Just a little farther. I tug at my body with little hitches that send my gut roiling again and finally plummet to the floor.
I manage to roll in mid-air to land on my hands and knees, if not my feet. The thud when I hit the floor makes my whole body stiffen in alarm.
No footsteps come thundering over to investigate. And when I lift my hands, I find my fingers are smeared with grainy dust.
It’s been a long time since anyone came into this specific room.
Grimacing, I wield my flashlight and stagger out through the doorway. My entire body is throbbing now, and I think my stomach may have permanently flipped upside down, but I haven’t completed my mission yet.
My sneakers leave a trail through the dust coating the floor, down the hall and to the doorways of a couple more rooms that hold nothing but bare furniture and walls. Then I push open a door and find myself gaping at a smaller replica of a very familiar control room.
The screens mounted on the wall are thicker and outdated, the consoles beneath them similarly old-fashioned-looking, like something out of an old sci-fi movie trying to imagine the future within the current style. I run my light over the rows of buttons and switches.
There. A small cluster of controls off to one side has the label BACKUP GENERATOR overtop. I punch the ACTIVATE button with my thumb.
Thankfully, that particular control doesn’t require any special identification. A whirring sound emanates through the room, and the overhead lights flicker on.
Hallelujah. It’s a fucking miracle.
I scan the rest of the controls faster in the clearer illumination—as fast as I can through the pulsing headache that’s emerged in the back of my skull. Where the hell is the FRONT DOOR control?
Finally I spot a lever and a couple of buttons that say ENTRY. I jab at them and yank the lever.
Something I did works, because a low mechanical groan reverberates from the hall outside.
I stumble to the doorway and stare with bleary eyes as the ceiling at what appeared to be a dead end in the hall unfolds. While part yawns upward, steps unfurl down to the floor.
A sliver of sky emerges above, expanding into a huge square at the top of the new staircase that appears to go up at least a couple of floors in height. No wonder Zian couldn’t spot this entrance from up there.
I clutch onto the doorframe for balance, thinking I should yell just in case the guys somehow missed the giant trap door opening in the middle of the field, afraid that something much more solid than words might come out of my mouth if I dare to open it. The headache bangs on my skull like a toddler with a xylophone.
It’s only a minute before the guys’ voices become audible. They ease down the stairs, Jacob and Zian in the lead, walking a little faster once they’ve spotted me waiting.
“Wow,” Andreas says, peering around him as they reach the hallway, and shoots me a grin. “Nice work.”
I attempt to smile in response and promptly vomit all over the floor.
Twenty-One
Riva
I’m lucky that Zian can move as fast as he does, because he catches me right before I crumple into the puddle of grossness I just spat up. There’s a flurry of motion around me: Zee tugging me off to the side and resting me against the wall, Andreas rushing over with frantic questions about how I’m feeling, Dominic coming to stand over me with one hand deep in his pocket.
And Jacob, of course, walking up behind Dom and sneering down at me likeI’mthe one who poisoned me. “This isn’t really the time for dramatics.”
I’d give him the middle finger, but my limbs appear to have transformed into lead, too heavy to lift. Andreas pats my cheek firmly, and I blink at him.
His face doubles before my eyes, and I sputter a choked giggle.
He glances up at Dominic. “When was the last time you healed her?”
I can’t focus on Dom’s face—my head won’t lift either—but his voice comes out tight. “Yesterday afternoon. It has been a while—but she didn’t say anything. She seemed fine.”
“Maybe if she couldn’t tell you hate doing it, she wouldn’t pretend she’s fine until she’s literally falling over.”
“I haven’t been refusing. I can’t help it if I’m not jumping for joy—I’m doing as much as I can.”
“Well, if you wiped the poison completely from her system this time, we could all stop worrying about it.”