The Leveller - Julia Durango Page 0,28

I’m ready to collect my paycheck, so let’s move it, bad boy.”

Wyn stares at me in disbelief. “My father hired you? A teenage girl?” he asks.

It takes all of my self-control not to give Wyn Salvador another swift kick. I keep steady, but can’t stop my mouth from tearing into him. “Yes, he did, in fact, hire me, a girl. Nobody else could get through your creepy maze, you freak show, and believe me, you’re making me sorry I ever tried. Next time you run away, maybe you should think about all the people you’re hurting first. Like Mama Beti. She’s been sitting by your bedside night and day, you know, missing you, not to mention your dad and all the guilt he feels from your suicide note, or whatever it was.”

As I yell, Wyn’s face turns from anger to confusion. “They think I ran away?”

“Well, didn’t you?”

Wyn doesn’t answer my question. Instead he walks toward me, ignoring the gun and grabs my shoulders. “Take me back right now. Show me how to go home.” His face is scary intense now, and he’s making me nervous.

“Wait—what for?” Now I’m confused.

He lets out a frustrated grunt. “Show me how you got in.”

“I told you, I went through your damn maze.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. A maze? Where? How does it work? Can we go back through it?” he asks, his hands still gripping my shoulders, his face inches from mine.

The maze . . .

I remember that flame-eyed witch ripping through my skin—the burn of her icy-cold fingers. If I have to feel that one more time I . . .

I pull away from him. “No way. I am not going through that again. Look, just reverse whatever frequency you used to get here in the first place.”

“Don’t you think I’ve tried that?” he asks, his dark eyes flashing at me. “I’m trapped here. I’ve been trying to escape for days. Somebody’s keeping me imprisoned here and I don’t know why. Now show me the maze. Please. I’ve tried everything else I can think of.”

I open my mouth, then close it again. So Wyn wants to go home?

The story of the wayward billionaire’s son just got a little more interesting, but I decide to wait and ask for details once we get home. Right now we’re on a tight schedule.

“What if I just shoot you?” I ask, waving the gun at him. “Maybe that will reset you back at the Landing.”

Wyn shakes his head impatiently and taps his temple with his forefinger like it’s the barrel of a gun. “Tried it. Doesn’t work. I just blank out for a minute, then wake up in exactly the same place I started. With a wicked headache.”

Whoa. I have never heard of anyone committing suicide in the MEEP before. And if the ordeal of the white witch was any indication, Wyn’s actions caused him a not-inconsiderable amount of pain.

What he is saying begins to seep through my thick skull and into my cortex.

“You’re really . . . you’re trapped here?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, yes!”

My mind begins to race. Everything is different now.

“There must be another way out, something you haven’t thought of,” I say, dropping the useless gun and looking through my inventory. “Let me think.”

“I’m telling you, there’s no other way.” He stares at me and begins to speak very slowly, as if I’m a small child. “Someone has trapped me here. I have been trying to escape for days. Show. Me. The. Maze.”

I blow out my breath. “Fine, I’ll show it to you, but we’ll never make it through. I blew nearly all my ammo getting here, and I don’t suppose you’ve got an unlimited supply either if you’ve been shooting yourself in the head.”

Wyn glares at me. “I don’t usually bring weapons to the MEEP. The gun’s all I have, plus a few rounds of ammo.”

I almost laugh. “Yeah, well I’m afraid that sharks and giant scorpions require a little more than a Colt .45.”

Wyn tilts his head in disbelief. “Sharks. And scorpions?”

“Oh, that’s not the half of it. So cool your jets for a minute and let me think, okay?”

Wyn paces for a few seconds in frustration, then leans against the wall and slides down to a sitting position. He rubs a hand over his face. “So how were you planning to return yourself, if not by the maze?”

“Your father gave me an emergency code. It won’t work for you because you’ve tampered with your