Page 173 of Whispers of Wisteria
Maria and Ada were still talking, but I couldn’t hear them. I pressed my cheek against the stone.
Why was I feeling sick now?
Get it together.
A familiar lullaby hummed in the back of my head. A song for whenever I felt overwhelmed or needed to focus.
Something moved against the hard surface, and I opened my eyes. But it was a perfectly normal, dreary underground dungeon wall—nothing special.
The thrumming pressed against my fingertips, a rhythm that wasn’t mine but still pulled me forward. I was moving before I could stop myself.
“Bianca?” Maria touched my shoulder. “What’s wrong?”
I ducked around her and raced down the hallway. They shifted and followed, and I ignored them as we moved past Gloria.
The stone turned into concrete, and the smell changed into metal and fuel. My stomach churned as we stepped into the light.
We weren’t underground anymore.
The tunnel opened to a giant chamber. Three walls arched into a domed ceiling. At the other end, the ceiling and wall opened into the air.
The sky was beginning to lighten, but it was still too dark outside to tell where we were. Somewhere in the mountains, maybe?
There was a cargo plane on the unwalled side of the stadium-sized space, and neat rows of crates and bags—and people in uniforms and suits—were between us and the exit.
“Hey!” A brown-uniformed man pointed at us. “Who are you?”
The rest of the room froze and, suddenly, everyone knew we were there.
“Get them!” someone shouted, breaking the moment, and the wall five feet from my head exploded. I raised my arms to cover my face. Everything crashed inside me, and I couldn’t tell if the world was shaking or if I was.
The three shifters lunged past me and into the attacking crowd. A portion broke off after Gloria, while Ada and Maria confronted the rest.
Screaming and gore ripped through the air. I fell to my knees like the coward that I was. I could hardly see, couldn’t breathe, as the air vibrated with violence.
I squeezed my eyes shut. I couldn’t pass out now. I had to move, but my body wouldn’t listen. Tiny stones dug into my shins, and the earth quaked under my legs.
The rhythm started again, a line, pulling at me from the center of my chest.
‘Go, move, get to him.’
The ground was blurring under my knees. I’d come here for Titus.
I couldn’t stop. He needed me.
I looked past the flung body parts and spraying blood, and the pieces of shifter and human already scattered across the room, to the plane.
They didn’t care about the fight. They didn’t wait. The ramp was already closing.
Titus was in there.
My head spun as I stood and stumbled. I had to go. It didn’t matter if I was afraid.
The wind rushed past me as I ran without thinking, but it was far away, and the doors were seconds from closing. There was no way I’d make it in time.
If they took him, we might not ever see him again.
My focus shifted to a point inside the doorway as I followed the plane as it began to roll forward. My hair pulled back, and pressure pushed against me. Even the air seemed to tense.
