Page 33 of Splitting Secrets
“Our gifts work outside the cells,” he declares excitedly, and the ball of light glows brighter with his elation.
“We can’t risk being caught with that,” Beatrix reprimands.
“No, but it will help our eyes adjust a little easier when the time comes.” He closes his hand, and the light blinks out. “I’ll do it again when we start to climb the stairs.”
“Perfect.”
“What do we do if we run into someone?” Ava asks.
There’s a pause where no one knows how to respond. I have no doubt that whoever catches us will want our blood. They’ll have no problem fighting.
The issue is whether we’re willing to fight back.
It’s Beatrix’s resolute voice that declares, “We survive.”
No one disagrees, and I take that as confirmation.
If we run into trouble, we fight.
“I can’t think of anything else. We’ll just have to think on our feet if something comes up. Are you guys ready?”
They all voice their agreement.
“Let’s go.”
18
Sonny
“We can’t trust that monster,” Beatrix insists in a hiss ten minutes later.
We’ve been quietly debating whether it’s worth it to head toward Raze’s cabin, or try to find help from someone on campus. Jonah is vehemently against the idea of trusting a staff member or legacy not to turn us right back into a member of the Midnight Syndicate. The others think it’s our best bet—and one more reliable than placing blind trust in Raze.
I genuinely have no idea what to think anymore.
Jonah doesn’t answer right away. I’m so focused on the path ahead and avoiding anything that may trip or injure me that I nearly forget Beatrix even asked the question at all.
“What could possibly be so important about some random Null that the Midnight Syndicate uses him as a weapon and thetownspeople see him as a god?” Ava wonders, mostly to herself. She’s twisted the question so many times, like a puzzle she can't solve.
He’s not a Null, though. I don’t knowwhathe is, honestly, but it’s powerful enough to command respect. I realize how much trust he put in me by revealing that.
But he still dragged me down here. He still threw me in a cell. And he still brought me in for his little interrogation session.
I can’t let myself forget any of that.
“I thought the townspeople were terrified of him...” Jonah points out, reminding us of Miss Kay and the eerie warning she gave before the Falconry.
“Matilda trusted him,” Ava mumbles sadly. “Maybe that counts for something.”
The conversation ends there. I take a step forward and my foot hits a step, knocking me down to my knees with a crack. The others stop before they make the same mistake and Jonah’s light flares to life in his hands. We all remain silent as we confirm that we’ve hit the bottom of the steps that will take us to freedom.
This is it. If we’re caught, they’re going to kill us on the spot.
“Just move slowly. Try not to make any noise. When we reach the top, we do exactly what we discussed,” Ava reminds us all in a breathy whisper.
I take their silence as confirmation again and lift myself off the bottom step, then begin to climb the rest.
“We’ll head toward the cabin, but hang in the woods to ensure it’s not a trap. If it is, we’ll head back to campus to flag someone down and hope for the best. If it’s not...well, at least we’ve got a place to stay while we figure something else out,” I lay out the plan when we reach the top step.
