“What are they doing?” I shouted. “Alex? Marianne?”
I kicked the wooden slats, but they didn’t budge. I switched tactics and heaved my shoulder against them, backing up several steps each time and slamming into them with all the force I could gather. The locks clicked again and Marianne’s crying soon faded away. I shouted angrily and crashed into the door again.
“Caroline! Caroline, stop!” Alex yelled.
Perhaps he was afraid I’d hurt myself, but I didn’t care. I had to get out. I had to get Marianne away from that bitch. Away from Wolf. Out of here. To safety. It was my job.
“Care, stop! What is she going to do?”
“There’s a woman. Wolf called her Mistress. She’s in charge of all the werewolves.” I kicked at the door fiercely one last time. “She wants to start a war between wolves and humans, and she wants all the wolves to become werewolves. She thinks it’s great being an all powerful werewolf or something.”
“So why does she want Marianne?”
My gaze darted around my cell. There had to be something in here I could use. “She said something about Marianne being the one to break some curse that wolves are under. She wants to put me and Marianne into some kind of magic coma so we can’t interfere, and no one like us will ever be born again.”
I spotted my pack, lying sad and neglected under the stone bed. I guessed they’d thrown it in after finding nothing of use. Suddenly an idea struck me.
I snatched up the pack and tore open the back to get to the aluminum stay bar. I pulled it out, a piece of shining metal curved to fit against my back and better help me carry the pack. It would bend, and if I turned it the right way, I might get my idea to work. I had no idea if it would, but I sure as hell would try. If there was one thing every camper and hiker trusted out in the woods, it was their equipment. I used the stone ledge to bend the strip of aluminum one way, then another to form a step-like shape. Then I slipped over to the edge of the door and reached through the slats with the stay, feeling around for the locks. If I could hook it just right…
Left, left, right, up. The bar locks clanked together as I manipulated the stay, trying to slow the beating of my heart. Focus, Caroline, focus. Left, left, right, up.
“Caroline, what are you doing?”
I ignored Alex for the moment and kept working. Each angle, each turn was difficult to handle. I couldn’t see what I was doing. I hoped the noise wouldn’t alert anyone. I panted, pressing into the door, forcing the stay around.
“Come on,” I breathed. “Come on…”
The latch fell out of place and the door swung open. I waited a few minutes to see if anyone came, but the area remained silent. Then another thought hit me. I tore off Wolf’s coat long enough to pull off my t-shirt. I shouldered my pack again and rushed over to Alex’s cell.
I lifted, turned, and pushed back the bar locks and opened Alex’s door. He gaped at me.
“Holy hell Care, how did you get out?”
“Never mind, we have to save Marianne and get the hell out of here.”
“There are werewolves all over this place. How are we supposed to get out?”
I held up my shirt. “I’ll throw this down a hall to confuse their senses. I might smell more like Wolf in this coat.” I shoved the stay at him. “Use this as a weapon.”
“What about you?”
“I have an idea. Follow me.”
I ran down the spiral walkway to the area below, keeping my eyes peeled for any guards. I looked around. A huge cauldron of something cooked over the fire pit. The bubbling liquid smelled surprisingly good. I was making everything up as I went, but we didn’t have much choice. A wooden spoon as long as me lay on a table. I shoved the end of it into the coals until it blazed away. I gazed around for a moment at the tapestries hanging from the walls. Some were at least thirty feet long, attached to thick wood beams that stretched across the ceiling. That’ll do.
I ran over to a tapestry and held the spoon turned torch under it.
“Care, what are you doing?”
“They’re all at whatever ceremony that werewoman is performing on Marianne. We need some kind of