My lungs almost exploded as we passed two more of the Saviours, attempting to steady my breath and pretend like I hadn’t just been rushing somewhere.
But I’d slowed too late.
“What’s the emergency?” a woman demanded, shining her flashlight over us.
Sethi held up his wine bottle, slurring the words, “Drink with us?” He shot me a warning glance and I immediately understood it. Don’t speak. Your accent will stand out.
“Don’t let Brother Sage catch you drunk. It’s the night of remembrance,” she cautioned.
Sethi nodded contritely.
We continued on, walking but keeping up a quick pace. If the pair suddenly realised there was something wrong about us, we needed to be as far away from them as possible.
Catching sight of another peephole, I stuck my face against the wall, squinting through. “Sethi. Look at the stairs.”
At the end of the hall, a set of spiral stairs led down. The stairs looked the same as the set we’d seen in the cellar, only this would be the top of the stairs and not the bottom.
Sethi peered into the peephole. “Spiral stairs. Same handrail. I think we’ve found it. The stairs are in the right location to lead into the cellar.”
My heart juddered against my chest wall. “We need to get in there.”
“Let’s go,” he replied. “Are you sure you’re ready? If Jenny and Constance have been captured, then the alarm has been raised, and there is no margin left. You might be living your last minutes on this earth.”
“I have to.”
“Okay. There was an exit a minute back. We take it and we go.”
Every nerve in my body fired as we located the door and pulled it back.
The hall was empty. There was no one to stop us. Ditching the wine bottles behind a statue, we strode out and to the cellar then onto the spiral stairs, past cut chains hanging limply from a metal gate.
Dank, overpowering odours rushed up from below. Sweat, blood and mildew.
“Follow my lead,” Sethi told me quietly, angling his face back to me. “Stay away from the prisoners. We need to get to the Saviours.”
We stepped out into the cavern.
The chained prisoners along the half wall were shrouded in darkness beyond the immense structure I’d glimpsed before.
My blood turned cold.
Thousands of bodies were trapped within a watery cage—the cage suspended on long cables that reached upward past where I could see. A nightmare of insane human depravity. All lit up and on display with strong lights. Crumbling messes at the bottom of the cage that had once been human. Bodies resting at the top that had not been long in their grave.
Rage twisting through me, I searched among those bodies on the top layer, searching for Evie—for the familiar curves of her body and cheekbones, her exact shade of hair.
Three Saviours stood on the scaffolding surrounding the pillar, peering in through the glass. Fewer of them than before. I guessed what the scaffolding was for. So that the Saviours had a perfect view of all the layers of bodies, so they could gaze and gloat on their killings. Another Saviour stood inside a tiny room, looking through sets of knives and screwdrivers and other cutting instruments that were displayed on a bench and hung up on hooks on the wall. Half of the instruments were crusted with blood.
None of them had noticed us—yet.
Sethi knocked his shoulder against mine, sending my mind reeling back to what we’d agreed upon. I had to be like one of them.
Sethi walked into the room with the tools. Moving alongside the man, he lifted a knife down from a hook. Before I understood what was happening, Sethi had one hand over the man’s mouth and the knife at his throat. The Saviour slumped in Sethi’s arms.
Wake up, Gray. Forget who you are. Do what needs to be done.
Rushing over, I helped Sethi hide the man under the bench. Blood gushed from the cut in the man’s throat as we shoved supplies and thick ropes over him.
One less Saviour.
“If we go out shooting guns, we’ll get a horde of them down here,” said Sethi. “And we can’t fight them all. Maybe we have to stay here and ambush them.”
I gestured subtly at a camera I’d just noticed high on a wall. What we’d just done had been broadcast somewhere else within the monastery. Maybe no one had seen it. But someone was going to see us here eventually.
Sethi cursed under his breath. “Stay with me.”
The three men on the scaffolding wheeled around as we emerged from the room. Walking beside Sethi, I crossed the floor and stepped onto the scaffolding, ignoring the gazes that were set on us.