Pawn (21 page)

It was freezing in the underground tunnel, and I shivered as I followed the glow from Knox’s flashlight. Celia was fuming, and she had been ever since Knox opened the door to show her the entrance into the passageway.

“This has been here the whole time, and no one ever bothered to tell me?” she’d said. She was carrying too many weapons for me to have any desire to answer her, and Knox also stayed quiet.

None of us spoke again until we stood in the empty space directly above Knox’s suite. He and Celia started to sort through the arsenal they’d brought, silently exchanging clips and holsters and guns. Without an explanation, Knox handed me a plastic thing that felt like a toy, and he unlatched the hole in the ceiling once they both looked satisfied with their choices.

“We meet back here as soon as we can,” he said. “No detours. Celia, you grab Lila. Kitty, you know where the safe room is?”

I nodded. I remembered how to get there from my first night at Somerset.

“Good. You have the password?”

“Yeah.” I touched my hip, where the piece of paper Knox had given me was safely tucked in my pocket. I couldn’t read it, but if I had time, I could find the right letters.

“All right,” said Knox. “I’ll find Greyson. Don’t hurt anyone unless you absolutely have to. Kitty, the plastic pistol—it’s loaded with extremely strong tranquilizer darts. Your other one has bullets. Don’t mix the two up, and only use the real one if it’s a choice between you and the other guy. Got it?”

I nodded again, and we slipped down the ladder into his empty suite. While Celia immediately headed for the door, Knox watched me climb into the vent.

“I’m sorry for misleading you,” he said as I hauled myself up. “Before, when I said I hadn’t seen Lila give her speeches—I handle information for the Blackcoats. That’s my job. Not public relations. But I knew she was giving them, and there’s no excuse for me not trusting you with that.”

Right, because now was the perfect time to have this conversation. I wiggled onto my stomach and scooted around until I could see him through the opening in the ceiling. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It does,” he said firmly. “I should have told you, but we barely knew each other. No one can touch Celia and Lila, but I’m a VI. If anyone found out—”

“I get it,” I said. “You don’t have to explain it to me.”

“Yes, I do, because I want you to know that I’m on your side. I want you to trust me.”

I hesitated. “I do,” I finally said. “And we can talk about it when this is over, but right now I need to go.”

“Be safe,” he said, and as I pulled the grate back into place, he held his hand up in a silent goodbye. This time I returned it.

I couldn’t move from floor to floor in the vents, which made things tricky. By the time I reached the opening closest to a rarely used set of stairs, I was panting from the effort of slithering through the tight enclosure. I dropped out of the vent and ducked into the luxurious stairwell. So far, so good. The corridors were patrolled, but with all that had happened, I held out hope that Augusta had the security team clustered and guarding the family. Knox and Celia were much more likely to run into trouble than I was.

I crept down the stairs, careful not to make a sound. The basement was four floors down, and I slipped through the door, searching the ceiling for an air vent. There had to be one around here somewhere.

But there wasn’t. With sinking horror, I even ducked around the nearest corner to see if one was hidden there. Nothing. I backed up toward the stairwell. The only way to get to the safe room was the hallway, where anyone could see me.

My mind was made up before I even considered it. I took a shaky breath and checked my reflection in the shine of the doorknob. After I wiped a smudge of dirt from my cheek, I still looked exactly like Lila. It was a gamble, banking on Augusta not telling the servants that Lila was on lockdown, but I wouldn’t leave Benjy behind.

With my head held high, I strode down the hallway. I had Lila’s face, and with her attitude, no one would be any wiser. The reports that I was dead helped boost my confidence, but I still held my breath as I passed a group of servants.

Some stared, but I’d grown used to that by now. Visiting Daxton was my only excuse if someone stopped me, even though the infirmary was in another wing and I was heading in the wrong direction. Luck must have been on my side for once, however, because no one said a word.

When I turned the corner and spotted the entrance to the safe room, I froze. A guard stood straight and unmoving in front of the metal door. His gun was bigger than mine, and he likely had some experience using it, which put me at a distinct disadvantage. Had Augusta warned him? And even if she had, would he really threaten to shoot Lila?

It was a risk I had to take. I hid my holster with my long sweater and walked up to him, oozing fake confidence. He didn’t step aside when he saw me coming, and for one horrible second I thought I saw the hand next to his gun twitch.

“I want to see him,” I said, slipping easily into Lila’s prim accent.

He didn’t answer right away. Instead he studied my face, apparently looking for any sign that I wasn’t Lila. No one could tell the difference, though, not even her own mother, and the guard didn’t stand a chance. I forced myself to stare back.

“Did you hear me?” I said in Lila’s snooty voice. “Open the door and let me see him.”

“I am sorry, Miss Hart,” he said stiffly. “I am under direct orders not to open the door for anyone but your grandmother.”

I fixed him with the most sinister look I could manage. “Don’t make this difficult.
I’ve
given you a direct order now, you know.”

The guard looked pained, and he glanced down the hallway. “I am sorry, Miss Hart, but there is nothing I can do—”

Pop.

The tranquilizer dart hit his thigh, and he collapsed. I tucked the gun back in the waistband of my jeans, and using every bit of strength I could muster, I dragged him away from the door. We were alone, but I knew that wouldn’t last long, especially if someone had overheard us.

Pulling out the password Knox had given me, I held it in one trembling hand, and with the other I searched for the right letters on the screen. They weren’t in alphabetical order, and it took me twice as long to find each letter. By the time I hit the last one, a bead of sweat trickled down my spine.

The screen turned red with words I couldn’t read, and after a moment, it switched back to the keyboard. Confused, I turned the door handle, but it was still locked. Was there something else? A card I had to swipe, a sensor I had to touch for it to read my thumbprint? I looked around the door, but nothing else stuck out. There wasn’t even a keyhole. Just the screen with its out-of-order letters.

My hands shook as I tried again. Had I skipped a letter? Had I mistaken one for the other?

Another red screen, and I growled in frustration. Time was running out. It wouldn’t be long before someone noticed what was going on, or worse, spotted Celia or Knox trying to escape. I had to do this.

I moved my hand over the letters to try again, but I stopped before I hit the first one. What was it Knox had said when we’d been down there the night of the bombings? Three wrong tries would set off the alarm. I’d already used up two. If I tried again and didn’t get it right...

What choice did I have, though? I studied the password again, tracing each letter with my finger and finding the corresponding one on the screen, but I didn’t press them. Not yet. I had to be sure.

But I’d been sure the other two times as well, and no matter how I turned the paper, I couldn’t make sense of why it wasn’t working.

I chewed on my lower lip nervously, and just as I was about to throw caution to the wind and try a third time, it hit me.

Greyson’s lock pick.

My hand flew to my neck, and I fumbled with the clasp. Even if it did set the alarm off, it was worth a shot, and it was a better option than using Knox’s password again.

Unsure of how it worked, I placed the silver disk on the screen and crossed my fingers. A heart-wrenching moment later, the monitor flashed green and the metal door opened. I swallowed a cry of relief. Finally.

I stuck my head inside the room. Benjy sat on one of the couches, his eyes closed and his arms folded over his chest. The room was ransacked, with every cabinet ajar and every drawer overturned. Apparently he’d tried to find a way out. “Benjy?”

His eyes flew open, and he stared at me in disbelief. “Kitty?”

At least someone still recognized me. “Yeah, it’s me. Come on, we don’t have any time.”

He dashed to my side and hugged me, and his strong arms felt like home. I gave him a brief kiss and took his hand, and together we hurried down the hallway.

“What happened?” he said. “The guards put me in that room—I don’t know how many hours it’s been—”

“Twelve, give or take.” As we made our way through the maze of corridors, I recounted everything that had happened since the press conference the night before. How Augusta had threatened to send him Elsewhere if I didn’t cooperate, everything that had happened with Celia and Greyson, sneaking back into Somerset—

“Wait.” Benjy pulled me back as we were about to turn a corner, and we flattened ourselves against the wall. I heard the shuffle of footsteps approaching and held my breath. Beside me, Benjy tensed.

Another servant with a load of laundry. I exhaled. It wasn’t them I was worried about.

We reached the stairwell without any trouble. Once again it was abandoned, and a sense of unease overtook me. This was almost too easy. Together we dashed up the stairs, and when we reached the fourth floor, I glanced around the corner. Benjy was too big to fit in the air vent, but it didn’t matter. The hallway was empty. Seizing the opportunity, I led him down the corridor toward Knox’s suite, listening for any sign we were being followed. All I heard was our own footsteps.

“Get in,” I whispered, shoving Benjy through the doorway. Just as I was about to step inside, a shout echoed down the hallway, and I stopped cold.

Bang.

A pair of hands pulled me inside the room, and another covered my mouth, muffling my protest. The door closed, and I fought against them until they dropped away.

“What the—” I stopped. Knox and Greyson stood in front of me, both pale and shaken. Benjy stood off to the side, and I looked around the suite nervously. We were alone.

“Did you hear that?” I said. “Where are Celia and Lila?”

“They haven’t come back yet,” said Knox as he paced across the room.

“But her suite’s right next door,” I said. “She should’ve been back first.”

“There’s a chance Lila wasn’t in there,” he said. “If Celia had to go looking for her, or if there were guards—”

I didn’t need to hear more. I scrambled onto his desk, knocked the grate out of place, and tried to climb into the air vent. After all the crawling I’d done earlier, however, my arms shook too badly for me to pull myself up. “Someone give me a boost.”

Greyson stared at me as if I had two heads, but at least Knox and Benjy seemed to understand. Benjy reached me first, and I tried to step on his shoulder, but he locked his arms around my legs. I couldn’t move.

“Benjy—” I began, and he lifted me off the desk. “Let me
go.
”

“No.” He set me down on the floor and grabbed my wrists so I couldn’t climb back on the desk. “There’s no reason to go after either of them. You’ve put yourself in enough danger.”

“We can’t leave them to die,” I said, turning to Knox and Greyson for support, but neither of them looked at me. Greyson dabbed the corners of his eyes with his sleeve, and Knox just stared at the door. “Come on—Greyson, Lila’s your best friend. Knox, she’s your fiancée.”

“She’s not going to die,” said Knox. “Augusta will make sure of it now that she’s the only one left. If we try to help, we’ll put all our lives at risk, including hers. None of this is your fault, but Lila—”

“You love her,” I said furiously. “Don’t tell me it’s all for show. You’re just going to leave her here?”

“This isn’t easy, all right?” he burst out. “If they’re able to make it out of here, they both know how. We’re no good to them dead, so let’s go.”

I stood my ground and turned toward Greyson instead. “Lila came back for you. She did this to help rescue you. And she did this because you, Knox, promised to help her escape again.”

“I promised Lila a lot of things,” said Knox. “Sometimes you make promises you can’t keep. I also promised you I’d watch your back and protect Benjy. That I
can
do. If we don’t leave now—”

“So leave,” I said. “Get out of here. Especially you, Benjy. But you can’t make me go with you.”

“I’m not going to let you march to your death again,” said Benjy fiercely, tightening his grip on me. “I won’t do it.”

“You have to.” I stood on my tiptoes and gave him a kiss. He refused to return it, but when I pulled away, I noticed some of the anger in his eyes had melted. “Knox, you said so yourself—Augusta won’t risk killing Lila, and she can’t tell the difference between us on sight.”

All three of them were silent. Frustrated, I wrenched my wrists away from Benjy. Caught off guard, he let go, and I raced toward the desk once more.

“Kitty!” protested Benjy, but I was already too far for him to catch me. My fingertips caught the edge of the opening, and using every ounce of strength I had left, I finally managed to lift myself into the vent. Benjy jumped on the desk and snatched my ankle, but I shook him off and crawled far enough inside that he couldn’t reach me.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “If we leave without her, I’ll never forgive myself, and neither will any of you.”

“Please don’t do this,” said Benjy desperately, groping inside the vent. I stayed out of his reach. “Give us some time, and we’ll figure something out.”

“We don’t have any more time. I’ll be back soon. And in case something happens...” I hesitated. I didn’t want to tell him, but I needed something to distract Benjy, even if it was only for a moment. “Knox kissed me. Twice.”

Benjy’s hand froze. “You kissed my girlfriend?”