Smoked - Mari Mancusi Page 0,91

you sure?” Caleb asked. “You don’t have to. She’s a big dragon. She can take care of herself.”

But Scarlet had clearly made up her mind. “I think the two of us have a few things to talk about anyway,” she said. “And to be honest, I’m not so good with the whole closed-in, dark spaces thing—after all those months spent in that cell.” She shot a resentful look at Mara when she said this, and the Dracken blushed.

“I can stay too,” Caleb suggested.

“No.” Trinity shook her head. “We need you. You’re the only one who knows this place as well as Mara does.”

You need to be there in case she tries to pull some kind of trick, she added silently. We still don’t know if we can completely trust her.

Caleb nodded, catching her send. “Fine. But we can’t just leave Scarlet by herself.”

“I’ll stay with her,” Trinity told him. “You guys go. We’ll be fine.”

Caleb didn’t look thrilled about this either but, to his credit, didn’t try to argue. “Fine,” he said. “But if you need us, seriously, just call.” He turned to Scarlet, his piercing eyes filled with concern. “I’ll come for you, okay?”

Trinity watched as Scarlet smiled, leaning forward to kiss him on the forehead. She waited for the familiar strain of jealousy to worm through her insides. But it never came. Instead, she found herself glancing over at Connor. Poor Connor, who hadn’t been able to even look her in the eye since finding out the dragons were purebloods. She wanted so badly to pull him aside to let him know she understood why he’d done what he had—that they’d all made mistakes at one point or another. But there was no time for that now. She just hoped the guilt she could see weighing him down wouldn’t serve as a distraction to their mission.

Be careful, she sent silently, taking a step toward him. We don’t know what’s down there. It could be a trap.

I’ll be fine, he mumbled. Just take care of yourself and Emmy.

And with that, they turned to leave, Mara leading the way, her steps a little uneven from the rope handcuffs they’d put on her. Trinity watched them go, her stomach twisting uneasily as the distance increased between them. She found herself reaching out, searching Mara’s head again, looking for some tiny nugget she might have missed, to prove that the Dracken was hiding something. But there was nothing—only earnestness and sincere regret for her role in this whole mess.

Perhaps, sometimes, even monsters could be redeemed.

She only hoped it wasn’t too late.

• • •

“I was worried the DNA locks would still be active,” Caleb remarked as he, Connor, and Mara approached the front doors of the mall a few moments later. “But it looks like we’re past that point now.”

In fact, they realized, as they got closer, there were no longer any doors at all, the once nearly impenetrable fortress with its high-tech security system now seeming to rely only on official-looking signs reading “Condemned” and “Unsafe” and “No Trespassing” to ward off any undesirables.

Of course, with the Dracken long gone and their leader, Darius, locked up in prison, well, perhaps they figured the undesirables could have it.

Caleb watched as Connor peered into the darkened hallway first. Then he stuck his head back out. “But we do have another problem,” he announced soberly.

“What, Abercrombie had a run on tight black T-shirts?” Caleb couldn’t help but tease, trying to lighten the mood. His brother didn’t even crack a smile.

“See for yourself.”

Caleb obliged, peering through the door. “Um, problem is kind of an understatement, don’t you think?” he asked after coming back out. “The mall has no floor.”

“No floor?” Mara repeated.

“Not at least for the first twenty feet,” Caleb told her. “The fire must have hit this side of the building really hard.” He scratched his head, scanning the perimeter. “Maybe we should look for another entrance or something.”

“I don’t think we need to,” Connor replied. “Look. There’s a ledge along that side. We could probably walk across that and skirt the pit. It’s not that far…”

Caleb peered in a second time to see what his brother was talking about. Sure enough, there was a very narrow support beam crossing the ravine against the far wall. He raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know…”

“Trust me, I can do this,” Connor assured him. “Just tie the end of the rope to the door, and when I get across, I’ll tie up the other end. Then you can