If Yisu is here, then that means... Ezra was close. I had to get out of there.
Agnes turned to me with wide eyes and her mouth hanging slightly open. Yisu was balanced on the balls of her feet as she squatted on the ledge. She waved once and then dropped out of sight. I couldn't see where she landed, and I panicked slightly. She must have dropped five stories. Agnes watched the space where Yisu had been with a growing terrified expression. Soft murmurs and movement behind me were growing louder. The girls had begun to notice something was happening and crowded around the window. I turned to shush them and saw half a dozen wide-eyed expressions gazing back at me. They suddenly grew very still. The room had the feel of a hunted animal watching and waiting for a predator to strike.
Agnes' voice squeaked, "Girl. Stupid girl!" She tried to pull herself up onto the windowsill to see where Yisu had gone.
The lock on the door clicked, and the space around the window suddenly emptied. The girls sprinted back to the chairs and sofa, lounging lazily. Agnes reclined back against the windowsill precisely as she was when I first arrived. I stood my ground and turned to the new arrival, hands on my hips.
Özgür stepped through the door and quickly scanned the girls. He turned to Agnes and watched her for a moment. She lit a cigarette and glared back at him.
"What are you doing?" he asked, finally turning to me.
"Smuggling in child assassins in a massive escape attempt."
He scowled at me and then licked his lips. It was too much, watching his tongue snake out between his lips like a snake. I snapped, and my fist slammed forward, almost on its own, into his face making the bones in my hand crack. The shock of the impact ricocheted up my arm as it connected, nearly knocking me from my feet. I felt his nose crunch and slide unnaturally to the side.
A quivering, shivering sensation of pure satisfaction, flowed through me. Özgür reeled back stunned. Twin rivers of scarlet blood ran dribbling down to his chin. He stared at me in shock then rippled in rage. He sprang at me. I heard a soft, wet crunch, and Özgür paused. He stood for a moment, his eyes wide, and then he fell with a very quick, underwhelming collapse onto the floor.
There was a slight smear of blood and a small dent in the back of his skull. Agnes stood behind him with one of the bronze lamps in her hand.
"Basszon szájba a veresseggü ördög!" She was a snarling ball of fury. The lamp hung limply in her hand as she prodded him with her toe. We waited for him to move. After a few more seconds, she sighed. The room was deathly still, not a single cry, not a tremble of movement.
Agnes sprang into action and started directing, giving orders faster than I could follow even if I could understand the language. Another woman started arguing with her. A stream of rapid-fire insults volleyed between them. The woman was terrified and livid. Agnes won the argument, and two girls sprang out of their seats. They dragged Özgür's body into the small bathroom. Another girl moved a chair back to cover the small pool of blood that had collected under his head. Agnes swiftly replaced the lamp on the table. Before I fully comprehended what they were doing, the room looked as if nothing had happened. Someone would need to search for evidence of Özgür's not-so-unfortunate demise. That is, until they found the body. There was no going back now for Agnes.
"Do you have a plan?" She asked me.
I nodded. "Yes, we walk out the door."
"Great." She made it look as if she was rolling her eyes, but didn't. "All of us?"
I nodded, "Whoever wants to leave is welcome to." Agnes repeated our discussion to the rest of the group. They all looked petrified. I looked at the hodgepodge assortment of youth. They were all old enough to know how to stay quiet but I wasn't sure they could control themselves long enough to escape. Most of them looked like teenagers, fitful, and unpredictable. Every one of them was terrified. I looked at the young boy. He shook his head, vigorously. One girl, no more than fifteen, stepped forward and nodded nervously.
Only one, the rest chose to stay. Petro was right. I didn't want to judge them. They were terrified, and I didn't know or understand their lives.
"We must go. Now," Agnes said, her voice full of tension and strained nearly to the point of cracking. "Before they find Özgür."
She said something to the girls and placed her hand on the door handle, twisting it gently. The door opened a sliver, and Agnes waited a moment before opening it further and stuck her head out. Then, like a flash, she walked into the hallway, and I followed. The young girl slipped out after me then silently shut the door behind her.
The hall was blissfully empty and silent. The girl walked toward the stairway, and Agnes stopped her, resting a hand on her shoulder and gestured with her head toward the opposite end.
We followed Agnes to a door at the end of the hall. Agnes stood immobile with her hand placed delicately on the handle and waited, listening. She suddenly swung it open, and we rushed through. It was another smaller stairwell. Agnes closed the door, its click echoing against the walls. I ground my teeth at the noise. It seemed so loud.
We made it down three flights before we heard voices. We immediately backtracked up the stairs. The voices pushed us up, flight after flight. Each door was locked until we were back on the fifth floor. The girl ran through the door and moved toward the main stairwell. She disappeared quickly and never looked back.
I felt something tap my shoulder, and I started, my heart galloping into my throat. I turned, and Agnes thrust her hand over my mouth. She waited until I calmed down before lowering her hand.
"What?"
She shook her head. "You get me out. I get you out." The voices from below were growing louder. "We go up," she said, pointing.
"Why up?"
"You don't know building," she said, shaking her head with a determined frown. "Floor above is guards' rooms. Top is Petro. No guards."
It was a dangerous plan but possibly the only option. It would be easier to hide up there. I needed to think. I nodded and followed her up two more flights. Agnes opened the door smoothly, the wood and hinges never making a whisper. This was the one floor I least wanted to be on.
My skin itched, and sweat pooled, slipping down between my breasts and my shoulder blades. We walked to the first room. Those few seconds before we opened that door were the most terrifying. I kept imagining that Petro was waiting for me in that room. That sly seductive grin spread across his face, taunting me. He would enjoy catching me.
It was his bedroom. A grand four-poster bed was displayed in the corner with a large fireplace opposite. A trophy case dominated another wall.
What is it with the walls of weapons? Do all Avati have them, or is it just the men?
Agnes followed me to the display. Her mouth formed a small O as she looked up at the wall of death. Every item on display was created for one purpose— one cold, chilling purpose. She picked up a long thin blade and twirled it in her fingers. Then she handed a fearsome looking dagger to me.
"What am I supposed to do with this?"
"You stick that part in bad guy," Agnes interrupted, gesturing to the point of the knife.
"Thanks for the tip." I tightened my hand around it, feeling lost and childish. With only my nightgown covering me to mid-thigh, I had nowhere to put it. So I kept it lowered by my side.
"This was your great idea?" I glared at her. "To hide in Petro's bedroom?"
She blinked and nodded. "We wait for a while. They not think look here. Soon they go dinner. Smoke narghile. Then we go."
Perhaps she was right. Maybe the wolf wouldn't think to look in his own den. I hoped fortune was on our side. I hunkered down against the wall next to the bed and tried to breathe... and think. Yisu was here. That meant Ezra had to be nearby. I had to get out before he found me. Otherwise, he'd kill everyone he met along the way. Was that a bad thing?
Agnes squatted down next to me and bounced nervously on her haunches. She was eager for action, and I sympathized. Inactivity was nerve-wracking and debilitating. I hated this. I hated having to sit and wait, not being able to do anything. I had to get Agnes out. Best-case scenario, as soon as Petro discovered Özgür's body, he'd kill her. I didn't want to imagine the worst-case scenario. Maybe I could convince him I did it. He'd probably like that.
I wasn't foolish enough to believe I could go head to head against Petro, or even Tem, for that matter, on my own and succeed. I survived Esther. That doesn't happen twice.
A confluence of events, balancing and molding together at just the right moment, enabled Esther to fail and me to survive. Or maybe it was simply beginner's luck. While I was unwilling to go down without a fight, I had no desire to wander the halls inviting one.
I had to get out before Ezra... before Ezra...
Imagining what he would do made my panic level triple. And Petro was older. What if Ezra wasn't strong enough?
I listened for sound to pass by outside the door. There was nothing but silence. It was strange, astonishing really, that I hadn't been discovered. How many guards were there? Had they even started looking? Realistically there couldn't have been that many or someone would have found us.
I thought about Petro. Everything about him was formidable. He wielded his age like a weapon... and a shield. He wanted me to know how old he was. He wanted to see me quiver in fear and delight.
Did I?
That was why I was able to beat Esther. I was too young to know not too. An Avati would never fight against someone three thousand years older. It had never occurred to me to do anything else. Mortals don't fear age. Avati worship it.
I stopped myself and sucked in a deep breath in shock. I realized I had already begun thinking of mortals as them and Avati as us. What did that mean? Was I already beginning to think like the Avati? To think like Petro?
He wanted something from me, and it made me shiver. I wanted, needed, to run. Doubt snipped and tugged at me. I was never going to stop running.
He'd never let me go.
That's what Esther meant. He never let her go. What was she to him? What was he to her?
I heard something brush against the wood of the door and held my breath. The door slowly pushed open. Agnes froze, and I sank back further against the wall... a useless gesture, but instinct will have its way.
Who do you think is at the door?
TEASER: "Stop this! Stop! Just let her go."
What do you think is going on here?