Page 114 of Beg the Night

I squinted in the darkness of the underground and stepped across the threshold. Behind me, Athena did the same.

From the back of the room, a laugh pierced the air.Carter.“Back so soon, lovebirds?”

THIRTY-TWO

athena

After the quickest rundown of what the hell Sinner and I had been through in the last couple days, Benedict got to work jumping anyone who wanted to leave.

Some of the men were still skeptical, and question after question was lobbed our way.

“If we do this, there’s no going back,” Sinner explained. “But this is our best chance at surviving.”

Carter stood in front of a few of the guys with his arms crossed over his chest and his jaw set. He wasn’t buying this. “More like our best chance at getting killed.”

“If you stay here,” I chimed in, “you’ll be the Ministry’s pawn forever. You want to play that game? Fine. But the more of us who act now, the better the chance we all make it.”

“How the hell are you even here right now?” Leon asked. “You just walked in without being stopped?”

Sinner and I exchanged a glance. “The coast is clear for now. But it won’t stay that way much longer.”

Leon frowned. “This is dangerous. There’s a reason the Ministry is so powerful, and it isn’t because they let the unclaimed escape easily.”

“Most of the guards are looking for us elsewhere. They would never expect us to come back to the dungeons.”

“Then why did you?” he asked, stepping forward. He seemed almost angry that we had come back at all. “Why’d you come back?”

Benedict jumped back, grabbed another, and was gone again.

Sinner cleared his throat. “We weren’t going to leave you all to the same fate. It’s bad enough that the Ministry has so many mystics in their clutches. If we get out now and band together, we stand a chance at fighting back.”

Fighting back.A chill racked through me. We really were starting to sound like rebels.

Benedict appeared in front of us, breathing hard. “We have to move faster.”

There were too many mystics for him to move out this way. Each time he jumped someone out of the dungeons, he grew weaker. We had already spent too much time here, exposed, and there were more than a dozen guys left.

“Okay,” Carter said. “I’m sick of this place, anyway. Could use a change of scenery. What do we need to do?”

“Athena.” Sinner leaned in close. “It’s time for plan B.”

“What’s plan B?” Leon asked. “We charge out of here and pummel anyone who gets in our way?”

Sinner shrugged. “That’s pretty much the plan, yeah.”

“I don’t know if I can jump anymore,” Benedict breathed. “Not for a while, at least.”

“You’ve done a great job,” I said. “The guard coverage was pretty sparse, and we’re all mystics, right? We can escape the old-fashioned way. We knew this was a possibility.”

These men—thank god—practically buzzed with a violent energy. I understood it. They had been trapped for months—some of them even years.

Not only were they eager to escape.

They wanted vengeance.

“We stay together,” Sinner announced. “Leave no one behind. Understand?”

The men, to my surprise, agreed. Nobody had a snarky comment to share. Not this time.

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