Page 71 of Throne of Secrets

She hissed, clamping a trembling hand over the wound on her calf. Warm blood seeped through her fingers.

“Perfect.”

Stripping off her shirt, she tied it tightly around her leg without daring to assess the damage. Knowing how bad it was wouldn’t help—getting out of there would.

She pushed herself up, her feet tingling with a thousand stabbing needles as circulation returned.

Get out. Get out now!The door.

She grabbed the handle and yanked. It rattled but didn’t budge. She leaned closer and looked out the crack. A padlock. Right, she remembered hearing him secure it that morning.

“Not getting out that way.”

Her gaze flicked upward to the collapsed roof. The walls were too smooth to climb, and there were jagged pieces of rusted metal all along the top of the walls. Worse than the curly barbed wire she’d seen outside the county jail. She wouldn’t be able to climb the walls without help.

“You can’t give up,” she muttered. “There has to be something.”

Picking through the debris, she searched for anything useful. Blood now coated her makeshift bandage, but she ignored it. Survival first.

Then—

“Oh, thank you!”

Her hands shook as she pulled a coiled length of rope from beneath the wreckage. It was thick but lightweight.

Her eyes snapped up to the only viable anchor point—a power pole.

She chewed her lip.How do I get the rope up there?It’d be like tossing a noodle. She needed a weight.

Her gaze landed on the paint can.

“Perfect.”

Righting it, she slammed the lid down as best she could, and using the wire handle, she secured the rope and positioned herself in the middle of the shed.

She started swinging, testing the weight, feeling the momentum.

One shot. That was all she’d get.

With a deep breath, she launched the can toward the lowest arm of the power pole.

She missed.

Instead, the can hit the top arm, and the metal paint can whipped around it twice before the momentum carried it straight into?—

Oh crap.

The transformer.

A crackling hiss sizzled through the air.

Electricity arced.

Then—

BOOM!

The transformer exploded in a shower of sparks.

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