Page 90 of Kiss the Dawn
“I’m calling this in. We need backup.” I pat my pocket. “Where’s my phone?”
“You must have dropped it when we fell through,” Holly says. We search the area to no avail. “Must be above us.”
Merry has her phone out and holds it up, shaking her head. “No bars.”
Holly checks hers. “Same, but I downloaded a map of Brimswood before we came out.” She pulls it up on her phone, and we gather around. “We’re here, right under this street. The tunnel leads that way, so toward the park.”
“An area where we tracked every missing person to,” Merry reminds us.
We have no choice but to go that way. Deeper into the tunnels. I draw my sword. “The priority is to find a way out.”
“Agreed,” Holly and Merry say.
Because if thisisthe lair of the new gods, then we’re undoubtedly outnumbered.
The tunnel seemsto track forever. Holly keeps checking the map on her phone.
“Where are we now?” Merry asks.
“Passing beneath the southern side of the park, headed toward the pavilion plaza.”
An iron ladder appears up ahead. Fixed to the wall, it leads up to a metal hatch.
“Is that a manhole?” Merry asks.
It fucking is. I climb up and push, but nothing happens. There is no mechanism to open it either.
Holly sucks in a sharp breath. “The hatch in the van floor! Edwin said there was one, remember?”
My blood goes icy cold as the pieces fit together. “The kidnappers used it to lower bodies into this tunnel.”
“Just park over a manhole and…” Holly takes a deep breath. “Which means that this is a transport route, and those exits can probably only be opened from above.”
Merry pulls out her phone and checks for service and Holly follows suit.
“Still nothing,” Holly says.
“Same,” Merry says. “So we continue.” Her jaw sets in determination. “We check all the manholes and hope we find one that wecanopen from this side. We continue checking for reception too. If we get no joy on either front, there’ll be another way out.”
“Oh, there’ll be a way out, but it’s highly likely it will be manned,” Holly says.
Merry’s hands go to the daggers on her belt. She might be our healer, but she has the same combat skills as all Order operatives even if she isn’t blessed.
Holly takes the crowbar from her rucksack. “I didn’t want to freak you out earlier, but there’s ablocking spell on these tunnels preventing the use of magic, probably to stop any supernaturals they bring down here from escaping.”
Which means our mageri is out of commission. “We can do this. Even if the exit is manned, it’ll probably be two, maybe three people at the most.”
Holly and Merry nod in agreement, and their faces relax. Good. This is what leadership is about, except my stomach is a tumult of chaotic emotions as part of my mind relives the moment where I ordered my team into a burning building.
“It’s all right.” Merry takes my free hand. “We won’t take any risks.”
I swallow my doubts and smile. “Let’s get out of here.”
Every manhole is entrance only.
The tunnel passes out from under Brimswood Park and crawls toward the Church of Blood, and a shiver of foreboding pinches my skin. The walls go from stone to brick to plaster, and the ground smooths out.
A set of steps takes us down a level into flagstones facing a stone arch. It smells of incense and something bitter and strong that I can’t name.
