Forget About Midnight (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #9)

I opened my eyes to find Falon watching me with a strange expression, like he wasn’t sure what to make of me anymore. Well, that feeling was mutual.

“Good job, wolf. You did it. Don’t touch the door though. Not yet.” Falon faced the rest of the room and waved a hand toward the ceiling. “There. The cameras should be frozen so anyone watching will see a frozen image. If they aren’t staring too intently, they might not notice for a while. I’ll get the ones in the hallway too. Let me go first.”

I stared up at the ceiling, studying the stone until I spied the tiny black dot embedded into the middle stone. The camera I’d forgotten to seek out when Arys broke into my thoughts. It had seen everything.

Falon followed my gaze, understanding the dread on my face. “Maybe we can destroy the footage,” he offered, knowing as well as I did, that was easier said than done. Knowing the FPA there would already be several back up copies stored in servers on the other side of the world.

“What do you care?” I asked. “I’m the one who’s going to suffer the most when that gets out.”

“Right, because I don’t have anything to lose if someone like Shya sees that,” he retorted. “He doesn’t trust me as it is. Fucking his prized wolf isn’t going to earn me any points with him.”

“Please don’t say shit like that.” I shuddered and turned away, unable to meet his eyes. Why did a few precious minutes of freedom from misery have to come at such a massive price?

Falon didn’t toss another nasty remark at me, which made it clear that he was feeling some shame of his own. Well, good. “I’ll go out there and deal with the cameras in the hallway and the guard. Then I’ll let you out.”

Having to trust him to do what he said was harder in light of what we’d just done. He could very well leave me here after using me to get out himself. So when he vanished with the rustle of feathers, I had no choice but to sit tight and wait. The door remained locked from the outside.

Unable to resist, I glanced out the window to see Falon reappear in front of the guard. The poor man never even got a chance to shout before Falon had snapped his neck. Then, as he’d claimed, the fallen angel did return to let me out. He had a set of keys as well as a swipe card. When he opened the heavy iron door, I took note of the many different ways it had been locked.

“Thanks,” I said, shivering when a wandering ghost walked right through me.

“Cameras are frozen, and there’s a few hours before sunrise. We should have enough time to get out.” Falon turned to go, expecting me to follow.

“Wait,” I said, my glance darting down the hall. “I have to see if my sister is here. And I want to let some of these people out.”

Falon rolled his eyes and sighed. “Are you fucking kidding me? We don’t have time for that shit.”

“Then help me, and it will go a lot faster,” I snapped. The pressure to move fast made me impatient and short tempered.

Falon could have vanished and left me behind. He didn’t have to accompany me out. So when he swore at me but started checking rooms, I mustered some gratitude.

“You can’t break every ward, you know,” he said, peering into the window of a room across the hall. “The only people who can walk through the ward are those without any kind of extrasensory power.”

I nodded and rushed to the room across from mine. I recognized the man inside. Like the last time I saw him, he lay on the bed, drawing. He was able to see potential outcomes of various decisions. The FPA had struck a deal with him. He willingly stayed, and they took care of his family’s expenses, including expensive schooling. Something told me he wouldn’t come with us even if he could.

Moving on, I came to the door with the werewolf I’d sensed earlier. It was a woman. This wolf was tall and dark skinned with a wild main of tight curls that I would have envied if we hadn’t been racing for freedom. In haste I unlocked the door and hauled it open. She turned solid-brown wolf eyes my way, wide open in surprise.

“Interested in a jail break?” I asked. “Come on, we don’t have a lot of time.”

She lunged for the door as if afraid I was joking. Circles lined her eyes.

“Oh my God, I thought I was going to be in there until I died. Thank you.” She flung her arms around me, desperate for the touch of another wolf. Her beast was restless and half mad inside her.

“How long have you been in here?” I asked, checking to see where Falon was. He stood across the hall, holding up a hand for me to join him.

“I don’t even know,” she said with a sob. “I lost track of the days.”

The crescent moon tattoo on her neck revealed her as one of Dayne’s wolves. Did he even know where she was?