Page 114 of The Art of Exiley

“How can you see where you’re going?” I whisper. My breath is ragged from trying to keep up as I continuously trip on stones and shrubs while shrinking away from twitching shadows.

“I forgot you can’t see. I’ll slow down. All my senses are heightened.”

As if I needed another reminder about the blood.

A giant white bird with a fluffy head jumps into my path and squawks at me. I yelp, and Rafe gives me a death glare for making noise.

We approach a large building, a great deal of which has been reclaimed by nature, green vines devouring brick and stone. Using Georgie’s map on my phone, we find a crumbling entrance, the door long gone, and we navigate through hallways that feel as if we’re more outdoors than in. The map indicates that we’re close to new construction, and sure enough, when we peer around the next corner, there’s a steel door barring access to whatever lies ahead. A guard is pacing the hallway, and when he turns in the oppositedirection, Rafe silently darts over and makes shiin against the guard’s neck until he falls slack in his arms.

“You can’t just keep hurting people!” I whisper angrily as Rafe lowers the guard to the ground.

“Don’t worry. I only overloaded his vagus nerve.”

Sothat’swhat it looks like when done correctly.

“It’s only a mild faint, so he’ll wake up soon. Very soon. Let’s get moving.”

I rifle through the guard’s pockets and find an orange keycard exactly like the one refused to me. Because I might have used it for this very purpose. I ignore the stab of guilt and use the card to open the door.

Inside, a staircase leads down to a dimly lit basement level. It’s been completely renovated. We pass a room that looks like a medical lab except that it’s barred like a prison cell. A middle-aged man in a white lab coat is looking through a microscope, seemingly indifferent to his imprisonment. I worry he’ll alert someone to our presence, but as we walk by his cell, he doesn’t even look up from his work.

There’s an empty lab without any bars, and I go in to look around. There are three large refrigerators, and when I open one, I find that it’s filled with… blood bags. Why would the Families need a blood bank?

Rafe looks over from where he’s keeping watch at the door, and when he sees the blood, he shakes his head. “This is very, very bad,” he whispers.

We keep moving and pass more cells. There’s one that has a sleeping man with long hair and a long beard. He looks like he’s been here a while, and the broken furniture that seems to have been flung around in a rage makes it clear he’s not happy about it. But all of the other cells are unoccupied. If the Families are responsible for all the other missing Sires, this is clearly not where they’re kept. I start to fear that Hypatia may not be here either.

When we reach the end of the hall, there’s another cell that’s skeletally furnished with a chest of drawers, a table, and a bed. A tray of food sitshardly eaten on the table. Huddled in the corner is a girl with her head resting on her knees. My limbs feel weak with relief.

Hypatia.

Rafe rushes toward the cell, grabbing the bars. He instantly recoils, yelping in pain. I didn’t know Rafe Vanguard could yelp.

“Where in perdition did they get enough antimatter to build something like this?” He looks at the bars with an astounded and helpless kind of rage.

I have the same question. No one in the Families seemed to know anything about antimatter when I told them about the gloves that tortured me when I was abducted. But these bars suggest otherwise.

“Hypatia?” Rafe asks. There’s a tremor of fear in his voice that causes me to look toward her with alarm. She’s glanced upward at the goings-on but has otherwise not moved or made any attempt to acknowledge either of us. She doesn’t look at all like her feisty self. Her pale blond hair hangs loose down her back, and the whites of her eyes are tinged red.

We need to get to her. But there is no discernible opening or lock on the cell, and the bars will neutralize any use of Ha’i.

Rafe unzips his bag and pulls out the most ridiculous gun I’ve ever seen. It’s plastic with a lot of weird tubing and kind of looks like a Super Soaker.

Rafe aims at the cell and pulls the trigger. The gun emits a laser that he uses to cut precisely through the grid of bars to make an opening. The laser only affects the bars, bouncing harmlessly off anything else it touches. With the last cut, the bars fall inward, clattering to the ground with a shrieking clang that makes me jump. Rafe rushes through the gaping hole and embraces Hypatia, who flops weakly against him.

“What’s wrong?” His voice is a pained growl.

Hypatia touches her neck.

I see the collar at the same time as Rafe. The same metal as the bars, as the gloves. Antimatter.

“Gravdammit,” he curses. “Ada, help me.” His eyes are wet.

I run to his side and help support Hypatia as he positions the gun carefully. But he doesn’t pull the trigger. He looks at me, his eyes full of fear. I didn’t think it was possible for Rafe Vanguard to be afraid.

“A magneto gun shouldn’t harm anything besides antimatter,” he explains to me, though it sounds more like he’s reassuring himself.

“You’ve got this,” I whisper.

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