Page 95 of Warrior

“Something like that.”

Not really, though. Once I leave Antonio, I descend to the ground floor, then continue down to the giant metal doors of Terror. There was an elevator entrance once upon a time for the clients, although even searching Bow & Arrow didn’t locate it. It makes me think Artemis had it bricked over in her rebuild.

The hinges squeal when I yank the door open, and I hurry to close it behind me. In the complete darkness, panic constricts me.

I’m okay, I tell myself.

I use my phone’s flashlight to navigate down the hall. Everything about this place sucks. It’s creepy and old, the air stale and sour. The farther in I walk, the more guilt presses in on me. It’s almost as old as this place. My guilt is suffocating and hot, pressing down on my shoulders.

At one door, I stop.

It resembles a doctor’s office but beyond disrepair. A reclining examination chair is on its side, broken glass littered across the tile. I step into the room and crouch in front of one of the bottle labels. It’s legible after I swipe the dust and dirt off, and wince at the tiny print.

Ketamine.

I take myself out of my experience and put myself in Tem’s shoes. Being brought here, maybe even dragged through the same doors I just came down.

Drugged.

This place was no stranger to needles. To using whatever methods they could in order to elicit the desired response.Whether that was enthusiasm or complacency or lust… maybe some combination of the three.

I straighten and go to the chair. There are straps on the arms. One big band hanging loose from the middle of the chair, half disintegrated or eaten by rats. There’s another cuff on one of the stirrups that remains attached. The other lies across the room.

Horrible.

My gut turns, and I shine the light around again. Some of the glass comes from the broken medicine cabinets, but the cloudy shards seem to be remnants of fluorescent tube lighting. There would’ve been no hiding here, under glaringly bright lights.

But it wasn’t just Artemis who was here.

Gabriel existed in this space, too.

Terror formed him.

Do any records exist?

I leave the sham of a doctor’s office behind. The amphitheater is just down the hall, but I don’t care to revisit the pools of blood Artemis and Antonio left behind on the stage. I went there the last time. I found the bomb left by… Gabriel?

We assumed it was him. But with Kade in the mix of Cyclopes, and them knowing each other… anything is possible. They tried to blow up the Hell Hounds. They’ve been killing informants. Well, two informants who were loyal to Tem’s brother and his friends.

Jace King.

Wolfe James.

Apollo Madden.

They’re not in Sterling Falls. It was my task—myfavor—that sent them to Emerald Cove. It seems, in hindsight, like a manipulation. But it was in earnest. There’s someone there I met, who I care about, who istrapped.

Standing in Terror, I seem to be filling my well of empathy for caged individuals.

Gabriel, Artemis…

I go to one of the cells and step inside. Imagine the door shut. The thin, horizontal window at the top of the far wall has been boarded over, but perhaps it wasn’t always that way… Besides the window, there’s a single bulb in the middle of the ceiling.

My stomach turns.

Why am I down here?

This is stupid.

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