Page 107 of In Between Darkness
“I’m not sure, a lot happened that day,” I confess, strangling the thought of Nala falling to her death. Ryder senses my unease and gives me a reassuring nod, asking the next question that pops into his mind.
“So what do you think they meant when they said the boy failed the transition?” Ryder’s warm breath creates steam in the crisp air.
“I don’t know, but whatever it is, it can’t be good.” I can feel my features souring as the thought of the creature breaks downmy walls. “If you could have seen its face… His face.” I shudder, and Ryder turns his full attention onto me, his eyes searching mine for salvation.
“We have to get them out of there before more of them are killed or turned into one of those beasts. We have to save them.”
“We will because we have a secret weapon,” he responds, not breaking eye contact with me and imprinting his thumb on my cheek.
“What’s that?” I ask, curious about the advantage he has failed to tell me about.
“We have you.” He places a kiss on the tip of my icy nose, and I move into his touch. “And they will never see you coming.”
I stare at him in shock at the pure faith he has in my abilities. I am nowhere near my full potential and have yet to win a fight against him fairly.
“And what if they do see me coming?” Doubt invades my mind.
“Then it will be the last thing they ever see.” Ryder’s eyes narrow, and a menacing smile overruns his features. I swear I see the inky veins in his arm expand as the thought of violence excites him. He is hungry for blood, and I definitely won’t stand in his path when he gets it.
Ryder nudges me softly and gestures for me to look at the neighbouring mountain.
“We have movement.”
He passes me his binoculars and stares at the sight a mile ahead of us. A black van with modified wheels is making its way up the windy road.
“Is that the van you saw?”
“Yeah, that’s it.” I pass the binoculars back to him. “Does this mean another Moon is missing?” I mutter, not being able to keep my unpleasant thoughts to myself as the sound of the brakes squeaking travels through the air. Ryder doesn’t respond; he justlies still and doesn’t take his eyes off the van until he knows more.
“No,” he finally responds, and I let out a sigh of relief, pinning the binoculars back to my eyes and watching carefully.
A man stands by the open doors to the back of the van, letting a team of armed guards and some in hazmat suits jump out and walk towards the rock. A soldier places a card of some sort onto a particular area along the rock face, and it separates, giving a view of a large metallic door. Just like I saw last night. The men filter through, and four armed guards search the perimeter with hands poised on their weapons.
“Shit,” Ryder murmurs. “That’s a lot of guards.”
“I told you. Getting in there will be a death sentence.”
“Well, that’s lucky we have a Restorer.” Ryder chuckles, and I throw him an icy glare.
“I’m being serious,” I reiterate, but I am sure he has gathered from my unimpressed facial expressions.
“I’m joking.” He backs down. “We just need to come up with a better plan.”
“I agree.” I stare back down at the guards trekking through the doors and disappearing into the mountain. “There’s no way we can pull this off just the two of us.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Ryder says, so sure of himself, and I think back to that moment in the tunnel where his friends were ready to fight. I suppose I would be too if it were one of my friends who went missing.
“But how will we even get in?”
“We need to get our hands on one of those suits,” Ryder says as the black van travels down the rocky road and hides behind the edge of the mountain.
Chapter Forty-Two
I arrive back at Sun Castle, tiptoeing through the halls and slipping quietly into my dorm room. It is around four p.m., and I have missed all my classes today; the last thing I need is anyone asking where I have been. I put my clothes into my wash bag and heat my body in the warmth of the shower. The water caresses my slick figure as I shut my eyes and go through the plan Ryder has come up with.
At nightfall, he is going to send a hawk for me, and that will give me the signal to meet him in the archives. He is gathering a group of his most trusted and elite classmates to talk through and carry out the mission. He will also introduce them to me. Early evening, we will intercept the van on its way to the mountain and wait until nightfall to break in. I will attempt to Influence a tree to fall and block the road, meaning no one comes in or out of the facility,and we have a reasonable excuse as to why the van is behind schedule. I tremble at the thought of myself moving something as big as a tree. I have been practicing my Influencing, but I haven’t managed to lift anything bigger than a medium-sized rock before. Ryder has great faith in my abilities and has planned the mission around them. I just hope I don’t screw it all up. After the break-in, the plan becomes pretty weak, but we have some time to sort through it. The main focus is getting those Moons out of there.
“Asha?” Nala breaks into the bathroom and shakes me from my thoughts. I pull at the shower curtain and peek my head over to look at the relief wash over her face.
