“No, thank you,” he replied, but neither of them had any real heat behind their words. Looking up, Hunter glanced at me, and then at Daemon. “I’m guessing you’re going to want to get down there first before she does.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as I tugged my hair up into a quick ponytail. Archer crept over to the edge, saluted us, and then disappeared down the ladder. A few seconds later, his voice traveled from the great beyond. “It stinks. Really bad.”
Great.
We quickly descended, and Archer hadn’t been lying. The dimly lit tunnel smelled of mold and butt—moldy butt.
Hunter was the last one down. Not even taking the ladder, he landed in a nimble crouch beside us, since he was all kinds of special, apparently.
Straightening, he glanced over his shoulder as he strode forward. “We’ve got a ways to walk.”
Turned out that “a ways to walk” equaled about a hundred miles to Hunter. In spite of my mutated genes, my legs ached as we walked for forever in the empty subway, which was silent with the exception of our footfalls. We traveled from one tunnel to the next, passing the underground commuter trains that had been abandoned and seemed to be the source of the nasty smell. I was eyeing the dirtied and broken windows on one of the trains when Hunter appeared right in front of me. Startled, I stumbled a step to the side.
Pale eyes met mine. “I wouldn’t look too closely at those trains. They’re not empty. Some of the Luxen got hold of them. Lit up the insides. People were onboard and this is where the trains stopped. You get what I’m saying?”
My stomach roiled as I nodded. So much unnecessary death—it was horrifying, and it took a long time for me to clear my head. We went deep in the maze of tunnels, going through a steel door that looked like it hadn’t been opened in the last decade, and entered a wide tunnel brightly lit with torches shoved into the grooves of the wall. Hunter stopped in front of a door up ahead, a circular steel one.
I bit down on my lip, sensing something was off. Like the air had suddenly turned stale, and it was hard to catch my next breath. A nervous sensation crept into my core like a thousand little ants.
Daemon stopped in front of me, stretching out an arm as he cocked his head to the side. Muscles up and down his spine rolled with tension. “There’re a lot of Arum beyond that door.”
Hunter smirked as he faced us. “I’ve told you. There are thousands down here.”
I couldn’t believe it. “How can there be so many? These are just subways.”
The Arum placed a large hand on the door. “They’ve created a world here, little one.”
I got hung up on the odd endearment. “Little” was the last adjective I’d use to describe myself.
“Lotho has been down here for years with many of the Arum, carving out an underground city with the help of those who are loyal to them. They come and go as they please, but they always come back.” He reached for a heavy lever. “The way they live is a bit archaic, so what you’re about to see—”
“Will probably result in my needing therapy later?” I nodded with a sigh. “Got it.”
One side of his lips kicked up, and then he looked at Daemon. “Ready?”
“Let’s get this over with.” Daemon reached for my hand, circling his around mine, and I didn’t mind.
I knew that what we were about to see, what we were about to walk into, was beyond dangerous, and we were going to do this together.
Hunter hesitated for a moment, like he really didn’t want to be doing what he was doing, and then his biceps flexed as he opened the door. There was another hall, but this was different. The walls were wooden beams filled in with drywall sheets. The torches were on poles, something like totems with weird loopy engravings that reminded me of Celtic knots. At the end of the wide hall was a wooden door that reminded me of something straight out of a Renaissance fair.
The moment we stepped into the hallway, and before Hunter reached the door, it flew open, clanging against the wall as another Hunter appeared.
Ah, there was the third triplet.
Even though he looked like another Hunter, with the exception of hair that was longer and pulled back at the nape of his neck, he reminded me of a pirate. And not the fun Disney version, either.
This brother bled animosity into the air and breathed hatred. He took one long look at his brother, and then his icy blue eyes drifted over us. I shivered as the temperature dropped. Goose bumps raced across my skin, and as I expelled my next breath, it formed a puffy, misty white cloud.
“You really shouldn’t have brought them here,” the brother said. Hearing his voice was like being pelted with freezing rain.
Hunter inclined his head. “And I really don’t need your permission, Sin.”
Sin stared at his brother for a moment and then chortled. “Whatever.”
Daemon had tensed, as if preparing for a battle to get through that door, and he didn’t relax when Sin pivoted on his heel and disappeared. Neither did I. The bad feeling I had from the moment Hunter started talking about Lotho had increased to epic levels.
Archer appeared at my other side, and the three of us followed Hunter through the door. Nothing could’ve prepared me for what I saw.
Underground city? No joke.
It was like stepping into a different world. There seemed to be no ceiling, even though I knew we were still deep underground. As far as the eye could see was scaffolding that climbed up, creating dozens and dozens of walkways circling the wide chamber. Doorways were visible on the lower levels, and thick, furry-looking material dangled from some of the railings. The whole setup kind of reminded me of a prison made out of wood.