“We’re not out yet,” Connor said flatly, as if reading her thoughts. “Let’s keep moving.”
They crossed the parking lot as quickly as possible, feeling vulnerable and exposed in all the open space. But the place was deserted, and soon they spotted the rickety looking elevator, just as the plans had mapped out. Trin sent up a quick prayer of thanks as she reached out to press the red button embedded in the wall. She heard a rumbling from behind the doors and a moment later they groaned open, revealing the elevator’s interior.
“Come on!” she cried excitedly. “Let’s get out of here.” She waited for Connor and Emmy to enter, then stepped onto the elevator herself. But just as she was about to press the up arrow, a strange trilling sound reverberated through the parking lot.
“What was that?” she asked, looking around uneasily, her skin prickling with goose bumps at the high-pitched sound. It died out for a moment, then came again. Louder this time, bouncing off the walls and repeating back again.
“Forget it,” Connor said. “Let’s just go.”
She heartily agreed, pressing the up arrow and waiting for the doors to close. But just as they were about to slide shut, Emmy shot back out into the parking garage.
“Emmy!” Trin hissed, appalled. “Get back here!”
But, once again, the dragon seemed not to hear her. Instead, she bolted across the empty space in the opposite direction.
“Hell,” Trin swore. She dove out of the elevator. She couldn’t leave the dragon behind. “Emmy, get back here!”
“Trin! Wait!” Connor tried. She whirled around only to find the elevator doors sliding shut behind her, with Connor still inside. She pressed the red button frantically, but to no avail.
“Connor!” she cried. But the elevator was already shooting upward, sending him to the surface to where her grandpa would be waiting, leaving her behind.
She gritted her teeth. No big deal, she tried to tell herself. She’d go grab Emmy and by the time she got back, the elevator would have returned. Wait for me up top, she sent to Connor. I’ll be there in a minute. Sighing, she plodded through the parking lot, calling out to her dragon as she went.
Emmy, where are you?
Soon she found herself back where they’d started—at the bottom of the stairs and facing the three identical passageways. Her eyes caught a fluttering down the hall to the right and she shook her head as she headed after her errant dragon.
Come on, she scolded Emmy as she raced down the hall to catch up with her. You can be mad at me later. Right now we have to get out of here.
She caught up to the dragon at the end of the hall. Emmy was pacing back and forth—her eyes wide and her ears flattened against her skull. When she saw Trinity, she gave her a grateful look and took flight, landing on her shoulder, claws digging painfully into her skin.
I guess this means I’m forgiven, Trinity thought wryly.
“What’s wrong with you?” she asked, starting to get a little worried. An angry and annoyed Emmy she could deal with. Scared-half-to-death Emmy scared her as well.
Then she heard it—the strange trilling—sounding as if it were coming from behind the wall.
I want to leave, Emmy told her. I want to go now. Trin realized the little dragon was literally shaking with fright.
“Why? What do you feel?” she asked, curiosity getting the best of her. “Is there something down here?” She thought back to the two Potentials guarding the door. Was this what the Dracken didn’t want anyone to see?
Let’s go now, Trin. Let’s get out of here.
Trinity was tempted to comply. Connor was waiting—they were this close to a perfect escape. And yet, something compelled her to stay. If the Dracken were up to something, she needed to know what it was. Otherwise, how would they ever be able to stop them from doing it?
“We need to figure out what’s making that noise,” she told the dragon firmly. “Then we can leave.” She walked over and put her ear up against the wall. The noise came again, causing Emmy to squawk in alarm. Trin knocked on the wall with her fist and realized it was hollow.
“There’s something behind here.” Her fingers danced across the wall, feeling for some kind of handhold or crack. “Give me a little light,” she commanded the dragon. Emmy blew out a puff of fire, illuminating the dark corridor. Just for a moment, but it was enough for Trin to locate a lever hidden in the shadows. She wrapped her hand around it and pushed down. There was a groaning sound as the wall sank into the earth, revealing a dark passageway beyond.
“Come on,” Trin instructed Emmy with growing excitement. “Let’s go.”
Emmy hovered at the doorway, shaking her head vehemently. Trin rolled her eyes. “You know, for a fire-breathing killer dragon, you’re kind of a scaredy-cat.”
But Emmy only plopped down onto the ground, crossing her wings over her chest. Trin gave up. “Have it your way,” she told the dragon. “But I’m going in.”
She stepped into the passageway. The noises grew louder, the trilling sound now accompanied by pitiful squeaks and moans and cries. Her heart thumped in her chest as she pressed onward, no idea what she was about to uncover. Whatever it was, the Dracken definitely didn’t want anyone to see it.
The passage wasn’t long, dead-ending at a small wooden door. Reaching down, she wrapped her hands around its handle and pulled it open. As she stepped into the darkened room, a sharp pain dug into her ankle, like a needle piercing the skin, and the door slammed shut behind her. She screamed, stumbling off balance and crashing into a nearby wall, springing a switch in the process. The room burst into light.
She looked around, her eyes widening, her mouth falling open in shock. Her knees buckled, threatening to give out from under her.
“Oh God,” she whispered. “It can’t be!”
But it could it be. And it was.
Dragons. Sick, mutated, diseased-looking baby dragons, some three times the size of Emmy, stacked in cages from floor to ceiling on every possible wall. Some sported three eyes; others, a fifth leg or a stump where their leg should be. Some had no legs at all—flapping their misshapen wings against the wire cages, looking at Trin with hollow, desperate eyes. A few had broken free of their confines and were tottering across the floor on skinny, malformed legs. The ankle biter looked up at her, opening his mouth and revealing a single gleaming, bucktooth fang.
Trin’s stomach clenched. It was all she could do to not run screaming from the room. Instead, she stood, frozen in place, trying to digest what she was seeing, trying to understand how it could be possible. Her brain told her it was too horrible to be real, that her eyes must be playing tricks. But when she closed them and opened them again, the dragons remained. Somehow, some way, they were really here.
Emmy? she managed to send in a shaky voice. You need to see this.
But before the dragon could reply, Connor’s voice slammed into her consciousness. Urgent and afraid.
Someone’s coming down the elevator, he rasped. Wherever you are, get out of there. Fast!
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Trinity froze, Connor’s warning echoing through her head, as her ears caught voices down the hall, confirming his words. Her gaze darted around the room, searching for an escape, but there was only one way in and one way out. And the voices were getting closer.