Page 31 of Shackled to the World
Xander gave her a speculative look, then nodded. “Be prepared to move in thirty minutes.”
Without another word, he turned and walked away.
The witches must have heard they were planning to move. They were on their feet, their phones out as they left. Annora doubted they had any intention of letting her out of their sight for one second, so they were calling in reinforcements. Even as the last one stepped off the porch, the fire in the pit stuttered, then died down to ash.
It took an effort on her part to shrug off knowing that her time was no longer her own.
She wasn’t used to the attention and hated it. She didn’t know how celebrities stood it, much less those who sought it out. She shivered at having all those eyes following her every move.
It gave her the heebie-jeebies.
It didn’t take long for the guys to meet her at the front of the house, silently taking formation around her and escorting her to the arena. Edgar joined the others, falling in like he’d been a part of the group his entire life.
She easily spotted several groups of witches doing a piss-poor job of pretending they weren’t watching her, but to her surprise, there were also a number of shifters who, while they watched her, seemed to be watching the witches with even more interest.
It was almost like they were protecting her from the witches. Then she realized they were the other teams who patrolled the campus. Either her guys called in reinforcements or Greenwood did.
She relaxed slightly at knowing someone out there would have the guys’ backs if anything went wrong.
Not surprisingly, no matter how hard she searched, she couldn’t spot the phantom girl, Sadie.
Annora wasn’t sure if that worried her more or not.
When they reached the arena, instead of going topside, they went down through a series of passageways.
Three levels down, the entire floor was pitch black. One lone, naked bulb illuminated the tiny locker room. Xander and Edgar stayed near her, while the others disappeared off into the darkness. With her advanced hearing, she could tell they didn’t go far, but she couldn’t see anyone in the shadows, her eyes slow to adjust to the dimness.
“This is the training pit.” Xander turned toward her, slipping a vest over his head, systematically dressing in the full training gear that waited for them in lockers. The rest of the guys followed suit, their movements practiced.
They did this often.
“Yeah, I can tell where you got the name.” She smirked at him, shoving her hair back into a messy ponytail, then accepted the vest Mason slipped over her head. It was thin and versatile, allowing her arms and torso easy movement. “Very original.”
But accurate. Even with her extra abilities, she couldn’t see more than a few feet in any direction. It was almost like walking into a sensory deprivation chamber.
He cracked a small smile at her snark, but it wasn’t enough to throw him off his speech. “There are no lights down at this level. You’ll find more than thirty rooms of various shapes and sizes. Some of them are empty of furniture and others are packed full. We use this place to practice before we breach unknown locations. Witches come down here often, so the place is fully warded.”
Thank the gods!
It meant she was free to use her full powers.
Without them, she was very much aware they wouldn’t stand a chance.
Xander turned and walked away, then picked up a dark, lethal-looking paintball gun hanging by pegs on the wall. “Here’s the scenario: your men are imprisoned down here. You must rescue them and escape. You’ll have to work and move as a team if you want to survive. More than four hits and you’re dead.”
Without saying anything else, he turned on his heel and strode away, the rest of the guys disappearing in the darkness.
She sputtered for a few seconds, then grinned. She turned toward Edgar, feeling hopeful about their chances of getting Logan back. “I guess we’re the rescue team. Ready?”
Edgar lifted an imperious brow at her, a small smirk playing on his lips. “How about we show them what it’ll be like to go up against phantoms?”
Annora nodded, enjoying the idea that they would be training the guys just as much as they were being trained. The team took the impending attack from the phantoms in stride, not even fazed at the idea of fighting an opponent they couldn’t see or track, and she was pretty sure they were underestimating their enemy.
They’d gone only a few feet when they came upon three different paths. Edgar let her take the lead, and she allowed instinct to guide her to the right—only to find a second divide in another twenty feet. She took three more paths, passing no doorways, when another split opened up in front of them. She halted, hands on her hips and cursed. “It’s a fucking maze.”
They’d been underground no more than ten minutes and she was already hopelessly lost, her senses unbalanced by the lack of sounds and sight.
“I could always tell when you were in the abandoned world. It was like the air warmed in welcome. I could follow that connection like a tug right here.” He tapped his chest, his expression intense as he gazed down at her. “You can do the same with your men, even if we’re in the earthly realm.”
