Page 65 of Dangerous Silence
“Axe!” she yelled. “Axe! Come back here! Don’t you dare—”
I closed the door behind me, acknowledging each of my men. Then I grabbed my shovel.
If she would rather die than leave me behind, then I would show her what that meant.
CHAPTER 21
Demi
Eventually, I fell asleep, but I didn’t feel rested. The haze of unconsciousness was groggy and confusing; every time I woke up, I was stuck in the timeless warp of that workroom. My back and knees ached from being cramped up. I wasn’t sure what was going on. Was he going to leave me locked in the cage until the war was over? How long until we could go back to normal?
What was normal?
I didn’t know anymore. But I knew I believed in Axe. There was a heart stuck inside of him somewhere, and that heart was willing to fight. At least for me.
The door opened. The light flicked on, the buzz of electricity filling the room. Axe kneeled down at the cage. He removed the locks, then stood, looking down his nose at me. His arms and pants were covered in dirt. I crawled out, standing, too nervous to stretch. Then he pointed at the door.
“What now?” I asked. He stared at me, his eyes full of darkness. “Do I need my bags?”
He didn’t give me an answer. Chills went down my spine. I looked at my bags on the floor and went to get them.
“You won’t be needing those,” he said in a low, controlled voice. I tilted my head, but he pointed to the door again, waiting for me.
Outside, it was darker than I expected. The first thin sliver of morning light had poked over the horizon, the trees blocking some of it, casting the world in a soft blue. I turned toward the Adler House, but Axe motioned to the woods. I raised a brow, but Axe’s expression never changed. I trusted him to know what we were doing.
The leaves on the ground swallowed my shoes, and it smelled like earth. Rich, gritty dirt, and damp leaves. The deeper we went, the eerier it felt. No matter which direction I looked, the woods never seemed to end. A lone bird sang a song as we passed. The air was heavy with moisture, but the temperature from the ground kept us cool.
We stepped over a tree trunk lying on its side. In the middle of the trees and vines, there was a clearing with a hole in the middle. I went around it, to avoid falling in.
“Stop,” Axe said.
I turned around slowly. He had his arms crossed, and behind him, there was a shovel leaning against one of the trees, a set of pig bones piled to the side of it. I tried not to let the situation get to me. It was just a hole. In the middle of the woods. There was no reason to think anything bad.
Yet.
“Take off your clothes,” Axe said.
A flush of heat prickled over my skin, but I pinched my teeth together. I couldn’t let this get to me.
“Why?” I asked, but Axe didn’t say a word. I stayed still, trying to wait it out. Then he clenched his fist.
“We can do this the hard way,” he said. I shook my head.
Once I had my clothes tucked under my hands, he gestured at the fallen tree trunk, and I put the clothes down on top. He motioned at my shoes, so I took them off too.
Then Axe pointed to the hole.
I looked around—at the trees, at the deep blue sky above us, in the direction of the Adler House—but I couldn’t see his parents’ home. A tried desperately to find it, as if it would help save me somehow. But there was nothing that would give me any comfort. I held my arms around myself, a breeze rustling the leaves in a soft murmur. Axe’s eyes were as hard as onyx.
“Get in, Demi,” he said.
I didn’t move.
“Or I will put you in myself.”
I bit my lip. “Are you getting in too?”
He waited for me to obey, not answering my question. I clenched my fists, then undid my fingers, one by one. What kind of game was this? I sucked in a breath, then turned, crouching down, and lowered myself into the hole, then fell a few more feet to the bottom of the pit. The sides of the hole were steep. I couldn’t see the sky between the trees.
