Page 54 of The Stone Survival
Two minutes later, Lionel was standing in the lounge. “Is everything ready?” he asked Levi.
“Yes. They had a reservation for seven,” Levi said.
My gaze flicked to the clock. It was now seven forty-five.
“Good.” He pulled an orb from under his coat. “Then we can get going. I’ll need to be back in a couple of hours at the most. If someone is watching the tower, they’ll wonder why I’m taking so long. A couple of hours is fine, considering I could be visitingwith Cameron as well as checking in on Selas. So who’s coming with us?” he asked me. “I can’t take more than six.”
I’d thought about this. “Serath, Levi, Curi. Shar, Orix, and me. Derek will find us if we need him.”
“Good. Everyone who doesn’t want to be transported should leave the room.”
“Good luck,” the twins said.
Touron scooped up Selas. “See you soon.”
Palia summoned the elevator for the four of them, and a moment later, they were gone.
“All right,” Lionel said to us. “Are you ready?”
We gathered round, and Serath took my hand. Taz appeared out of nowhere and climbed up Orix’s leg to settle on his shoulder.
“You got room for one more?” Orix asked Lionel.
“I think the orb can manage one feline,” Lionel said with a smile.
“Then we’re ready,” Serath said.
Lionel smashed the orb, and the world disintegrated.
CHAPTER 28
The elite safe house was a three-story building sparsely furnished except for the lounge and kitchen, where I assumed all the interactions happened. The cupboards were stocked with tinned and non-perishable food. Orix showed me the basement where they’d stored enough equipment to take them through an apocalypse, and there was also a tunnel exit with a triple secure lock on it.
Just in case.
I’d asked why they kept this place, and he’d shrugged and said that the world was a perilous, uncertain place at the best of times, and apparently, this wasn’t the only safe house the elites had acquired. There were several across the rims—places for guardians to send not just goyles but humans if the shit hit the fan.
We stayed at the back of the house in the kitchen, door closed so the light didn’t escape into the hallway. We didn’t want Ulrickson being alerted that there might be other people inside when Adaline brought him over. But the atmosphere was tense as we waited.
Orix made tea while Taz found a spot by the back door and curled up to sleep.
“The key is under the mat?” Lionel asked Orix for the third time.
“Yes,” Orix said with a sigh. “Levi made sure to tell his mother where it was,” he added before Lionel could ask him that again too.
“How are we going to stop him from bolting when he realizes what’s going on?” Shar asked.
“By force,” Serath said simply.
“I assume that’s the plan too,” Orix said.
“I brought these.” Lionel drew a pair of handcuffs from his coat pocket. They were slender cuffs of a brassy color. “We hold him and slap these on so he can’t shift or use any form of magic.”
“You think he might have something on him?” Curi asked.
“It’s a possibility. This is Ulrickson we’re talking about.”
“Let me take the lead on this,” Levi said. “He’ll listen to me. There won’t be any need for force.”
