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“There was a cave-in,” Kace answered. He indolently rested his head on my shoulder, and I stiffened at the initiation of contact. My muscles slowly relaxed when I came to the conclusion he wasn’t planning on slashing open my neck or anything like that. “But we believe another group of students were trying to escape before us. They marked on the rock where we could dig without the entire tunnel collapsing.”

“Other students…?” I trailed off.

Other students had tried to escape?

What had happened to them?

That answer was simple if today’s demonstration was any indication.

“We believe they were caught,” Tanner parroted my thoughts with a nod of his head. “But, B, we’re so fucking close. So close. We think we can do it. Escape, that is. Maybe in the next few days.”

His words twisted my insides. Escape. Leave.

Those two words sounded so fucking appealing.

But so, so dangerous.

“Okay, so what do you need me for?” I asked, raising a brow. “I obviously won’t be much help with the heavy labor.” I was fit from gymnastics, but I wasn’t as buff as the four guys around me. Even Kace, the skinniest of the bunch, had corded muscles accentuated clearly through the school uniform.

“Heath,” Tanner answered.

“Heath? The president?”

He nodded. “We believe he has more information than the average student. Maybe he’ll be able to tell us what’s on the other side of that wall.”

I gulped audibly, and Kace reached down to squeeze my hand.

“On the other side? Isn’t it…well…you know,” I stammered, eyes zeroing in on the anxious glances exchanged between all four of the guys.

“Maybe. That’s what we want to determine,” Aiden said at last. “It will be dangerous if we go through the tunnel blind. If Heath knows anything, we need to know.”

“And that involves me how?” I asked, though I already feared the answer.

“Use your female…charms,” Aiden said after a long moment of silence. Both Tanner and Beau refused to meet my eyes.

“You want me to seduce him?” I asked in disbelief. My stomach tightened to exponential levels. When no one answered, I narrowed my eyes into thin slits. “Fuck you all.”

“We need your help, little gymnast. We wouldn’t have asked if one of us could do it. Or if there was another female we could trust.”

“Fuck you.” It seemed to be the only two words I was capable of saying.

My fingernails dug into Kace’s palm, my eyes spewing heat.

Fucking pricks.

“Okay, so we discover what’s on the other side of the wall. We time our escape so the professors aren’t around and won’t notice our absence for at least a little bit. What about the monster?” I asked.

All four of the guys blinked at me.

“Monster?” Kace asked, staring up at me through his dark lashes.

I frowned. Was I going crazy? Was what Kelly showed me real?

How did they know about everything else, but not the monster lurking these halls?

I brought a hand up to my head as if that physical gesture could somehow clear my foggy mind. Memories bombarded me. Ali’s death. The dark, sunken skin of the hand. The clattering noise echoing in the halls.

“Little gymnast, we don’t understand what you mean,” Tanner said at last. He stared at me long and hard, as if questioning my sanity.

“But…but…what do you think happens to the students that are taken? I’ve seen it happen. I’ve seen them become sacrificed to the monster.”