I shook my head. ‘I have to stay, Griff. I have to get Evelyn back.’
He nodded. ‘I agree. And being outside the Academy walls will make it easier for Phoenix to find you in two days, but never lose sight of the fact that this is all a trap. Lilith is setting you up to fall.’ He dug a piece of paper out of his pocket and passed it to Lincoln. ‘Evelyn gave this to me before we came to New York in case something like this happened. She and Jonathan had a safe-house on the Hudson. This information will take you in the right direction and she was confident everything you needed would still be there. She said to make sure you checked the basement.’ Griffin glanced at the note, handing it over to Lincoln. ‘It’s a little cryptic, but she was worried it might be found. When you arrive, contact me with the missing details so I can send Steph and the others to you when they get here.’
We nodded.
‘Wait. What about you?’ Lincoln asked.
Griffin put a hand on his shoulder. ‘I’m staying here. I’ll keep an eye on Josephine and try to get any intel on Lilith and Phoenix to you when I can. If you need me, go through Dapper and Salvatore. They’ll act as our go-betweens for now. I spoke to them before coming here – they’re on their way to collect the final ingredient now. None of us knows if this potion will work, but we have to hope. Most importantly, I’ll be gathering the cavalry for when you call. Something tells me this fight is going to find you two before anyone else.’
With that, Griffin rose and embraced us all, a promise passing between us.
He turned to Father Peters. ‘Do you have a way to get them out of here safely?’
The priest nodded. ‘Safe from Grigori, anyway.’
‘Show us,’ Griffin said.
After Lincoln and I exchanged our bloodied clothes for fresh jeans and T-shirts from our new supplies, we followed Peters down to the basement, where he pulled aside a loose covering over one of the walls to reveal what looked like a bank-vault door.
I had a terrible suspicion where it would lead. ‘The tunnels?’ I asked.
Peters took hold of the large spinning circle to unlock the door. ‘Like titanium, exiles aren’t the only ones who like to have a good escape route. I owned this property long before it became a church. The original tunnels have been down here over four hundred years and have been added to over time. Some of us managed to add our own hidden entrances without the exiles noticing. When all else has failed, these tunnels have saved me. Just move fast and kill anything you see.’
‘That’s do-able,’ Lincoln said.
I smiled, keen even, for a little confrontation that I could actually handle.
Father Peters pulled the heavy door back that probably would have taken six human men to shift. ‘You’ll hear the trains when you get near the subway. Head down the east tunnel – it will take you all the way to Grand Central. You can jump a train up the Hudson from there.’
‘How will we know when we’re at Grand Central?’ I asked.
He winked. ‘Because there will be a door with a sign above it saying “Grand Central Station”.’
‘Oh.’
He pushed us into the tunnel. ‘This door doesn’t open from the inside so don’t rely on getting back in through here.’
‘Phones?’ Griffin ordered.
Lincoln and I handed them over. We didn’t have anything else electronic on us. Griffin gave us a replacement mobile. ‘Untraceable. But short calls only, just in case. Don’t do anything foolish,’ he cautioned, also offering us a couple of flashlights from the wall.
We both nodded.
‘God be with you,’ Peters said, right before he slammed the massive door shut.
Flooded by the darkness we quickly turned on our flashlights. We stared down the old tunnel and I pointed in the direction I thought was right. ‘East?’ I checked.
Lincoln nodded, his hand reaching down for mine. ‘East.’
We ran.
The tunnels changed shape and size as we crossed from one to the next in the complex network, having to regularly stop and use our abilities to reveal the hidden way. Grigori may be able to use these paths but there was no mistaking the dominating exile signature that pulsed around us.
Every now and then the path opened into a broader tunnel or crossed over a subway track, we even found ourselves running through what seemed to be an abandoned aqueduct at one point.
We noticed a few marked doors along the way – one labelled Central Park, and another, the Empire State Building – before we finally reached one with an engraved plaque reading Grand Central Station.
We slipped through the door, which opened into a garbage room. The rotten stench was more than offensive but I was relieved to be out of the tunnels. We made our way through the bins to the other side, where there was another door.
‘This is disgusting,’ I said, while Lincoln carefully opened the door just wide enough to scope out our new surroundings.