D E L P H I N I U M

Kane and I had worked in amicable silence for about fifteen more minutes. I was glad that we'd made up; the constant anger and foul glances toward him were getting tiring and repetitive. He was more alike me than I'd given him credit for. And if something did go awry down here...I would at least like to die without any of my teammates hating me.

Then, the alarms began to blare. A few moments ago, Finn had told us how close they were to the fight breaking out. Apparently, Imperium was now locking down its fortress to fight the intruders. Us.

Red lights flashed in my vision. "We need to hurry. How many are left?"

Kane ducked down to check the trolley. "Five more to go."

We had no time to waste. Riley was still waiting outside the door; there was no way of knowing if she would be attacked soon by soldiers traveling up to meet the army. So, brushing back my short black hair from my face, I hefted another canister and worked on getting the top off.

There had been no word from anyone else, aside from Finn's announcement that the army had successfully gotten inside. Jaxon had been silent and I could only hope he and Arlo would be enough to keep away the help that would inevitably arrive for Imperium. Jake hadn't brought an earpiece with him, though he and the technician he'd gone with had obviously gotten to their destination. I tried not to envision his body, bleeding and broken on the ground, impaled by hundreds of wounds from Imperium soldiers. If he was injured—if any of them were injured—I would forget how terrified I was of Orion and find him so that I could put a bullet in his brain myself.

Many, so many, memories were being aroused as I was here. Bloody scenes, my own dark terror, doing things I didn't think I'd ever be forced to do. Each day had been more horrifying than the last. There was a reason I never permitted myself to awake the things I purposely kept asleep in my mind. Some things...I didn't think I could ever fully come back from.

I think I could finally accept that: that despite my horrible brokenness, I was doing better. Turning from my old ways was possible and I was doing it. My self-healing would finally end when I put the ghosts inside my head to rest and killed the man who haunted my every waking thought. The final step to redemption.

I told myself that, repeated it to myself, to keep the monsters at bay. If I didn't remind myself why I was here and what I was doing with my life, I might fall back into my old mindset. Simply being here was threatening to turn me back into that paranoid shell of a girl again.

This time was different. Though not more desperate than I was now, a year ago, I had been weaker. I had acted alone while filling the engine room with explosives I had stolen, praying the entire time no one would notice my absence at Orion's right hand. Still imprisoned and thought to be under his power, my work was sloppy and very, very risky. By some miracle, it had mostly worked, only to bring me back here.

Now, I acted as a free, strong soldier of my own. This time, I had Jake's brilliant mind to get us in here safely and the others' combined powers to ensure we'd get out. I wasn't alone any longer. This fight was more than simply my own.

I slammed the last canister into the energy harnesser and straightened, glancing at my teammate. "Let's get out of here."

"I've never agreed more." He knocked on the door twice, the signal for Riley to open it for us.

But it didn't open.

He knocked again. There was no answer. "Riley," he hissed through the door. "Where are you?"

I called her name through the earpiece. There was no reply. She was either in a quiet place where she couldn't talk or she was in trouble. I desperately hoped it was the first option; any slight mishap could jeopardize this entire plan.

Kane took a risk and banged on the door. Still, there was no sign anyone was on the other side. He tore away from the door, running a hand through his wavy hair. "We're stuck in here. We're stuck in here. And," he gestured to the walls, "We can't break through the walls or they'll know we've been in here."

"I know," I said, trying to quell my pounding heart. This is what I'd feared would happen and now it was coming true. Why did I ever agree to come down here?

No. Think, Delphinium, think. There was a way out of this. I came here for a reason; because I could do it. I knew I could as soon as I walked through the front gate.

"Riley," I said through the earpiece, "If you can hear me, we're trapped inside the engine room. I will give you ten minutes to come get us out of here before we break the walls down."

It was quiet. The mechanical hum in the room continued. Kane leaned against the wall with crossed arms, watching the door.

"So," I said, trying to fill the silence in the room, however friendly it was. I needed someone to talk to; working in silence would only give my thoughts free reign to go where they tended to go. "The only person you have to make up with now is Riley."

His head snapped up. "What makes you say that?" Kane's voice was calm, but I could sense the tension in his body language. He'd already been thinking of her, worried about her.

I gave a small shrug. "There's a chance we might not come back alive tonight. Maybe I'm feeling sentimental." Or desperate. Or both.

"It's not—we're not..." Kane struggled to find the words, but I already knew what he meant.

I nodded, showing my understanding. "Even so. It would be a shame to leave this place without closure. Anything can happen here." A dry chuckle escaped my lips. "I know that better than anyone."

"I know." It was almost a whisper. "I still want her safe, I want her to be happy. But what she did..."

"What she did tore us apart. However, she did try to work it to our advantage over your brother. No matter how dismally it failed, it should count for something."

"It's not that. Its the fact that she even did it. It's the fact that I can't look at her now without wondering... I mean, she got me to tell her about things I hate even thinking about."

"It's terrifying to think about someone getting that close," I said, lips barely moving. "I understand. After what happened to me...I thought I'd never feel again. I thought I couldn't let myself but now..." I shrugged. "I don't know, I suppose I learned that not everyone is out to get me. Some people are genuinely there for our betterment."

"She didn't tell me," he said, staring daggers at the ground. "I wish she told me so that we could have faced my brother together. But she chose to do it alone. And I don't know why."

I watched him for a moment. "We're more alike than I thought."

"What, the paranoia?" He scoffed.

"Yes." I answered softly. "The thoughts kill me sometimes." As I said it, I wasn't quite sure why I was being so uncharacteristically open. Maybe it was the sense of impending doom.

"Not knowing who you can trust." He cocked his head to the side, regarding me with dark eyes.

"I think we can trust her. She did get our information, but...when I was telling her about my past, she seemed genuinely concerned. I don't think she was acting—or at least not for that part."

There was a silence. "I don't even know why I'm saying all this," he said, more to himself than to me. I didn't say a word, though I'd realized that this was the most I think I'd ever heard him talk before. "This place is getting to me."

"It's been ten minutes," I said, checking the clock on the wall. The time had gone quickly; I was grateful that Kane had held the conversation for once, instead of leaving me with time to think.

"She hasn't opened it," Kane said in a low voice, still staring at the metal door.

"You know what that means."

Without a reply, he walked past me and went to the back of the room. Tapping his knuckles along the metal paneling, he searched for the thinnest place on the wall. Then, judging by how closely he inspected a certain portion, he'd found it. I went to his side in case he needed my help breaking through as quietly as possible.

He raised his arm to crush through the metal but I held up a hand at the last second. "Wait. Do you see that?" I pointed to the crack between two panels.

"Something shiny," he said, leaning down to get on my eye level. "Hinges."

I nodded. "This is some sort of secret exit, possibly in case of situations just like this one when the fortress is on lockdown."

"I think...I can open it," he said in between tries of pulling the door's edge. There was a loud click that I hoped no one on the other side could hear, and the door slid open.

On the other side was a normal passageway, identical to the one we'd traveled through to get down here. It was blessedly devoid of soldiers but I knew that wouldn't last for long.

"This way," I beckoned and marched in the direction I thought the main engine room entrance was in, the one hopefully Riley would still be near. Kane shut the door noiselessly and followed me.

The red lights danced in my vision now. My ears had become accustomed to the sounds of the sirens, though the deafening noise level still threatened to tear my mind in half. Fear still swelled in my chest but I forced it down. It would not overtake me this time.

We finally reached the closed door we'd come through. It was empty; Riley was nowhere to be seen. When I turned to look at my teammate, he was eyeing the door like he was trying to break it down with his mind.

"Where could she be? There's no way they knew she wasn't meant to be here. Even if they spoke Russian to her, I would have heard and translated."

"Maybe the radio waves aren't getting through. We are very deep underground."

"But they worked when Riley was down here the other day." I paced back and forth, running a hand through the ends of my short hair.

"Or," he said, taking a graver tone. "They did something to block all the radio waves from getting in and out. Think about it." He stopped pacing. "Finn was able to communicate with us until the whole building went on lockdown. What if they cut all signal when the army invaded?"

"To keep us from talking to each other as long as we're down here."

He inclined his head in a single nod, telling me I'd got it. "But as soon as we're up there..."

"They should be working again," I finished. "Hopefully."

"That doesn't explain why she's gone," Kane brought up, looking down both ends of the hallway.

"I don't know." I paused, not wanting to imagine the reason. "She could have been captured."

"If she was captured-"

"I wasn't."

Both of us whirled around to watch as Riley approached us from behind. From what I could see, she looked fine; there were no signs of injury, no blood stains.

"I'm okay," she told us after noticing how we both scanned her for wounds. "I had to duck in with a crowd of passing soldiers. One of them said to another in English that they're looking for us. They know we're down here."

My blood chilled. "How is that possible? We took every precaution," Kane said, wearing a familiar frown.

"Orion makes it a point to know everything about his empire at any given time. While I'm not sure how he knows, but it's not unusual that he does," I told them, my voice slightly robotic.

"The point is," Riley said, eyes darting between Kane and I, "We need to get out of here. Now."

The three of us hurried down the way we'd come, following Riley's directions. So far, we'd only crossed a few small groups of soldiers. I could only assume all the rest were at war upstairs. That would make it more difficult for us to get out, but I supposed we'd deal with that problem when it came.

"The stairway is very close," Riley informed us, breathless in our hurry. "Just a few more turns."

Kane slowed, looking like he'd just had an epiphany. "What is that?"

I stopped in my tracks. "It's something like...many feet walking all at once."

All three of us turned in synchronized horror to see the crowd Imperium soldiers marching toward us. They were far enough down the hill that we could try to run, but I knew we wouldn't make it out alive. They could possibly already know that we'd infiltrated the engine room and that information couldn't get out. Someone had to take care of them.

I made a snap decision that I knew the others wouldn't like. "They're mine. You two run."

Both of their eyes were dark and round. "No, we can't leave you-"

"Meet up with Jake and the Czech technition by the stairway. Help with the fight upstairs. Don't wait for me." After seeing the torn looks on their faces, I added, "I will get out of this fortress. Mark my words. Now go."

I didn't watch long enough to see if they'd obeyed. Turning toward the incoming soldiers, I drew my hunting knives. From the looks in their eyes, I knew they'd hoped I, in particular, would stay behind. They all wanted a pound of flesh from the traitorous Secerātor. There was no doubt the bounty on my head was the highest.

A slow, dark smile spread over my face. Maybe now Orion would feel my pain.