Children of Blood ✔️

Chapter Fourteen

Speeding through the streets, Alaric ahead of me, we finally reach the spot where we left Josef and Maverick. Alaric and I glance at each other and scan the crowd. Maverick wades through the sea of bodies as Josef sticks to his heals.

"Where were you?" Alaric asks annoyed.

"We went to scout out some places Luke could be hidden. There are a lot of abandoned buildings." Josef sucks his lips together. "This is going to be hard. For all we know he could be locked in his room."

"Or in the dungeon," Alaric suggests.

"I don't know," I shake my head. "Those places are too obvious, Lady doesn't want us to find him. She's wicked and smart. She'd hide him where we'd get trapped."

"What are you suggesting?" Alaric shifts his gate into a slow jog, leading us away from the crowd.

"I'm saying he's where he can't get out, and where he can be controlled. A place where we are cornered. He is in the Pit's prison."

Maverick nods and Josef shrugs. "It doesn't hurt to start there. As long as we're together."

Alaric nods and we sprint to the blood soaked arena. Eyes mange to drift towards us the more momentum we gain. We reach an opening where standing tall and broken, embezzling all my nightmares, is the Pit. The screams of victims and cheers of prosecutors burn my ears while tears tread along the rim of my eye.

I gulp my pain and resentment jogging towards the round building. Leading the team towards a back entrance I had once escaped through, I reach of the door handle. Yanking hard I hope it will unlatch. It doesn't. Maverick slips past me and picks the lock within a few seconds and opens the door. Sliding in single file we enter the stone stands, all facing the sand pit.

"Jean," Alaric whispers resting a hand on my shoulder. "Where to next?"

Snapping out of my daze and trying to smash the butterflies in my stomach I crank my head in each direction. Jogging on the steps I finally come across the trap door leading to the underground prison. Sluggishly I try to open the trap door but my legs give in. Maverick steps forward again and yanks hard but only a chain rattles behind the barrier.

"It's locked from behind the trapdoor?" Josef asks shaking his head.

"Must be in the right place if there's a lock," Alaric stares up at the doors surrounding us. "But where are all the guards?"

"I don't know," I confess uneasily. "But I suggest we hurry and be prepared to fight. Lady might be waiting for us to fall into one of her traps."

The boys nod and I glance around the Pit. I don't know what to do now... I don't know how to get in. I stare at the sand as my muscles twitch with fear. As my gears turn a click echos in my head.

"We should look for another way in." Josef starts to walk around the arena.

"What if we go into Pit and unlock the door that leads from the arena to the prison?" I ask leaning over the railing and staring down at the steep drop.

Maverick leans over and stares at the door lock and nods his head.

"You can pick the lock?" I ask hope climbing out of my throat.

He nods again and I smile, "let's go. Alaric and Josef, if you stay here we'll come out the trap door."

Alaric nods and smiles, "be careful. Okay?"

I nod back and leap over the edge. Landing hard on my knees I brush off the sand. Maverick, despite his huge stature, lands eloquently on the ground beside me. He looks down concerned but I shake my head, "let's go."