Blood Debt (Kingdom of Blood #1) - Callie Rose Page 0,31

tribute wing seems to be the only one posted there. There are two by the main staircase that Connor had so much trouble finding, but they’re both bored and chatting. It’s a breeze to sneak around behind them and duck through the passage under the stairs. I consider a surprise attack but manage to talk myself out of it. Missing guards are sure to raise alarms, and I can’t let that happen.

I’m not going to assume anything, but I suspect if there’s only one vampire guarding the girls, it’s likely that there’s only one guarding the guys. Once I’m out of earshot of the stairs, the palace around me grows deathly quiet. I take a few turns that lead to places I definitely don’t want to be and have to double-back, but eventually I come to an area which is a mirror image of the female tributes’ quarters. There’s a guard leaning against one wall, scrolling through his phone. It would look odd to me if I hadn’t just spent so much time with the surprisingly contemporary Connor. The weirdest part is that he manages to get reception down here, honestly.

I wait, still and silent, in a dark alcove. Eventually the guard sighs, stretches, and mumbles something under his breath. I have no idea what the words are, but a second later, he turns and heads down the hallway. Maybe he’s supposed to make the rounds every once in a while.

Good. Gives me the opening I need.

I creep down the hallway, as silent as a human can possibly be. Identical doors line each wall, and I realize that there’s one obstacle I didn’t consider before I got this far. How the hell am I supposed to know which door is Nathan’s? I stop moving and press my body against one wall, listening as hard as I can. Nothing. I take a few steps down, then press against the other wall. Still nothing.

Working my way slowly down the hall, I keep my ears open for any sound, any hint that will help me find Nathan. I hear the sound of a man crying, and for a second, hope rises inside me. But the voice is too rough to belong to my brother. Behind another door, someone sounds like he’s muttering in his sleep, and in another room, I’m pretty sure a guy is jacking off.

Then I pick up a vague noise coming from a room a little farther down. I creep toward it and listen at the door.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” a voice mutters.

My heart leaps. Nathan.

I tap on the door lightly, in our special rhythm—the one our mom always used to use when she woke us up for school. There’s a lot I’ve forgotten about her over the years, but I remember that, and I hope like hell that he does too.

His voice cuts off cold, and I hear light footsteps on the floor before his door flies open. Nathan reaches out and drags me inside, closing the door behind me and crushing me in a giant, bony hug.

I’m so goddamn pissed at him. So frustrated that he let himself get this far into the shit, furious at him for not reaching out to me before it was too late. But he’s here, he’s whole, and—at least for the moment—he’s safe. So I hug him back with everything I have, holding on to him like his life and mine depend on it.

“Mikka,” he whispers, pulling away to look at my face. His green eyes are clear, but the dark smudges beneath them worry me. “Mikka, why are you here? You shouldn’t have come.”

“Shut up.” It comes out sounding gentle, which pisses me off. I’m supposed to be angry at him, but once again, I find myself playing mother to my older brother. I breathe a cleansing sigh, pushing every irrelevant emotion away. “Tell me what happened. Every last detail.”

His hands drop to his sides, and he starts pacing. “I was an idiot,” he says bluntly.

“Yeah, I kind of got that from the ‘stupid, stupid, stupid.’ Give me specifics.”

He shoots me a crooked smile. “I’ve missed getting yelled at.” When I roll my eyes, he grins and holds his hands up. “Okay, sorry. I chose to come here.”

My mouth drops open. “You what?”

He shrugs in his rolling, irregular way. “I was in the hole with a dealer. I was supposed to run some product for him, but I was living—well, you know where I was living. Somebody ripped me off. Stole ten