The Hunt - Megan Shepherd Page 0,93

and cell doors closing had died down. She eased the door open and peeked into the darkness.

The coast was clear.

She tiptoed through the quiet rooms and scaled the stairs silently to find Mali’s cell. She started to reach for the lightlock, but a hand snaked out and grabbed her.

Mali’s face loomed in the glowing light.

Cora pressed a finger to her lips. Mali nodded. Cora closed her eyes and focused on unlocking the door. It swung open, and they both tiptoed back down to the lower level. Mali started for Lucky’s door, but Cora held out a hand.

“Wait.”

Something didn’t feel right. It went back to her argument with Lucky about what would happen after the Gauntlet. He’d said that he wouldn’t leave the animals, Gauntlet or not. If she woke him up now, would he still refuse to go?

She chewed on her lip, knowing they were running out of time. She motioned for Mali to follow her into the medical room, where she quietly told Mali everything that had happened. “So now we run,” she added, “and hope we can bribe our way off this station, which isn’t going to be easy without any money.”

Mali’s eyes widened for a moment. “Wait here.” She scampered off before Cora could stop her, and returned with one of the filthy safari sacks.

“Mali, that reeks.”

“Yes.” Mali untied the bag as though she was immune to the stench. “Keeps the others away so they do not find this.”

Tokens. Hundreds of them.

“They belonged to Dane,” Mali explained. “When we swapped Roshian’s collection of tails into his cookie tin, we had to empty these out. I told Lucky I would hide them.” She closed the bag again. “Will they be enough?”

Cora paused—it was the first time she’d heard Mali state a question like a question. She smiled. “I hope so.”

Cora turned around and started rooting through the medical room cabinets. Mali slung the bag over her shoulder and frowned. “What are you looking for?”

“I heard Pika say something once about reverse revival pods. To put agitated animals to sleep. It’s for Lucky. There’s a chance he’ll insist on staying behind. And now isn’t the time for him to be noble.”

Mali hesitated but then reached into the cabinet and took out a greasy package. “It is this one.”

Back in the cell room, they knelt by Lucky’s cell. He was asleep with one arm through the bars, the fox curled against his palm. For a second, a part of Cora hated what she was doing. But she pushed past that feeling and set the pod near his face. In a moment the tense set to his expression eased, as he slipped into a deeper sleep.

Cora opened his door, and they dragged him over the dirty floor.

“He will be mad when he wakes,” Mali warned.

“Yeah,” Cora muttered as she heaved his sleeping form down the tunnel. “But he’ll also be alive.”

CORA’S ARMS ACHED BY the time they’d crawled halfway through the tunnel, but she didn’t dare stop. Lucky’s body was too heavy to lift over the cleaner trap triggers, so they’d had to double back and take different tunnels until her vision blurred from the thin air.

She paused to catch her breath. From the nearest grate came the sounds of heavy boots and flat Kindred language.

“Do you understand what they’re saying?” Cora asked.

Mali wobbled her head. “A little. They are looking for us.”

Cora’s heart started thumping harder. She prayed the tokens would be enough to convince Bonebreak to let them on that ship. She dragged Lucky down turn after turn, following Leon’s chalked marks on the walls.

“Move to the side!” Mali yelled. “Now.”

Cora tossed a look at a package that was floating behind them. Not fast, but faster than they were crawling with an unconscious body. Mali pressed herself into one of the tunnel alcoves, clutching the sack of tokens tight against her chest. Cora glanced at Lucky, then at the nearest alcove. Not enough room for the both of them. She shoved him as far back into the alcove as she could and, just as the package nipped at her heels, dived into the empty one across from him.

Every moment felt like eternity as Cora waited for the package to float past. There was a crack in the alcove and she pressed her ear against it, listening for the sounds of more Kindred guards hunting for them.

There were Kindred voices, but quieter. She almost thought she heard a few words of English, and pressed her eye against the crack.

Beyond was