53
Jaxson
Ethan led us through the endless concrete corridors. We were on our way to face a madman in a madhouse.
Savannah was shivering in her wet jeans and T-shirt, and I could sense her exhaustion from using her magic. I pressed a little of my energy into her. I needed her strong for the battle ahead.
Finally, we reached the entrance, a hidden door Ethan revealed through more of his tedious, mind-numbing spellcasting. The prison above us was a ticking timebomb, and we were playing hocus-pocus.
Ethan shoved the secret door. “Shit. It’s jammed.”
I pushed the pretty boy out of the way and rammed my shoulder into it. A cacophony of crashing and falling objects sounded from inside, and the door opened.
The light from Ethan’s glowstone lit the interior of a storage closet. Buckets, brooms, and canisters of cleaning fluid had spilled everywhere, and I picked my way over the debris.
“You could have made a bit more noise,” he said.
“We’re in,” I grunted, and moved to the supply closet’s door. “You said this was supposed to be an empty room.”
“It was. In the fifties.”
There was no sound coming from outside, so I cracked the door open. No sign of movement.
I carefully slipped out and looked around, but the hall was deserted. As was the one on the next level, and the next, as we ascended the back stairwells to the eighth floor.
“This place should be crawling with inmates,” I muttered as we reached the access to level eight.
“Apparently, everybody’s busy,” Savannah whispered.
Not a good sign.
We moved out of the stairwell into the eighth-floor cellblock. The access to the central observation tower was through there. A short corridor led inward and terminated at a large red door marked H-Block. Ethan cast a quick spell, and it unlatched.
As soon as it cracked open, the sound of chanting greeted our ears. It was a thunderous and maddening cascade of arcane syllables, but it sounded far away.
“I think we know what everyone is up to.” Slowly, I pushed the door inward, revealing the prison within.
Even though I’d been to the maximum-security wing before, the full panopticon was terrible to behold. Ring after ring of prison cells were stacked one on top of the other, all facing inward. The hanging central observation tower was sheathed in black glass so there was no way to tell who was watching from within. This time, however, some of the iron bars at the front of the cells had been opened.
I gave Ethan a dark look. “What an inhumane way to treat people.”
He frowned. “It’s not that simple. Supernatural powers make everything complicated. With claws and horns and innate magic, it’s very easy for inmates to find ways to put guards and prisoners at risk.”
I grunted, emphasizing my contempt for the place. “Honestly, if I had to live here, I’d start a brawl just to be thrown in isolation.”
Our position at the door allowed us to peer down into the prison. The rings of cell blocks descended seven levels below us. At the bottom, there was an open courtyard filled with tiny figures moving about. I couldn’t tell what they were doing, but we could hear them. In the barbaric language of magic, they were summoning the Dark Wolf God.
Our access to the hanging tower was across a narrow bridge connected to the catwalk that ringed our level, like all the others above and below. The sides had high railings, which I supposed were to prevent inmates from shoving one another over the edge.
Or jumping to their death.
“There’s no way to obscure our approach. They’ll either see us or a big floating cloud of shadow,” I growled.
“So we better move fast and catch them before they have time to react,” Ethan said. “Ready, everybody?”
I darted out and ran quietly along the catwalk. The clanging of our footsteps reverberated around us, but they were drowned out by the amplified sound of chanting. The whole prison was like an echo chamber, magnifying every noise.
Madhouseis right. I would go insane living there.
Many inmates were still in their cells. Most were curled up with their hands over their ears to block out the sound of the twisted voices from below. It seemed that Dragan had released those who were compliant and left everyone else to rot. At least that explained why the place was deserted.
One of the inmates came to the bars of his cell. “Who are you? Can you help me? I don’t want to be a part of this! Just let me out!”
Ignoring the poor soul, I slipped across the narrow bridge and positioned myself beside the blast door that led into the observation tower, the only part of the structure not covered in glass.
If there was anyone in there, they knew we were here.
Ethan crept up behind me with the two agents at his back. “Ready?”
I nodded.