of life since I’d stepped through the second portal. Despite the shadows, the tunnels were engulfed in silence.

The walls were narrow, tight enough for the damp stone press on every side. Somewhere in the distance, water dripped in a slow, tortuous rhythm. It made me miss my hound. I rubbed the small diamonds on the band against the two surrounding fingers, needing proof of it existing on my body in the present, as a grounding force.

“You came down here as a child?” I asked in a hushed tone.

Miranda nodded, her focus still ahead. “It’s … easier when you don’t know what’s actually around you.”

“What’s around us?”

As if the universe was suddenly thrilled to answer the questions I had in life, an ear-shattering scream came from beyond the other side of the wall. It muffled out by the next time I blinked.

The tunnels grew narrower as we went and the magic in my chest swirled in unease—as though it could sense something I could not.

We reached a dead end, and for a moment, I thought she’d gotten us lost. But Miranda pressed her hand against the wall, her fingers searching until they found an almost invisible seam. She pushed, and the wall groaned as it shifted, revealing a narrow passage.

“Through here?” Yeah, fuck that. Inside, I was screaming. It was pitch black, save for a single, half-dead torch flickering down the hallway.

“No one comes this way except for the staff. Some of the doors are another exit from rooms facing the main hallway.”

“Perfect,” I muttered, squaring my shoulders.Okay. I was really doing this. Everything is fine. You are fine. You are still breathing which means you still have to fight. I wiggled my fingers, forcing that false bravado I wore for others front and center in hopes that maybe, just maybe, I could fool myself.

“There’s light streaming from under three doors in the center. What are those?” I asked, nodding toward the glowing lines.

Miranda hesitated, shifting on her feet. “Never made it that far. The storage for cleaning material is in this one … for, um, harder clean ups. Mass clean ups.” She pointed to the door right next to us.

“Here?” I stopped and turned to her.

“Yeah.”

“Okay. Miranda?”

“Mhm?”

“If I tell you this is where your portion of the mission ends, you wouldn’t listen, would you?”

Her expression shifted from defiance to resolve in her eyes, the same fire I’d seen in Elie’s and Abel’s. She was brave, too brave for her own good.

And I couldn’t let her die for me.

“Um …”

“Didn’t think so. You don’t seem like the type.”

“I can help,” she insisted, taking a small step closer.

“I know,” I whispered, regret curling around the words. “I don’t doubt that you could. I’m sorry. When you wake up, press the button in the middle, it will keep you safe. Just … trust me, which will be hard considering.”

Miranda’s sparse brows knitted together, confusion flashing across her face. I let my magic unfurl, pulling the oxygen from her lungs. Her eyes went wide, panic flickering there for the briefest moment before her body went slack and her lungs emptied.

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