Page 136 of Even Robots Die
I don't know the male, but he seems to be very good at reading people even if I didn't have anything drastic planned. The drastic part of the plan was Brice’s idea and we don’t have the material it takes to play it out today, anyway.
Still, I agree with Ariël and turn to go up the stairs.
“Once I have them outside,” Ariël says when I reach the door at the top of the stairs, “I’ll go win back my army. Maybe it’ll help whatever you’re trying to achieve here.”
Fuck. I don’t have time for questions.
Maybe one day, but not today.
I don’t know how Ariël came to be in a dungeon, but one thing is sure, once upon a time, Ariël was one of Michaël’s generals.
With that conclusion, I run in the opposite direction we arrived earlier and towards the heat signature of the idiot who thought he would protect me by letting himself be a prisoner.
I guess I'm the one doing the protecting now.
79
Brice
It feels like it’s been hours since I got separated from Florentine and I’m regretting giving myself away so easily.
I could be waiting for her outside, organizing Elhyor’s forces with Pierre, but no, instead I did the dumb thing the beast inside of me wanted me to do.
The beast has been restless ever since, to say the least.
I would say it deserved it, but the beast is in me, it’s part of me, so I can only blame myself, because I, too, am restless.
It's not like me to be restless. I need to calm down. I won't be any good to Florentine if I can’t stay calm and collected.
I look around me. I’m surrounded by cells—the kind of cells that don’t respect any decency—and they’re all full. There is a mix of humans and shifters alike. It’s not like the birds to mix everyone. Or maybe they consider it to be a heavier punishment for the shifters placed here.
I tug at the small knife I hid on the inside of my belt and move to the bars.
Let’s surprise Florentine and already be out when she arrives.
I slip my arm through the bars and take it back faster.
What the hell was that? When I tried to pass my arm through the hole, an electrical current hit me. Ten seconds later, I still feel my skin tingling and not in a good way.
Someone chuckles two cells down. I guess they all know about the electricity shield.
I curse out loud but barely finish my sentence, and we’re in the dark.
She did it.
I try to slip my arm through the bars—much slower—and it doesn’t hit me with an electric charge this time, so I get to work. At least the knife might get into the lock so I can be out before Florentine arrives.
The guy who chuckled just a few seconds ago looks at me with wide eyes. I have a feeling he’s been down here for a while and that the only way he saw people getting out was at the arms of guards and that it rarely boded well for them.
I don’t pay him too much attention for now. We’ll get him out.
I sigh.
She’ll get him out.
I’ve been trying to open the lock with my knife for over five minutes and nothing is doing it. It seems to be stuck, and I have a renewed pride for Cassiopé who can basically open anything.
“You thought you could get yourself out?” I hear Florentine’s voice at the same time the natural light up the stairs illuminates us in the cells. “They changed the locks since your daughter came to visit them. You can’t open them manually.”
