Took Me Yesterday (book 2 of The Tomo Trilogy)

When I Heard His Voice

"We're going to die in here."

From where she lay on the ground, Lily's voice echoed around the dirt chamber like it would be the last thing we'd hear . . . a dozen times. She even repeated it, over and over again, one arm draped over her eyes, her white hair splayed out like an elongated crown. It wasn't until she said it for the fiftieth time did Tasia do something about it.

She threw a rock at Lily, hitting her square in the forehead.

Lily cursed, sitting straight up. "That hurt!"

"Just reminding you you're still alive," Tasia said.

"I know I'm alive," Lily yelled. "That's why I'm scared of dying!"

"Oh, shut up. Both of you." I curled my hands around the metal bars keeping us in our underground, makeshift prison. From the looks of the cedar racks on the far wall—and our lack of cellmates—it worked more as a wine cellar than an actual cellar. And from what I could tell, there was one way in, one way out. The wooden door didn't look hard to break, and the citizens didn't have enough money to afford handcuffs. But they did have guns. A lot of guns. And we were going to stay stuck if I couldn't learn anything new, and I definitely couldn't hear the guards beyond Lily and Tasia's jabbering.

"Let it go, Gray." Tasia flicked a smaller rock at me, only for it to ping against the bars instead of me. "They'll kill us or they won't."

"That's your battle plan?" Lily shrieked, clearing missing Tasia's indifference or sarcasm. To be fair, I wasn't sure either. Tasia's tones sounded the same. "Who exactly would send someone like you to save Sophia anyway?"

"Save?" Tasia's chuckle made my stomach twist. "I was only instructed to bring her back to Tomery alive. That's not exactly saving her from anything."

I spun around. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what it's supposed to mean." She cocked an eyebrow. "You think Tomery's in the business of saving people? He created a highly addictive war drug, and he kept producing it, despite the Phelps' Massacre. What's that tell you about his character?"

I never got the chance to respond.

The cellar door burst open, causing a stream of orange-red light to burst in like a flame. As if we were moths smothered out, we silenced. Lily, despite her affliction toward Tasia, moved closer to the woman, and the woman allowed it. I stayed where I stood, even when Tasia hissed at me to move back. I knew she cared about us more than she let on. She just pretended to be tough in case our captors were listening. If it was obvious to me, I was sure they'd figured it out, too.

Silhouettes appeared in the doorway, one by one, and then they turned into a stream of shadow limbs before the door shut behind them and all definition was lost. Tasia hissed at me again, but I ignored her, staring past the purple dots lining my vision as they neared. I kept a brave face, a stern one, but it all melted away when I heard his voice.

"Sophia," he cursed my name, and I almost could not breathe again.

His piercing blue eyes bit through the darkness first, and then the rest of his face melted in. His jagged jawline, his pale white skin, his freckled cheeks. His glare.

"Pierson?" I managed.

I first met him when he was a doorman at the homecoming party gone terribly wrong. Through a chemistry course at the Traveler's Bureau, he was involved with Miles and therefore Noah and Broden. He helped me escape the homecoming raid, not even knowing who I was, and then, he helped me escape Anthony. Noah's cousin had almost killed me. Now, Noah's cousin was probably dead. Last I'd checked, Pierson was still working for Phelps' as a double spy. But he stood in front of me, shorter and stockier than ever, his heavy backpack causing him to sink further into the soft dirt below us.