The Hunt - Megan Shepherd Page 0,47

back of Cora’s head.

“Beware the monsters,” the voiceless whisper called. “Dancing through the halls.”

Cora flinched. Dancing? Through the halls? Either she really was going crazy, or the person sending her those psychic messages was.

Leon cursed and immediately pulled his head back in. “Shit!”

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s the Temple for sure, but not the backstage area. It’s the main hall and there’s Kindred roaming all around.”

Monsters dancing, Cora thought. Through the halls . . .

Was someone sending her a warning?

Tentatively, Cora peeked through the crack. It was the same shimmering Greek palace that she had visited with Cassian, only now she was looking at it from a different angle. Beyond the Kindred’s boots, she could make out the ten-by-ten-foot cells with lightlocks above the bars. If she strained her neck, she could see the last cell, Anya’s, and the girl’s sluggish hand sticking out between the bars—missing two fingers. The hand was waving languidly, as though conducting an imaginary orchestra of dancing monsters.

Cora ducked back in.

Could it have been Anya’s voice in her head?

“She’s there,” Cora said, “but there’s no way we can get to her out in the open. We have to find the backstage area.”

Leon rubbed the back of his head. “I know where the rest of these tunnels go, and it isn’t to the Temple’s backstage. Did you see how there were slots in their cells for passing things like food through? I don’t think there is a backstage in this menagerie.”

Cora’s head throbbed. She felt moisture beneath her nose again and wiped it away. She peeked back through the crack. “So to get to her, I’m going to have to walk right through the menagerie, amid dozens of Kindred, and flash around abilities I’m not even supposed to have to unlock her door?”

“And carry her out,” he said, eyeing her thin arms. “Don’t forget about that.”

“So, basically, it’s impossible.”

Leon closed the door and added a chalk mark that was a circle with a line through it, a symbol that looked like it marked certain doom. Then he patted her on the shoulder. “Good luck with all that, sweetheart.”

20

Cora

THEY CRAWLED BACK TO the Hunt in silence. Cora’s lungs were burning, making her even more irritable. It felt like the tunnel’s walls were getting tighter, but it had to just be claustrophobia and uncertainty tangled up together. At least she wasn’t going crazy—yet. That voiceless whisper had definitely been Anya, warning her. But if that was the case, then why hadn’t Anya explained how they could break her out of the Temple?

Maybe because she doesn’t know how, Cora’s own voice answered back.

“I’ll come back each night,” Leon said. “Same system. Two knocks to say it’s safe, and I’ll open the door. Slip a note down the drecktube if anything changes. See if you can figure out some genius new plan in the meantime.”

“Rolf’s the genius, not me,” Cora muttered, and then stopped abruptly. “Hang on. Rolf might be just what we need. He’s brilliant. And Nok’s a good schemer. Can you take me to them?”

Leon scratched his head. “They’re in a crowded sector. Lots more shipments moving around. Last time I was there, I got caught between two crates that nearly dragged me into a cleaner trap.” But when she tilted her head, looking at him sweetly, he sighed. “You’re going to get us killed, you know that? Come on. It’s this way.”

As they crawled, Cora thought of the last time she’d seen Rolf and Nok in the cage. They’d been in the middle of a fistfight with each other that hadn’t looked like it would end well. “You said they were doing okay, right?”

“Okay? Are any of us okay? They were alive, that’s all I said. They were pretty freaked out the Kindred might take away Nok’s baby. They were holding on to some sad hope they could get home and raise the baby there. Whoa. Hang on. Death trap at twelve o’clock.”

He pointed ahead to a place on the floor, but Cora saw nothing until he shone his headlight on it. A glistening, nearly transparent line. He carefully climbed over it, and then motioned for her to do the same.

“Actually,” she said, “Nok and Rolf might not be so off base about home. Lucky found information that there’s a higher chance than we thought that Earth’s still there. Cassian is going to look into it.”

“That right?” Leon mumbled as he consulted his scrawled map.

“Aren’t you more excited? We’re talking about Earth. It means that we could have a real