Jennifer Armentrout - Opal

Inside Mount Weather for the first time, we fell behind Blake, who knew most of the way. The tunnel was shadowed, with small lamps placed every twenty feet or so on the orange walls. I searched for those murderous emergency doors but it was too dark to see them.

Tipping my head up, I noticed something terrifying about the ceiling. It was shiny—like it was wet or something, but it wasn’t liquid.

“Onyx,” Blake whispered. “The whole place is covered in onyx.”

Unless they did a massive remodel recently, that couldn’t be something new to Blake. Feeling the opal against my skin, I pulled on the Source and waited for the extreme rush of energy as we flew down the tunnel.

There was a tiny spark of extra energy, but nothing like it had been when Daemon and I had tested it out. My heart sunk as we neared the end of the long tunnel. It had to be all the onyx, somehow weakening the opal.

At the end of the tunnel, it split into a crossroad. Elevators were in the middle. Matthew edged toward the opening, checking the space first.

“Clear,” he said, then faded out, moving so fast that when he hit the elevator button, my eyes couldn’t track him until he was beside us again.

When the doors slid open, we moved at once, filling the steel elevator. Apparently the stairwells were under password and I wondered what the heck people did to get out in case of emergency.

I looked around the elevator, noting a few blackish-red shiny parts in the flickering overhead light. I half expected to be doused with onyx while we waited, but it didn’t happen.

Daemon’s hand brushed mine, and I looked up.

He winked.

Shaking my head, I shifted my weight restlessly. This seemed like the slowest-moving elevator in the world. I could figure out a trig formula faster.

Daemon squeezed my hand, as if he could sense my nervousness.

I stretched up on the tips of my toes and cupped Daemon’s cheek, guiding his head down to mine. I kissed him deeply and without reservation.

“For good luck,” I said after I pulled back, a bit breathless.

His emerald eyes glinted with a wealth of promises that sent a very different kind of chills over me. When we got home, we were so getting some one-on-one time.

Because we would get home, all of us. There could be no other outcome

Finally, the elevator doors popped open, revealing a small waiting room. White walls. White ceilings. White floors.

We’d stepped into an insane asylum.

“Lovely decorative colors,” Matthew said.

Daemon smirked.

His brother moved ahead, stopping at the door. There was no way, no idea of seeing what waited for us on the other side. With this code, we were going in blind.

But we’d come this far. Excitement hummed through me.

“Careful, brother,” Daemon said. “We take this slow.”

He nodded. “I’ve never been here. Blake?”

Blake moved to his side. “Should be another tunnel, shorter and wider, and there’ll be doors on the right side. Cells, really, outfitted with a bed, a TV, and a bathroom. There’ll be about twenty rooms. I don’t know if the others are occupied or not.”

Others? I hadn’t thought about others. I looked at Daemon. “We can’t just leave them.”

Before he could answer, Blake intervened. “We don’t have time, Katy. Taking too many will slow us down, and we don’t know what kind of condition they are in.”

“But—”

“For once, I agree with Blake.” Daemon met my shocked stare. “We can’t, Kitten. Not now.”

I wasn’t okay with this, but I couldn’t run down the hall, letting people free. We didn’t plan for that and we only had a set amount of time. It sucked—sucked worse than people who pirated books, sucked more than waiting a year for the next book in a beloved series, and sucked more than a brutal cliffhanger ending. Leaving here, knowing we could possibly be leaving innocent people behind, would haunt me forever.

Blake took a deep breath and keyed in the last code.

Daedalus .

The sound of several locks sucking back into place broke the silence and a light at the top of the door, on the right, flashed green.

As Blake inched the door open, Daemon moved to stand in front of me. Matthew was suddenly behind me and I was shielded. What the…?

“We’re clear,” Blake said, sounding relieved.

We went through the door, discovering another onyx shield. Now we had two more to get the others through. This wasn’t going to be easy.

The tunnel was like the one above, but all white and like Blake had informed us, it was shorter and wider. Everyone was moving but me. We’d made it—we were here. My stomach lurched and my skin tingled.

I almost couldn’t believe it.

Happy and anxious all at once, I felt the rush of responding Source, but it peaked and then quickly sputtered out. The amount of onyx in this building was insane.

“The third cell is hers,” Blake said, rushing down the hall, toward the last cluster of doors.

Spinning back around, I held my breath as Dawson reached for the onyx-coated door handle and turned. It met no resistance.

Dawson stepped into the room, his legs shaking, his entire body trembling, and his voice cracked when he spoke. “Beth?”

That one word, that one sound was pulled from the depths of Dawson and we all stopped, our breaths holding again.

Over his shoulder, I saw a slender form on a narrow bed sit up. As she came into view, I almost cheered—I wanted to, because it was her, it was Beth…but she looked nothing like she had when I’d last seen her.

Her brown hair wasn’t stringy or greasy but pulled back in a smooth ponytail. A few strands had slipped free, framing a pale but elfin face. A huge part of me feared that she wouldn’t recognize Dawson, that she’d be that cracked shell of a girl I’d met. I’d been planning for the worse. That she might even attack Dawson.

But when I saw Beth’s dark eyes, they weren’t empty like they’d been at Vaughn’s house. They also looked nothing like Carissa’s frighteningly blank stare.

Recognition flared in Beth’s eyes.

Time stopped for those two and then sped up. Dawson stumbled forward, and I thought he was going to drop to his knees. His hands opened and closed at his sides as if he had no control over them.

All he could say was, “Beth.”

The girl scrambled off the bed, her eyes bouncing over us and then they settled and stayed on him. “Dawson? Is that… I don’t understand.”

They both moved as one, rushing forward, crossing the distance at the same moment. Their arms went around each other and Dawson lifted her up, burying his face in her neck. Words were traded, but their voices were thick with emotion, too low and too fast for my ears to track. They were holding onto each other in a way I knew they were never going to let go.

Dawson lifted his head and said something in his language and it sounded just as beautiful as it did when Daemon spoke it. Then he kissed her, and I felt like an interloper watching them, but I couldn’t look away. There was so much beauty in their reunion, in the way he showered her upturned face with tiny kisses and the wetness that gathered on her cheeks.

Tears crept up my throat, burning the back of my eyes. Happy tears blurred my vision. I felt Matthew place his hand on my shoulder and squeeze. Sniffling, I nodded.

“Dawson.” Urgency filled Daemon’s tone, reminding all of us that we were running out of time.

Pulling apart, Dawson grabbed her hand and turned around as a whole boatload of questions came streaming out of Beth’s mouth.

“What are you guys doing? How did you all get in here? Do they know?” And on and on she went as Dawson, who was grinning like an idiot, tried to keep her quieted down.