Page 36 of Knave

His lips tilted up, giving her a soft smile. “We’ll work on your control, yeah? But we should get the fuck out of here in case the Jabberwocky returns.”

Mouse looked up at the broken floor above them and shivered. “Any idea how to do that?”

Ferris blew out a breath. He’d been so preoccupied with getting to Mouse that he hadn’t bothered to search for an exit. Without Mouse, he hadn’t planned on leaving, so breaking down the wall had been his only priority. It seemed they’d fallen into a cavern of sorts, though. Water dripped onto the newly-fallen debris from stalactites and the walls funneled to one passageway. The ceiling was too high to jump out, the walls smooth and slick, and there was nothing to climb.

“It looks like we only have one option,” he said.

“Appears so,” she agreed, squinting through the darkness. “Though it seems like a trap, if I say so myself.”

Ferris brushed the hair from his face and shrugged. “Seems to me like we already fell into the trap. If the Red Queen had planned to keep the Jabberwocky down here, she would need access to the beast, right?”

“Perhaps.” Mouse picked her way around large fallen boulders toward the passage. “But perhaps not, if she wanted it to wither and die down here instead of train it.”

Ferris followed behind Mouse, holding her steady as they crossed over the rocky ground. This all seemed fucking ridiculous if the dead queen only wanted to trap the beast. There was a nest and bones in the original lair which meant the royal cared somewhat. Either way, they needed to at least find where this path led.

They made their way into the dark tunnel and Ferris hoped it would take them to the others. In the Ruby Heart Palace, all the underground tunnels intersected at some point. There was no reason to think they wouldn’t do the same here or at least offer an emergency escape. Though there was no reason to think theywouldeither.

Keeping quiet, they walked straight ahead. Ferris cocked his head as they traveled down the tunnel, listening harder in case the Jabberwocky made a bloody unwanted return. There was no way in hell its massive body would fit down this pathway, but the beast had already proven itself capable of breaking down walls. Still, he wanted to be clear of this damn place.

“When we find a way out, we need to return to the library,” Mouse said after they’d been walking for maybe fifteen minutes. There were no twists or turns to the tunnel. All the debris had given way to smooth stone floors with small puddles of water collected from the dripping ceiling.

“I don’t know if we’ll find anything there, luv,” he admitted. If the Red Queen had gone through all the trouble of trying to capture the Jabberwocky a second time, then maybe she’d wanted to tame it since she didn’t know how to kill it.

Mouse shrugged. “We should still check. Besides, our backpacks are there and we need to drink blood.”

“All right.” There was nothing to lose by checking, but if he heard so much as a single growl or the beat of wings, they were heading straight for the portal at the edge of Ivory. He would tell Ever they didn’t uncover a damn thing, admit their failure. The queen wouldn’t give them a hard time as long as they both returned. She had originally planned on sending more vampires anyway. But if they didn’t find answers on the Jabberwocky, an entire army might not be enough.

Pausing, Mouse sniffed the air. “Do you smell that?”

“What?” Ferris inhaled and was greeted with warmer, fresher air. His lips curled into a smile. “We’re close to an exit.”

Mouse sprinted ahead and he easily caught up to her. He scanned the slick walls for any hint of a door, but it was Mouse who saw it first. She skidded to a halt in front of him so fast that he nearly ran into her. Grabbing her waist to steady himself, he glanced over the top of her head.

The tunnel ended with a large grated door. On the other side, another few feet of tunnel stretched with hazy red sky beyond. Ferris slid past Mouse and grabbed onto the metal bars. He shook them and the sound echoed down the path behind them. There were no hinges to know which way it should swing open and the space between the bars was too small to fit between.

“I think it lifts up,” Mouse said, pointing at the ceiling.

The rock had been carved out, the metal disappearing inside. Ferris adjusted his grip and pulled upward. The door creaked, tiny pebbles falling. But it was too damn heavy to gain enough space.

“I might need your help,” he told Mouse. After days of breaking through a stone wall, then having Mouse feed from him, he wasn’t exactly in top form at the moment.

She stepped beside him and latched on. Together, they picked it up inch by inch until there was just enough space for them to squeeze beneath. His muscles quaked under the weight of the gate, coupled with the hunger brewing inside himself, aching.

“Go!” Ferris urged. He couldn’t hold the door forever and he wasn’t sure she would be able to keep it up alone. But as long as she escaped, she could bring back reinforcements to get him out. If she knew that he was willing to stay behind, she’d never fucking leave—and she needed to be free.

Mouse let go, elongating her body as she rolled beneath the door, then grabbed onto the bars from the other side. “Come on,” she said with a relieved smile.

“Can you hold it alone?”

Mouse’s smile faded. “It’s only for a moment.”

If she couldn’t hold it, he’d easily be crushed. Then he would be trapped there while she got help, a sitting duck for the Jabberwocky to devour. “Maybe you should go back to Ivory.”

Mouse narrowed her eyes. “You didn’t leave me and I’m not leaving you. Trust me to hold it long enough. I can do it.”

The shaking in Ferris’s arms increased and for the first time in a long time, he doubted himself. He never once doubted himself while he was with her in the Ruby Heart Palace, not when they were in the safe house after Mouse’s escape, and not even when he was removing the boulders to get to her. But she looked so sure of herself.Fuck.He needed to feed and he couldn’t hold this piece of shit thing forever. “On the count of three,” he said. “One…”

Mouse widened her stance. “Two.”

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