looked out. “It’s clear.”
“Hold my arm,” Cora whispered. “Like you’re leading me.”
The foyer where menagerie doors split off was even creepier at night. The podiums to the menageries weren’t staffed, the hosts and hostesses off duty. Cora adjusted her hands in the shackles, trying to wear a mix of defiance and fear in case there were any Kindred guards. It wasn’t hard. All she had to do was think about the first time Cassian had taken her down this same dank hallway.
They’d only walked about twenty feet when Leon mumbled a low curse. “Trouble. Two o’clock.”
A shadow was approaching from the far end of the foyer. A female guard, patrolling the hall slowly in their direction.
“We’re almost there,” Cora whispered, nodding toward a doorway on the right. “That’s the entrance to the Temple. Just act natural.”
With the lights so low, Leon looked perfectly believable as a Kindred. She saw the guard’s head cock, curious, but then Leon swiveled Cora toward the Temple doorway.
“Open it quick,” he muttered. “She’s eyeing us.”
Cora focused on the blue sensor above the door. Her heart was racing, but this was second nature to her now. All she had to do was ignore the splinter of pain in the back of her head. As they stepped inside, she saw the female guard turn to inspect a different node but throw one last look over her shoulder.
The door closed, and Cora sighed in relief. “That was easier than I thought.”
“Yeah,” Leon said darkly. “Too easy. She’s probably calling for reinforcements.”
“Then let’s hurry.”
In the dark, the Temple’s ornate columns weren’t visible, and the cells loomed like a prison. “I don’t think there’s anyone observing behind the black panel,” she whispered. “But just in case, manhandle me a little.”
Leon grabbed her shoulder, saying some sharp words. In his disguise he looked terrifying, and it wasn’t hard to shrink back. He led her down the hall to the last cell, and there was Anya, sitting on the throne, staring at the fire. Cora wondered if the girl ever slept, or if the consciousness-reducing drugs rendered sleep obsolete.
“Stand, girl,” Leon commanded, trying to make his voice flat like the Kindred. “The medical officer has requested an inspection.”
Anya’s head slowly turned from the fire, but her eyes settled on Cora instead. In a drugged sort of way, she smiled. “Hi, little rabbit.”
Cora glanced at Leon, but he clearly hadn’t heard anything.
“Right,” Cora said. “Anya, if you can hear me, we’re friends of Mali’s. She’s sent us to get you out of here. We need for you to teach me to control minds.”
But Anya didn’t seem to hear. Instead, her cold gaze raked over Leon’s Kindred uniform and Kindred face.
“Are you guys talking psychic stuff?” Leon whispered. “Did you tell her I’m human?”
“I can hear her voice in my head,” Cora whispered back. “But she never makes much sense when she’s drugged.”
“Well, read her mind and see if she’s going to strangle us as soon as we get her out of there.”
Taking a deep breath, Cora faced Anya. Every time she’d tried to read minds—first with Lucky, then with Leon—it had come a little easier. Now she tried to reach out her thoughts like she did for levitation, but instead of dice, it was thoughts she was trying to influence.
Images flickered at the edge of her mind.
Blood.
Lots of it.
And Leon’s face with its Kindred disguise.
“Did it work?” Leon asked.
Cora blinked out of her concentration. “Um, a little. She’s not thinking polite thoughts about you, that’s for sure. I can’t tell if she knows you’re human.”
“No way in hell I’m reviving this little psycho,” Leon said. “If she can do even half the ninja shit Mali can, I’ll be dead in thirty seconds.”
“How are we supposed to get her out of here if we don’t revive her?”
“I’ll carry her. We have the removal pass, if that guard stops us. Come on, just open her cell with your mind or whatever. This place gives me the creeps.”
Cora concentrated on the lightlock set into the wall above Anya’s cell. It was slightly different from the ones in their cell block, but after a few minutes she figured it out and the door swung open with her thoughts.
Anya turned back to the fire, uninterested.
Leon started to take a step inside her cell but hesitated, like he was reaching for a live cobra that was going to strike if he moved too fast. He paced to the left, then to the right, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Just