Chapter 117

Evander

I couldn’t believe it. I’d found the twins. I couldn’t tell day from night in this place, but we spoke for hours while I made sure they were all right. I asked them what they had seen and if they knew where they were.

“No,” Seraphina said. “But it’s dark, and Tristan is having a hard time.”

“Have you seen any people?” I asked.

There was a long silence.

“Seraphina?”

“Yes,” she finally answered. “We see people a few times a day.”

Her words were guarded, but when I pushed, she stopped answering. So, I stopped pushing. It was enough to know they were alive and safe.

As time crawled past, I searched for ways out of my prison. Food appeared, but it always seemed to happen while I was asleep. A bucket appeared and disappeared for my other needs.

I thought about the ghostly wolf and what I might be able to do if I could see her again. Even just the light from her faint glow would help.

But, of course, that was foolish. Light from my own delusion wouldn’t help me at all because it wouldn’t be real light.

Still, I was starting to think I saw things in the darkness, and I was worried it might eventually drive me crazy. I just hoped the twins, at least, were real and not just another dream or a story I was telling myself down here in the suffocating dark.

The twins and I started playing games to pass the time. Every once in a while, they’d cut off talking to me suddenly and disappear for hours at a time. When they got back, they refused to say anything. I mostly talked to Seraphina; Tristan hardly said anything. He had always hated the dark, so if their cell was anything like mine, he had to be getting more and more traumatized by the second.

I had to get them out. I had to.

That was the thought that cycled through my mind the second time I saw the ghost wolf. I was slumped against the wall, feeling weak. They fed me, but barely enough to keep me alive. By this time, I had to have been in this place for days. Weeks and months didn’t seem out of the question, either.

Suddenly, the darkness behind my eyelids lightened. I opened my eyes, and there she was. The wolf. She came over and nuzzled me, and like last time, I could almost feel it. Then she put her nose to the ground and sniffed over near the door.

Certain I was asleep again, I crawled after her on my hands and knees. Half-starved as I was, I hadn’t been able to recover from the silver poisoning. I could feel my wolf, but it was like he’d been beaten bloody, and it was taking him longer to recover than me.

She went over to the place where I thought there was a door. In the light of her glow, I could see it better. I’d been right. It was a heavy metal door. No knob. No hinges on this side, either. She huffed at it, then turned to look at me as if to say, “Well, what are you going to do now that you can see?”

I staggered to my feet and walked around my cell. She moved with me. With the light, I noticed something I hadn’t before. There was a sort of lip—a shallow shelf of stone just above my head. I reached up and ran my fingers across it. It went all around the room. I didn’t think I’d find anything I could use.

Then my fingers ran across a pebble. A single, simple pebble. I lifted it down and squinted. It was ordinary gray stone. Nothing special.

Then I heard sounds outside my door.

“Food?” I whispered to the wolf.

She blinked at me. Then she disappeared.

I exhaled a shaking breath, laid on the floor, and pretended to be asleep as the door unlocked. Whoever it was brought no light. Their wolf must have had exceptional night vision—or else maybe they just knew this place so well they didn’t need it.

I inhaled, trying to memorize the scent of my jailor. Then I heard them take a few steps away from the door. I timed their steps, then prayed they didn’t see as well in the dark as I thought.

I had felt around every inch of this cell; I knew it by heart. Without opening my eyes, I flicked the wrist that held the pebble. I was aiming for the doorjamb, for the place it met the floor. The rock skittered and clicked against the floor.

The person bringing me food paused. I pretended to moan and roll over in my sleep. My heart kicked up. I was sure I’d be caught.

Then there was a small clink as they set down the metal bowl with food. Shuffling as they turned to go. They pulled the door closed behind them. As they did, I moved. If things went how I wanted, the pebble would get caught between the jamb and the door, and the door wouldn’t close all the way. But if it bounced back open, my jailor would realize something was wrong. I had to make sure it didn’t bounce.

They pulled it closed just as I pressed my hand against it, holding it in place. I didn’t hear the latch catch. The pebble had worked.

I held my breath, waiting to see if whoever it was had also noticed my door hadn’t completely closed. But no one came back. No one pushed the door open and tried to close it again. There was no sound except footsteps retreating down the hall.

I probably stayed there for fifteen minutes, waiting, not believing I’d done it. Then I pulled the door open. The hall was just as dark as my cell, but outside was the ghostly wolf. I swore she winked.