Page 51 of Mud

The spell ended not a full two seconds later.

Footsteps. Voices.

Madeline and the man in the black suit walked out of the infirmary room without their steps faltering and continued down the hallway until I couldn’t hear them anymore.

No alarms rang. Nobody was screaming. Nobody was running.

The twins had pulled their spell off without anybody realizing it. It had actually worked.

Now, I was in a room full of empty beds all alone.

Chapter 13

Rosabel La Rouge

Present day

If you’re ever alone or in need of something, anything at all, go to the blue house behind the hill. I’ll find you there eventually.

The clock mounted on the wall said it was a quarter after midnight. I had to wait for what felt like hours but were mere minutes until no more voices came from the hallway, and the door across from me closed. I must have blacked out a couple of times because I would wake up with my chin pressed to my chest, and each time, my mind was darker. Each time my body was heavier. Each time I felt like a whole day had passed, but the clock insisted that it had only been three minutes.

At least my leg didn’t seem to be bleeding anymore because I’d found a bottle of antiseptic and clean bandages in one of the drawers by the beds, and I’d wrapped it up aswell as I could. No painkillers anywhere, though, so the pain remained, but I wasn’t complaining. As long as I managed to get to the end of this corridor, there was a set of stairs that connected the operating halls to the ground floor of Headquarters, if I wasn’t mistaken. And since nobody really used that place, it shouldn’t even be guarded, at least not yet. It had been fifteen minutes since Jim and Jam froze time in that room to give me a chance to escape. As much as I wanted to lie down on one of those beds and close my eyes, I had maybe a few more minutes before they came looking for me in here. People had seen me, and there were cameras everywhere. They’d find me as soon as they realized I wasn’t in the interrogation room.

So, I hopped out the door and I made my way to the end of the corridor, which was longer than it had looked at first. But at least nobody came out of the rooms. My stars must’ve aligned because my badge opened the sliding doors to the operating halls and then I was dragging myself across to the other side, going through doors that saidStaff Only,until I finally found the emergency stairs. The place was deserted, and thank Iris that it was because I couldn’t have moved silently if I tried. The adrenaline, the fear, the panic were the only things keeping me upright, and they didn’t much care about not making too much noise.

Then cold night air filled my lungs.

A miracle I managed to keep from screaming when I practically fell against the door at the top of the stairs, and it led me outside. I must have been somewhere behind the building because I didn’t recognize my surroundings, but it was okay. Perfectly fine as long as it was dark and there were no guards around me. I could climb the fence and jump to the other side and I’d be gone, disappear from the face of the earth by dawn.

Stained. Stained.

STAINED—that word…

But there was no time tothinknow. No time to plan. No time to analyze any of those words—stained; inject antibiotics; what good is she to anyone now?!Thank Iris, no time to try to understand the meaning of any of them because I had to focus on trying not to collapse, on carrying my weight on my good leg only, and trying to climb the fence.

Impossible—another awful word, but undeniable.

It just wasn’t going to happen. The fence was at least eight feet tall with barbwire all around the top, and I wasnotgoing to be able to climb it in the condition I was in. But I still had my bike in the garage, and so far, that was my best bet.

Off I went, trying to determine exactly in which part of the building I was, and which side was going to get me to the garage faster. When I did, I stuck to the wall, stuck to the darkness, and I was hopeful that I’d get to the front of the building within minutes, then get on my bike and go.

How I’d drive said bike was still to be determined, but I’d make it. I’d find it. I’d sneak out.

Or Iwould haveif there’d been no guards sprawled out everywhere around the yard, with guns and anchors and enough magic in them to kill me with ease considering I couldn’t even run.

I turned back, heart heavy, hope slipping through my fingers, when a hand closed around my mouth and a steel arm wrapped around my shoulders, pulling me back hard.

My good leg let go of me while my instincts fired up, but my body was unable to act on them. Even my magic was too exhausted to explode out of me.

Once again, I saw my life flashing right in front of my mind’s eye.

Madeline’s face was first, the way she’d been frozen in that infirmary room, her eyes and her earrings and her red suit. Maybe I should have taken that second to put a bullet through her head—though I had no weapons on me. Maybe I should have taken that second she was frozen to slit her fucking throat and be done with it. I’d wanted to do it so many times, so many nights when I lay awake in bed and she slept.

Then I wished I’d had the fucking balls to at least talk back to her every once in a while because everything was already as good as over.

But the image of my grandmother’s sour smile faded quicker than I thought, to leave way for a dark-haired boy with dimples on his cheeks and a perfect heart for a Cupid’s bow. He was everywhere all at once, followed by so much pain and guilt and shame?—

“Don’t make a single sound.”

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