Page 19 of Hidden in Plain Sight (Rocky Mountain Wolves #3)
~Evalina~
In the quiet, dark cell where the damp air clung to my skin, I whispered a silent thanks to the heavens for Keerla. When she found out I’d been locked up, she stopped by to see me, bribing the guards that Tarron posted with a sweet treat from the kitchen.
“I’m alright,” I told her through the same type of passage Felix and I communicated through earlier that day. “But can you please go check on my mother? She needs to eat.”
She promised she would before disappearing into the darkening night, and I stepped back, breathing deeply to try to calm the swirling storm of disappointment and anxiety inside of me.
Stuck in the pens, I couldn’t meet with Felix, which meant I had no easy way of finding the silver I needed. I could try to find some on my own by going through the portal another time, but based on what I saw during my abbreviated visit the night before, they seemed to be prepared for any kind of intruder. And even if I somehow managed to find enough of the material and bring it back with me, I would still have to evade notice when going through the portal.
It seemed impossible.
Too many odds were stacking up against me, leaving Tarron himself as the only viable option to get the silver I needed. He made it that way by design, I knew that, but it didn’t make it any less true. Stuck in the prison with time running out, I would have to give him an answer sooner rather than later.
My stomach twisted uncomfortably at the idea of being tied to that boorish, selfish man for the rest of my life and I sank down onto the floor of the cell, pulling my knees tight to my chest to try to keep the nausea at bay. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad? My mother would be healed, and I could stay close to her and Keerla. I wouldn’t have to work anymore, though what I would do with my time instead, I couldn’t be sure. The king had an amorta but she was rarely seen in public. Her whole life seemed to be confined to the residence, and my chest tightened at the prospect of being so restricted.
The world had much more to offer than that, I knew it did. Felix’s kind blue eyes flashed through my memory, asking me to go with him, and even though I knew it would have brought its own challenges, I wished I’d agreed.
The noise outside didn’t immediately make me get up. Voices drifted down the passage, sounding like the guards talking to someone, but I didn’t pay any attention. It might be time for a shift change or there might be new orders from Tarron. If it had anything to do with me, they would let me know, I had no doubt.
Nothing pierced through my internal debate until I heard my name, not shouted in anger but whispered urgently down the passage.
“Evalina?”
My head snapped up at the sound of the deep, warm voice I’d just been listening to inside my head. “Felix?”
It couldn’t be. My mind must have been playing tricks on me, but when I scrambled to my feet and pressed my chin against the bottom of the passage, there he stood, bending down to see me, just as kind and handsome as he’d been in my memory even though the moonlit shadows obscured most of his face.
“What are you doing here?”
I still couldn’t believe my eyes. Maybe I’d started hallucinating? It made more sense than that the werewolf would have returned to our world after escaping earlier that day.
“You didn’t come to see me,” he said simply. “I had to make sure you were okay, and obviously, you’re not.”
The words, so simple and direct, warmed something deep inside me. His eyes scanned the wall, looking for a way in, but with the magical field in place, there wasn’t one. Unlocking the door wouldn’t do me any good.
“There are guards out there,” I warned him. “Be careful.”
A warm smile spread across his face. “My friends have taken care of them, don’t worry.”
Friends? More of his kind? How did they ‘take care’ of the guards?
Who was this man?
“I brought the silver you wanted,” he continued, and my heart swelled with all the hope that had abandoned me earlier, rushing back in. “Now, we just need to get you out.”
“Don’t worry about me. Please get that silver to my mother’s house. Tarron will let me out eventually and I’ll figure out a way to put him off a little bit longer. The most important thing is that my mother gets better.”
Deep furrows creased his brow as he processed what I said. “Put him off? From what?”
That would take too long to explain so I stuck to my instructions instead. “Go down the path to the left, past the residence, and you’ll find a small settlement. The houses form a semicircle and ours is the first one on the left. My friend Keerla might be there, but don’t worry about her, just tell her I sent you. In the kitchen, there’s a small pantry, you can hide the silver in there and I’ll find it when I get home. Once it’s there, please go back to your own world before you’re captured again. It means so much to me that you kept your word, but I don’t want you to get in any trouble.”
It meant more to me than I could possibly express in the limited time we had, so hopefully, he could hear the sincerity in my words.
“I’ll send my friends there now,” he promised. “But I’m not leaving you here. You got me out, so we can get you out too.”
He stepped away from the opening and I could hear more murmured voices, others that were deep and masculine, like his, and one that sounded like a woman. The words weren’t audible but I could hear firm tones, not arguing but debating, until Felix returned into my line of sight.
“Alright, I passed on your directions. They’ve gone to your house and will wait for us there. Now, tell me what I need to do to get you out.”
He made it sound so simple. “I told you earlier: there’s a magical force field surrounding the building. I can open the lock if the magic is removed, but with it up, there’s nothing I can do.”
“What about the man who lowered it before?” Felix pressed. “Where can I find him?”
“He’s being punished as well. He’s…”
I trailed off, wanting to smack myself in the head for not thinking of it earlier.
“He’s in another one of the cells. I’m not sure if he can work his magic from inside the field, but…”
“... it’s worth a try,” Felix finished for me. “I’ll be right back.”
He disappeared again and I could hear him calling out “hello” down some of the other passages. Jermyn might be in any of the cells. From the inside, I couldn’t tell, even if he occupied the one right next to me.
The seconds ticked by as my mind raced. Would Jermyn be able to help? Would he be willing to, knowing it might bring an even greater punishment down on him? Would he recognize Felix as the one who knocked him out earlier that day and refuse to help him for that reason? What if the guards had somehow managed to get a message to Tarron about Felix’s arrival? If Tarron found out, he wouldn’t just lock me up again. My punishment would be severe and I didn’t want to think about what might happen to Felix. The more I thought about it, the less possible it seemed that we’d be able to succeed, but when Felix returned a few minutes later, a grin lit up his face. “He says it’s done. Can you try the door?”
Closing my eyes, I focused my magic, and sure enough, the lock clicked, the mechanism springing out, and the outline of the door appeared in the wall. I ran for it, pushing the handle outwards and stepping out into the freedom of the Etta night. Fresh air hit my face, a welcome relief from the cell’s cold, damp staleness, but that comfort paled next to the warmth of Felix’s smile.
“What did you say to him?” I asked Felix, staring up at the big, brawny man in awe.
“I kind of promised you’d cook for him,” he said, shrugging his broad shoulders in a sheepishly adorable way. “He seemed to really like your food earlier.”
“That’s perfect.” Obviously, he paid attention to details to remember that from our earlier interaction. I was impressed.
Together, we circled the pens and I repeated the process to release Jermyn from his cell. As we walked over to where the unconscious guards had been deposited, one of the men lifted his head, letting out a soft groan.
“Felix!” I hissed in warning but he’d already seen it.
“Sorry about this,” he apologized to the man before knocking him out cold with another well-placed blow.
Felix and Jermyn dragged the guards into the cell Jermyn had just vacated, and I relocked the door before Jermyn raised the magical field again. Hopefully, they wouldn’t be discovered until someone came to relieve them, so it would buy us a bit of time.
Not intending to waste a minute of it, I instructed Felix and Jermyn to follow me as quietly as possible down the path to my house before Tarron realized we were gone.