“Good job.” Carefully, he withdrew the needles and placed pressure on where I bled with some clean towels. “I wish you’d let me take this from you,” he suggested, gesturing to the wounds in my arms.
“You need to be in perfect condition for tonight. And I’m fine. It’s nothing new.”
Getting to his feet, Fletcher held up the bag of blood. “I’ll bring this to everyone for one last drink.”
“This is going to work. You don’t need to worry.”
He grinned, rubbed my thigh, and said, “Rest. It’s almost time.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE
“Ready?” Fletcher asked everyone. All five of us had a hand on him as he broke us all apart and let the wind steer us to the heart of the facility.
When we came together, it was dim. The women were huddled in corners of their cages, most of them passed out, drained, dysfunctional. The room smelled of dirty shoes and sweat as I took a step to the cage that was all too familiar. Quinn was sleeping in the same corner she always slept in, red light shining down on her tiny body.
“I’ll take them to the men’s wing,” Fletcher whispered. “You got Ripley?” he asked Graff with an agitated sternness in his voice I couldn’t ignore.
“I got her.”
“Good. Start memorizing,” Fletcher ordered in a harsh whisper, and they were gone in a flash.
I looked at Graff who was stepping in circles, eyeing every part of the cages, the girls, the lights. The depression, the devastation. The stale, sweaty scent. The bleakness of the red lights mixing with the bright whites. “I can feel you, you know. Were-were youhere?” A sad ire eddied into his eyes. “For those two months I felt you dying? Have you been in one of these before?”
I gulped, not wanting to confirm anything.
“Because of Fletcher?”
I stepped toward him. “Get started before I do it for you.”
He nodded and teleported into a cage. Then, he spun in a circle and memorized what the inside looked like.
Fletcher appeared beside me, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Graff and I will take turns so you’re not alone.”
“Hurry,” I ordered.
I watched as they began clearing out the first ten Elizians. My heart swelled in such joy that my Elizians were getting the fuck out of this hell hole. I wanted to take the Cidris down the moment I learned about them, and now it was happening. My magic allowed this moment to happen.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Forty-five.
Footsteps sounded down the hall to the right before I heard a man yell, “Hey!”
I whipped my head to the man in baggy clothing coming at me with his gun drawn.
I threw my body in his direction, head first toward the barrel as my hands came up, gathering my shaky magic and sending whatever I could into his system.
Seeing my hands light up startled him for the moment Fletcher needed to get behind him and snap his neck. His gun fell to the ground and so did his body. The loud thud it made was satisfying, my split magic entertained by the way adrenaline coursed through my body with a giddy shake.
“You good?” Fletcher asked.
“Yes, go!” I whisper-yelled.
Fletcher and Graff got the last five Elizians to safety before Fletcher grabbed the two of us and teleported to the men’s wing.
