Page 94 of Outcast Fae
Horace had rolled from under the dead werewolf, which, in his death, was shifting back into his human form. Across from him, the two men with guns were lying in pools of their own blood.
It was a good thing Horace was so good with a gun or we’d have been easy targets.
Horace glanced up at me as I hovered in the air. He stared at my whirring wings, his mouth half-open.
“Let’s go!” I shouted.
He tore his eyes from me and jumped to his feet just as the vampire broke the werewolf’s neck with a violent twist of his pale hands.
All the children had disappeared down the stairs, and only Arryn was hanging back, waiting at the top of the stairwell. I grabbed her hand and pulled her down the stairs with me. Past the door at the bottom, the others were waiting. They breathed a sigh of relief when we appeared.
“Tally!” Hani and Wren exclaimed, their little faces lighting up.
Panting and smeared with blood, Horace pulled the door closed. We were inside another dim corridor. Was there no end to this labyrinth?
From a red box on the wall, the guard, Dalton, threw open a glass door with the words “Fire Hose” printed on it. Hand over hand, he unreeled what looked like a flat rope. Dexterously, Horace caught the slack and looped it around the stairwell door’s long handle.
“This might slow them down a bit,” he said, then turned and ran down the corridor.
As everyone followed him, I paused for a moment. This area looked familiar. My gaze darted from door to door. I thought this is where they had been keeping Sinasre.
“Tally.” Arryn had stopped and was waiting for me.
As much as I wanted to save my cousin, I couldn’t save him and the children. My best chance was to get free and tell the dean of the Supernatural Academy or the Magical High Council about the horrors of this place in the hopes of getting Sinasre released. Right now, as hard as it was, the children were my priority.
I gave Arryn a reassuring smile. “We’ve got this. We’re getting out of here.”
She smiled back, and I could tell that she believed my words. I cursed inwardly and prayed to the gods I would not break her trust.
We turned another corner and reached a wide door at the end of the hall.
“We’re here.” Horace reached down for a handle near the floor and pulled. The door scrolled upward with a loud clacking sound as it disappeared from view. The space behind the door was larger. It had high ceilings and was full of large wooden crates like some sort of storage facility. Large metal shelves ran in even intervals on both sides.
Standing between two of them was Meadow Song.
Chapter Thirty-Three
I staredat Meadow Song in disbelief. We’d come all this way and now she was here to stop us.My heart constricted in my chest. Yet, I wasn’t afraid. I was angry. I was done letting her kill people and ruin lives. I stepped protectively in front of the children, the baton in my hand.
“You.” I lunged for her.
Horace grabbed my arm, holding me back. “She’s going to help us escape.”
My eyes darted from him to her. Meadow Song made no move to stop us. Instead, she offered a docile expression and an open hand like a peace offering.
I’d seen what she was capable of and didn’t believe it for one second. “What?! No, we can’t trust her.”
“We don’t have time to argue.” Horace gestured toward the children. “Meadow Song can only take five people at a time. The youngest go first.” He chose Wren and Miriyana out of our group along with three witches.
I held Wren and Miriyana back. There was no way I was going to hand them over to the likes of her. “They’re not going with her.”
“I promise you I’m trying to help,” she said, noticing my reluctance. “I’ve… I’ve made many mistakes, but I’m ready to fix them. I never meant for all this to happen. I really thought, at first, the Habermanns were trying to help people. I see how wrong that was now.”
After what she had done to Daniella she expected me to believe her? She had another thing coming. I raised my baton.
“Dean McIntosh is helping me. She was my dean, too, you see. She created a blind spot inside this warehouse to make it possible to teleport out of the dome. I will take the children away from the island. I just created a distraction that will keep many of the guards and the Habermanns busy, but they’ll figure things out soon enough. C’mon, follow me.”
Meadow Song turned and stepped behind a tall wooden crate, the young witches following her.
