Page 56 of Thrall
They stumbled through the side door together, into a narrow, harshly lit corridor. Most of the sunlight was safely contained in room number 105: There was one window in the hall, somewhere behind them, but everything else was fluorescents. They’d left the crowd fully behind. The only person with them in the hall was the figure at the opposite end, facing a pair of double doors.
“Natalie!” Lucy said. But Natalie’s attention remained ahead, leaving only her side profile visible. Her face was calm and slack. The one blue eye Lucy could see was flat and dull, like an old penny.
With a smooth, steady hand, she opened the door. And two sets of hands tugged her into the darkness.
Somehow, Lucy outpaced Mila to the end of the hall. It wasn’t something she thought she would have been able to do. But she was the first one to Natalie, the first to throw both arms around her shoulders. The opposing force from the basement pulled hard, like a wave being sucked back from the shore, and for a terrifying moment, Lucy’s weak grip was the only thing keeping Natalie on her feet. Then she felt the weight of Mila reaching them. One arm locked around Lucy’s waist, the other gripped for Natalie.
“Lucy?” Athena’s voice was high-pitched in her ear. “What’s going on?” But even if Lucy had had the breath to answer, she didn’t know. She didn’t know until she found the strength to raise her head.
It was only then, with nowhere to look but forward, that she saw the three sets of eyes gleaming in the dark. The first was familiar to Lucy, even though she’d had just a handful of days to get used to it: Whitney, wrapped around Natalie’s left forearm. Natalie’s right arm was in the grip of a taller girl, with pale green eyes and sleek auburn-red hair. She had a calm, closed-lipped smile on her face, like she was looking out upon a beautiful piece of scenery. It was Addison Greene.
The third girl wasn’t smiling. She wasn’t holding on to Natalie, but she was fully focused on her, as if she didn’t see Mila and Lucy at all.
Sadie Grainger carefully brushed aside Natalie’s hair as she leaned in. “It’s all right, Natalie,” she whispered. “That was just the wind. Let’s keep walking.”
“Lucy!” Athena said. “Answer me!”
Lucy couldn’t. She couldn’t even find enough breath to call Natalie’s name. It was all she could do to hold on, but even then, she knew Mila must have been doing most of the work to hold them both down. But Mila couldn’t hold them downandreach her bow.
Lucy could hear the strain in Mila’s muscles, the tremor of bones as she started to shake. All of the weaknesses, none of the strengths. She could hear Mila’s strength flagging, but she couldn’t do a fucking thing about it.
“It’s all right, Luce,” Natalie said tonelessly. Her body was so relaxed in Lucy’s grip. So completely free of resistance. Without Lucy and Mila’s combined weight, she would have been gone. “They’re going to help you. We just need to go downstairs.”
Addison still had that beatific smile across her face as she regarded the scene. She showed none of the strain Lucy could hear from Mila. She looked serene. Like she was waiting for something wonderful.
Sadie’s expression betrayed nothing. Even as she whispered, nonstop, into Natalie’s ear, her eye was now on Lucy, as if waiting to see how she would react.
And something rose up in Lucy in response. The thrill of absolute familiarity.This is your sister, the red voice told her.Why are you fighting your sister?
Lucy bit down on her tongue. It was the only thing she could think to do, with her hands full. If anyone was her sister here, it was Natalie. She wasn’t letting go.
“Is he there?” Athena sounded ragged. “Is he with you right now?”
Then Lucy heard the tremor of muscles. Someone else was shaking—someone who wasn’t Mila. And looking at the vampires, it wasn’t hard to guess who. Whitney was the only one visibly straining. There were lines of exertion etched into her face. Now that Lucy was focused on her, she could feel that the pull on Whitney’s side was weaker than the pull on Addison’s. It was probably the only reason they hadn’t lost their grip on Natalie already.
I’m supposed to save my appetite, Whitney had said, back at the dorm. She said there was going to be a feast when they had Athena. They didn’t have Athena yet.
The weakness in her grip—was it hunger?
Lucy sized up her plan of action fast. Whitney was on Natalie’s left, which meant that Lucy would need to direct her to the right, outside her immediate grip. It would happen quickly. Lucy remembered exactly how fast Whitney could move when she was closing in on a meal.
“Mila,” Lucy managed. “Hold on as hard as you can.”
She didn’t give Mila time to answer. But she didn’t doubt that she’d been heard. If there was one thing she knew Mila could do, it was react with just a second’s notice.
Lucy shifted her grip to free one of her arms. And then she dug her nails into Natalie’s arm until she smelled blood.
The pressure vanished from Whitney’s side. Whitney had let go, had realized her path to Natalie’s blood wasn’t clear—she tried to dart around, behind her sisters.
Addison’s saintlike smile melted off her face, and she grabbed Whitney by the back of the neck like she was a kitten. “Whitney,” she snapped. “Together, or not at al—”
Whitney and Addison’s combined strength was too much. But Lucy and Mila against one distracted half of Addison’s strength was just enough. One more wrench with all they had, and they tore Natalie out of Addison’s grip. Lucy nearly fell back under Natalie’s deadweight before she realized: Mila was no longer helping her. Mila had ripped the bag off her back, unzipping it in one downward strike.
But however fast Mila was, the vampires were still faster. One look at the curve of the bow, and they scattered like moths into the dark of the basement. Mila started after them.
“No,”Lucy rasped.
Mila barely looked at her. “They’re getting away,” she said.
