When the Shadows Fall by Elise Noble

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 38 - SKY

I PACED THE storage room, the stray baseball bat I’d found hidden among the pool noodles resting on my shoulder. If anyone came through that door, I was taking their fucking head off.

But that still didn’t solve the wider problem. There were more of them than me, and while I might get one or even two of those assholes, they’d defeat me in the end. What else could I find in this hellhole?

I rummaged through boxes and baskets, tossing aside musty swimwear and a puckered inflatable shark. A handy plastic sign informed me the pool was ten feet deep with a cheery Warning: Danger of Death.

Now they mentioned it. Bit late.

Something scraped my skin, and I didn’t know whether to swear or sing the hallelujah chorus. A rusty screwdriver! I could put that through someone’s eye, or possibly, just possibly… I could lever out the hinge pins on the door to the cavern. They were on my side, and even down here, everything was well oiled. The waiter seemed to have a maintenance fetish.

But again, that didn’t entirely solve the problem. The cavern was positively buzzing now, judging by the number of voices I could hear. I’d be walking out into a firing squad. Unless I managed to create some sort of distraction…

I nudged the plastic drum Asher had been sitting on with my foot. There were two of them, side by side. How heavy were they? Perhaps I could toss them out the door first and Saul’s men would waste all their ammunition the way they did in the movies? On second thoughts… No, they weighed about a ton each. What did they have in them? Lead? No, hydrochloric acid and chlorine bleach.

Acid and chlorine… Acid and chlorine… Who had mentioned those recently? Dr. Merritt?

No.

No!

Sofia.

Sofia, the crazy lunatic bitch. Mix the acid and chlorine disinfectant together, and you’d get chlorine gas. Voila. I could gas those fuckers out. The only problem? I’d probably end up dying myself. How long could I hold my breath? Long enough to get back through the passages? Back to the library? If I did make it, how the hell would I open that door? There had to be a handle somewhere.

Didn’t there?

I’d have given the gas thing a go if it hadn’t been for Asher. Risking my own life was one thing, but his as well? I’d fucked him over enough already. And Saul might kill me, but he wouldn’t kill his own nephew.

Would he?

Saul didn’t seem all that fond of Asher. Whereas I really was. More than fond of Asher, in fact, and I’d hurt him badly. Why, oh why, had I gone into that bloody cellar? That was the worst decision I’d made since I left the Academy nightclub with Brock bloody Keaton. The Academy… I’d have laughed at the irony if the situation weren’t so serious. Fuck my damn life. I wanted to make Saul eat his own balls—if he had any, that was. He didn’t seem to do much of his own dirty work. Did Ezra know what his brother was involved with? The younger Rosenberg seemed meeker, sometimes bumbling, but he ran the damn school. Would he miss a bazillion bucks in stolen paintings being stored right under his nose?

So many questions, so few answers.

There had to be some way out of this. There had to be. I was eighteen years old, and I’d only just started living, really living. I’d finally found my tribe. My family. I couldn’t lose them now.

Breathe, Sky. Keep breathing.A lightbulb pinged in my brain. Keep breathing.

What if? What if…?