Just go already.
I slipped on my leather cargos and long-sleeved tee. Darting glances at Bastien, I grabbed my boots and trench coat and crept out of the room, easing the door shut behind me with a faint click. Quickly and quietly, I finished dressing and hurried down the hallway.
The glass elevators ran on the outside of the buildings, and not wanting anyone to see me disappear to the basement, I decided to take the stairs. The lower level of the building was where they housed prisoners, which was only Arik at the moment.
I hoped Emily would be able to follow through with our plan.
Two guards looked up as I came out from the stairwell into the basement, a little breathless and very determined. One of them was a Laniar with a pronounced underbite. The other looked human, with thick eyebrows and hardly any hair. Both didn’t look scary enough to stop an attack if there was one.
It took a few seconds to catch my breath before talking. “I need to speak with Arik.”
Another guard came off the elevator. She had thicker arms than my thighs and her black hair was pulled back in a tight bun.
“Do you have permission?” the guard with thick eyebrows asked.
I handed him the note from Bastien that I’d spent hours forging.
He studied it while the woman guard watched me curiously.
Does she suspect something? If I avoided eye contact, she’d get suspicious. So I kept my eyes on hers until she conceded to our stare war and crossed over to a chair. “You need a break?” She directed the question to the Laniar.
“Yeah, I could use one.” He went over to the elevator and pushed the button.
Eyebrows finished scrutinizing the note. “All right. This way.” He led me down a narrow hall to a barred door. Arik lay on a cot, one arm resting above his head and the other on his stomach. “Don’t be long.”
Whatever they used to clean the hall and rooms made the place smell like basil or some other type of herb.
“Can’t I go inside?” I asked.
Arik sat up at hearing my voice.
“Sorry, no one is allowed in with the prisoners. I’ll give you your privacy. You have ten minutes.” His boots clanked back down in the direction we’d come.
“What are you doing here?” Arik pushed off the cot and came to the door. He looked tired. His hair was a mess, and his face and arms smudged with dirt.
“We don’t have much time,” I said. “So please listen and try to see things differently.”
“Differently than what, precisely?” His tone sounded harsh, but his accent made the words seem soft.
I sighed and grabbed the bars. “You know. How you see things. Stop putting all your faith in the council. You don’t always have to follow their orders. Not when they’re wrong.” I glanced down the hallway to make sure it was still vacant. “Listen, only Uncle Philip knew where I was going that day I went to New York. Veronique said her spy told her I was there.”
His eyebrows pushed together. “Are you saying High Wizard Philip arranged to have you murdered?”
“I’m not saying that. I hope it wasn’t him… I just don’t know. Maybe he told someone on the council, and that someone sent Veronique after me.”
He rubbed the back of his neck.
“Okay,” I said. “I know I’m not going to convince you here, but I am breaking you out. You can go back to Asile. Protect Royston and the others.”
“Gia.” He grabbed my hands, squeezing them tight around the cold bars. “Come with me. You don’t belong in the middle of this.”
“I was born to be in the middle of this,” I said. “Please, promise you won’t let anything happen to Royston, and you won’t try to escape. You’re the only one I can trust to protect him. We’re the same, you and me. I know if you promise to do something, you’ll do it.”
He released my hands. “We’re the same, all right. Both stubborn in our beliefs. I can’t convince you the right thing is to go with me, and you can’t convince me what you’re doing is right.”
“You’re wrong, Arik.” I unclutched my hands from the bars. “I wish you could see that. There’s too much at stake. Too many lives at risk.”
He stared at me for several seconds. His brown eyes were cold. “I won’t try to escape, and I will protect Royston at all costs. That’s all I can promise you. Now, perhaps you should execute your plan before the guard comes back.”
I removed Bastien’s keys from my bag.
“Perhaps she should,” Bastien said from behind me.
I dropped the keys and spun to face him. He was leaning against the wall, kicked back as if there wasn’t anything wrong with this situation. And he probably had been listening to everything I’d said to Arik.
“I…um…” I didn’t know how to respond. He’d caught me red-handed. So I settled for, “Don’t sneak up like that.”
The collar of Bastien’s distressed leather jacket was tucked inside, and his shirt was wrinkled. He must’ve dressed quickly to chase after me. He combed his fingers through his dark brown tufts several times to tame his serious bed-tossed hair.
Bastien pushed from the wall and strolled over to me. “You’re not as quiet as you believe yourself to be.”
I picked up the keys. “You’re not stopping me.”
“I don’t plan to,” he said and took the keys from me. “Did you think I would? Is that why you didn’t include me? I thought we trusted each other.”
“I do trust you.” We locked eyes, and I hoped he could see the sincerity in mine. “I didn’t want to risk you getting caught. You could lose your position in Couve.”
“I believe my position is already compromised. Arik knows my role in distributing the cure.” His steely blue eyes lingered on my face. “I’m in this with you. With Demos and Emily. With the covens and those in the havens who are on our side. I won’t let you face the storm without me. If you fall, I fall.”
His words caused a fluttering in my chest. I knew he would take a fall with me. He proved it when he couldn’t pull me out of that trap into the Somnium and, not wanting me to face the barren wasteland alone, jumped in with me.
“All right,” I said.
Bastien found the key he was looking for, inserted it into the lock, and opened the door. “So what are we doing? What’s your plan?” He glanced at me before his eyes landed on Arik.
A look passed between Arik and Bastien—one of disdain or distrust.
“We have to get to the outbuilding,” I said, pulling their attention from each other. It was a lie. We weren’t going to the exit. I couldn’t tell him the real plan with Arik there. “Emily and Demos are waiting for us at the bakery.”
“Right, then, lead the way.” Bastien stepped aside to let me pass, then Arik.