Page 151

Nick grunted a short laugh, and shook his head.

“Noted,” he said, smiling wider at her.

She looked slightly mollified, and a little less angry at Forrest, too, who was obediently eating the protein bar she’d handed him.

“You have another one of those in there for you?” Nick asked pointedly.

“I was getting to that,” she said, as she reached into the bag again. “I was cold. I wanted the cloak first.” She pulled out a second protein bar and ripped open the top.

Nick watched her take her first bite, then his eyes shifted down the corridor.

There was no doubt they’d found the source of the light.

Artificial lights dotted the corridor all the way down at regular intervals.

The walls in here weren’t rock, like they had been on the other side of the decontamination chamber; instead, they appeared to be made of organic metal.

The metal glowed with its own faint illumination.

“It’s likely we’re not alone down here,” Malek commented.

Nick glanced at the young seer. So did everyone else.

Then Charlie snorted a humorless laugh.

“Yeah, no shit, Mal,” she said, with a fondness that took Nick a little aback. He honestly hadn’t been sure the two of them really knew one another. “Tell us something wedon’tknow with that super-weird, seeing-eye thing of yours,” she teased.

Malek looked at her.

His expression, as always, appeared deadly serious.

“They’re expecting us,” Malek said in his flat-toned voice.

He paused, seeming to notice only then that he had all of their attention. He looked around at their faces, his expression unmoving, then back at Charlie.

“I don’t think they’re friends,” he added, his voice even more matter of fact.

They all blinked at him.

They all glanced at one another.

Then Nick let out another cynical grunt.

“Fantastic,” he said wryly. He met Wynter’s gaze. “…And of course.”

* * *

It wasodd to walk down roughly the same tunnel, at roughly the same angle, only now in full illumination and without the anti-radiation suits.

Nick felt lighter and more alert with every step he took.

He didn’t want to know what he and Jordan must have looked like when they half-fell out of that chamber, not in terms of his face or hands or the rest of him.

They’d gotten this far, and that was miracle enough.

They hadn’t lost anyone yet.

Nick was determined to keep it that way, but Malek’s words hadn’t exactly been reassuring. Whoever was waiting down here, it was clear they weren’t on Team Nick, or looking to score friend points with Team Nick’s motley, mix-raced “coven.”