Page 54 of Raze
“You’re safe. I’m getting you out of here.” I slide the lock picks into his cuff and start working it. It clicks open in under a minute. The girl’s still crying when I look at her cuffs next.
“Let him take the cuffs off, Annie,” the boy tells her reassuringly.
“He’s scary!”
I tug my gaiter down and reach into my hoodie pocket for the treat I’d brought just in case. Pulling the chocolate bar free, I hold it out between us and smile. “For one of these?”
“I’m not supposed to take candy from strangers.”
Mm. I can’t argue with that.
I peel the wrapper back and snap off a corner to toss in my mouth, then re-offer the bar to her.
My lips curve into a smile when she hesitantly reaches for it. She takes a small bite and the boy gently pulls her arms out. “I’m freezing and I wanna get out of here. Let him take them off.”
The cuffs are released in seconds and the girl immediately shovels the chocolate bar in her mouth. I pull my gaiter back over my nose and hold out my arms. “Climb on.”
Annie goes first, grabbing my neck and clinging like a sloth to one side, before the boy does the same on the other.
Thorne’s head snaps up when we leave the freezer, but I’m already using my gift to propel us into and then out of the room. I kick both storefront doors open and get us outside. The girl squeals once we’re airborne, her arms tightening around my neck.
I need to drop them off. Then there’s one more stop I need to make before I return to Thorne.
Chapter fourteen
Aiden
A text message fromCibrina stares at me from my phone screen. Internally, I’m pulling at my hair and then punching something in my frustration. On the outside, I’m frowning at it.
It’s been almost two months since the attack on the Guild and all its members moved to the bunker. Two months of members being forced to share bunk rooms instead of the privacy of their own rooms. Of having a limited menu of meal options and more restrictive curfews to ensure all members were safe every day. Two months with a tighter screening and approval process on jobs for members to pick from. And then requiring all jobs to be worked as a team of three or more, thereby reducing their income further.
Even with all those precautions in place, there are still weekly reports of members going missing.
Now that Gifted Enterprise knows we’re here, and that there is an entire group of gifted people to choose from, they’re picking us off one by one.
I don’t want to lock down the bunker to keep anyone from leaving.I amnottheir prison guard. The Guild is here to support and keep them safe as much as possible, but it will never try to control them.
I can only warn them of what’s happening and hope that they make the best call for themselves.
But that’s not what’s eating at me now.
Cibrina:Two more children arrived through the tunnels this morning.
Cibrina’s text is the third one in two days of this new problem that has arisen. Gifted children are suddenly showing up at the bunker on their own. We don’t know where they are coming from or how they are finding their way to us. Are they spies? Seeking entrance to where the Guild is and looking for ways to lure members out or bring others in?
The very idea of them using children as spies is abhorrent to me, but not at all unexpected, if that is the case.
Of course, we don’t turn them away. But they’re being isolated on one side of the infirmary on the upper levels so that they don’t have any real information to pass back, just in case.
Again, Cibrina’s name appears on the screen. I swipe to answer it and bring it to my ear. “What else?” I ask automatically because I know she wouldn’t be calling unless she’d learned something more that she didn’t want to share over a text.
Her voice is calm and confident, even with this shitshow on our hands, and it only reaffirms that she’s the best choice I could havemade to handle operations. She’s a fucking unicorn, and I’m grateful the Guild has her.
“One of the children from last night woke up and was willing to talk.”
Finally. “And?”
There’s a second of silence, and my focus narrows to a needlepoint. Cibrina doesn’t hesitate to tell me anything. So, whatever this is, is important. “Tell me,” I prompt again, trying to keep the impatience from my tone.
