Page 40 of To Cage a Wild Bird (Divided Fates #1)

Vale finally met my gaze. “We’ll tell you everything. But not here. We have to get to safety first. Just trust me, Little

Bird.”

Jed’s eyes narrowed at the nickname, and my face flamed.

A battle raged inside me as I looked deeper into Vale’s eyes, searching for any hint of deception. Any hint that I should

be afraid. But he’d had so many chances to throw me to the wolves. And if August trusted him...

“It’s okay,” I told Jed, sighing. “He’ll help us. You can trust him.” For now.

“To the tunnels, then,” Vale murmured.

The tunnels?

But there was no time for questions.

With each step, August’s weight seemed to press harder on me. Fatigue crept in, and sweat dripped down the curve of my spine.

I felt a soft hand on my arm, and then Vale gave me a slight push and took up my position under August’s arm. I didn’t bother

arguing—my back nearly cried out in relief.

The whine of the buzzer quickened our pace, all of us thinking of those who wanted to take August’s life.

The guards had dug more graves for the inmates since the last time I’d been on the grounds, and we tried to avoid them as

best we could. My eyes caught on that strange, curving path again, wondering where it might lead.

Eventually, we reached a cluster of bushes laden with bloodred berries. Vale nodded for us to push through, and we waded into

the prickly stalks. Thorns stabbed through the fabric of my uniform, and I maintained careful steps to avoid disrupting the

foliage or leaving a trail.

Midway through the thorns, Vale stopped.

He confirmed August was steady on his feet, and then he knelt, fingers tracing over a patch of greenery.

I exchanged a look with Jed, but a moment later, Vale lifted a neat square of moss, revealing a makeshift lid of interwoven sticks beneath. Once he removed it, I took a step back.

I swallowed. “What’s down there?”

Beneath the lid was a hole in the ground, so dark that it was impossible to discern what it held.

“A really good hiding place,” August whispered, urgency pushing his words out in a rush. “We use it for emergencies.”

“We?” My voice was barely above a whisper.

Vale looked around, likely calculating how long we had before a hunter jumped out of the trees and ambushed us. “Look, can

we discuss this down there? Please.”

I looked at Jed.

He stared back at me, his eyes narrowed, but finally gave a reluctant nod. “Okay. But they’re explaining themselves once we’re

safe.”

After stepping closer, I noticed the handmade ladder poised against the pit’s edge. It seemed steady enough. Jed carefully

maneuvered August down its rungs, and then I followed, my heartbeat quickening as I entered the musty darkness, several degrees

cooler than the air above. Vale came last, resealing the cover above us and plunging the pit into total darkness.

The click of a switch pierced the silence, and then a beam from Vale’s flashlight illuminated the dark.

My eyes adjusted, and I sucked in a sharp breath. The space was about the size of my cramped apartment bedroom back in Dividium.

Unlike my bedroom, the pit was filled to the brim with dust-covered artifacts from a forgotten time. Wristbands, relics compared

to the technologically advanced devices used now, lined a table in one corner, and shelving units held an array of blankets,

first aid kits, and jugs of water.

“They wanted to be prepared for every situation,” August explained, getting the words out before I could ask.

“Who’s they ? What the hell is going on?” I demanded, sidling closer to Jed, who crossed his arms over his chest.

Vale and August exchanged a glance.

Jed scoffed. “Tell us what’s going on.”

I let out an exasperated sigh. “Look, for a while now, I’ve suspected that you and August have a connection beyond an inmate

bribing a guard for protection. And you’ve helped me too many times to count. I know you try to do the right thing when you

can. But this? Some sort of secret hideout that I’d have to assume Larch knows nothing about?”

It was one thing for there to be... whatever there was between Vale and me, for him to want to make life at the prison

easier for me, to help me survive . But it was another thing entirely for him to have some sort of underground bunker where he hid inmates beneath Larch’s nose.

It was a move a rebel would make, but he’d made his disdain for the Collective clear.

“What do you mean you’ve suspected it for a while now?” Jed asked, hurt flashing in his eyes.

“Later, Jed.” I spun in a slow circle, taking in more detail. The flashlights and oil lanterns stacked on a high shelf. A

box of candles. The scent of damp earth.

“I think we’ve already established that I don’t enjoy watching people die,” Vale replied, avoiding giving me any actual answers.

“I can’t help everyone, but I do what I can.”

“And what about Mort? Did you enjoy watching him die?” I said it before I could stop myself. The accusation wasn’t based on

anything but the feeling in my gut and the look in Vale’s eyes when Larch had announced Mort’s death—but I had to know.

August and Jed looked back and forth between us, but neither of them intervened.

The corners of Vale’s lips turned down, and he moved closer until we were barely a step apart.

“Maybe I did. Maybe killing that fucking rapist was the best thing I’ve done since becoming a guard.

Everyone acts like the inmates here are monsters, but Mort?

He was the real monster. And he kept getting away with it.

Day after day, and he was never going to stop. ”

I stared at him. He’d killed a guard and had just openly scorned everything Endlock stood for. The revelation thrummed through

me.

“I didn’t plan it.” Vale shoved a hand through his hair, his voice gruff. “But then I walked up to see him pulling the teeth

from Cyril’s body. He was laughing . Just like he was laughing when he cornered you in the hallway. I couldn’t stop thinking about how if I hadn’t—” He swallowed,

his whole body shaking. “I’d seen him put his hands on so many others. There were probably a half dozen times I couldn’t stop him . And I snapped. I won’t lie to you and say I didn’t know what I was doing—I knew that piece of shit would burn to a crisp

before he knew what hit him.”

August, Jed, and I stared at Vale, open-mouthed, for a few moments before I collected myself enough to speak.

“How did you feel after?” I whispered.

“I didn’t regret it.” His eyes were only for me.

And I didn’t feel disgusted.

I felt some strange combination of gratitude and... something I couldn’t quite place. But I no longer had to worry that

Mort would find me, or Kit, or Yara in an isolated corridor and take what he wanted from us.

“Okay. So you want to help us, but how?” Jed asked, standing tall despite the slight tremor I detected in his voice. I reached

out, laying a hand on his arm before he continued. “Sure, we can hide out in this hole in the ground. But we have to get to

the Blood Tree eventually. I doubt being underground will stop the force field from touching us.”

“It won’t,” August confirmed.

I hung my head. What was Vale’s goal, anyway? He could help us get through whatever hunts we were assigned to, but to what

end? He couldn’t keep us alive forever. Not inside Endlock.

Something about the darkness of the space made it easier for me to be truthful with myself.

I’d tried to stave off my doubts as best as I could, but the reality was that I was nowhere near to coming up with a solution for getting out of Endlock.

And hiding in a hole in the ground wouldn’t bring us any closer to freedom.

Vale and August exchanged another glance that set my teeth on edge.

“Larch knows about this place,” Vale admitted.

“He knows you dug a pit in the ground to help hide inmates from the hunters?” Jed asked.

I narrowed my eyes.

Vale barked out a laugh. “No. Of course not. He knows there was an emergency tunnel system here decades ago, dating back to

the original prison. It ran beneath the entirety of the grounds so that the guards had an escape route in case of uprisings

or riots. Some of the entrances and sections have caved in, so the warden thinks the tunnels were destroyed. Collapsed from

disuse.”

“The tunnels run beneath the whole expanse of the grounds?” I asked, my voice tinged with disbelief. The possibility of something

like that existing had been beyond my wildest dreams. If it was true, it meant the fence might no longer be a factor in our

escape.

I stared at August. He’d known about this and hadn’t bothered to help me while I’d been floundering in my search for a way

out?

“Mostly,” Vale answered. “Some parts of the tunnels did collapse. This entrance is closest to Endlock, so we rarely use it. Too many hunters pass by, so we have to stay quiet or

risk them catching us.”

“This entrance point connects to a tunnel that brings us to the edge of the Blood Tree’s clearing,” August said, motioning

to the other side of what I’d thought was a pit. When I looked to where he pointed, partially obscured by a stack of boxes,

there was an opening in the dirt wall.

That’s how he’d survived for so long, then. He’d used the tunnel to get to the Blood Tree.

“Actually, we need to get moving,” Vale announced. “The force field will be closing in soon, and we need to make it into the

next segment.” He walked over to one of the shelving units, grabbing several flashlights and tossing one to each of us.

We clicked on the lights and followed him into the cobweb-coated tunnel.

“But why are you helping us?” I asked Vale, not daring to believe the conclusion that my mind was leaping to.

I turned, meeting August’s gaze, trying to ask him without words if what my heart wanted to believe could ever feasibly be

the truth.

Is this what I think it is? I tried to convey the words through my eyes, and maybe it worked because August’s lips pulled to the side in a smirk just

as Vale answered me.

“Because I don’t want you to die here. I’m going to help you get out.”