“Kaptain has been able to build this place and keep it safe for over ten years now,” Kek replied, twisting us down another hallway. “He’s gone to great lengths to keep it hidden with misdirection spells and protective barriers in place. This is the main base, but we also have several safe houses we move to when we’re in the city, pointing Prime Minister Leon’s soldiers in all the wrong directions. I think we have them looking up their ass by now. Here we are—four-eighteen.” Kek stopped at a door that looked like every other one we passed. “The latrine is right at the end here.” She pointed to a larger doorway about three doors down. “Little more privacy than Halálház, though I warn you, sex is even more rampant in there.”
She shoved open the door to my room.
It was tiny and almost identical to the one I had at Sarkis’s, with a bed, nightstand, and trunk at the end of the bed, but this one was a single, barely accommodating the basic furniture. And like before, clothing and a bathroom kit were left on the mattress for me.
“You are fortunate this one came up. People kill for singles.” Kek leaned against the doorframe. “Guess there is a perk to being the Kaptain’s niece.”
I bit down on my lip. The last thing I wanted was to cause ripples with people because of my relation to the leader. Not that it sounded like Mykel would be giving me many.
“It’s almost six-thirty. Dinner is served up in the canteen from six to eight, breakfast is also six to eight. Lunch and snacks are whatever you can grab from the carts or cafes.”
Six-thirty? I’d lost almost a whole day since they took me. It was late afternoon/early evening when I was kidnapped in Budapest. It was almost a seven-hour journey by train or car between the two cities. I had to have been unconscious for at least twelve hours.
Was Ash freaking out? Did Warwick head back? Were they looking for me?
I wagged my head, clearing the gnawing questions burrowing into my mind.
“I think I’m good.” The last thing I wanted to be was around people. I needed to sleep off the chemical still polluting my veins and reassess tomorrow.
Plopping down on the squeaky cot, I rubbed my head, feeling Kek’s eyes on me.
“At Halálház... I was told to watch you.” Kek tugged on her blue braid. “Not befriend you.”
My eyes went up to her, not sure how to respond.
“What I told you was true. I’m not good with friendships or people in general. But you were different.” Her eyes darted away. She cleared her throat, straightening, her manner shifting to the arrogant, blasé attitude I was used to. “Besides, I didn’t mind watching over you at all.” Her gaze ran over me, an eyebrow lifting. I didn’t respond. “If you get lonely or scared in the middle of the night and want a cuddle, I’m right across the hallway.” She winked before stepping out and shutting the door.
A snort huffed from my nose, my hand rubbing my face. The silence ticked at my nerves, carving an unsettled feeling in my chest.
Just the other morning, I woke up at Ash’s, feeling safe and hopeful for the first time in a long while. This after Warwick took my body to places I couldn’t even fathom without actually doing more than washing my hair. Now I was isolated and defensive, going to sleep in a different country, within the hidden walls of Povstat, where no one could find me, and my real uncle, whom I didn’t know, was the leader.
So much had happened in the last twenty-four hours—hell, in the last few months—my brain struggled to keep up. Last spring, high up on HDF’s roof, I would never have imagined I’d be been here.
Plunking back on the thin pillow, I felt utterly alone. I lost my home, the boy I thought I would love all my life and my best friend, everything I thought I believed in. Even Hanna was gone to me now.
Kek, Zander, Lynx (Ling), and Warwick had been spying on me because of an order. Not one had been genuine. And once again, the one who hurt me the most was the one I should have been most guarded from.
Warwick already betrayed me once, but this seemed worse—the hazy memory of seeing him with a beautiful woman and boy. The boy with the same black hair. They looked so content and happy.
He has a son.
A family.
Not bothering to take off my clothes or even my boots, I curled on my side, the echoes of pain reverberating in my hollow chest.
With no one around in this cold, unfamiliar room, I let myself feel the heartache and pain before my lids dropped and the darkness claimed me.
Chapter 2
“Kovacs?” My name sounded like it was heaved through gravel, pulling at my bones, marking them with every syllable. “Kovacs!”
The anger and desperation punched through my chest, stirring desperation in my muscles to find the owner of the voice.
My mouth wouldn’t move, my feet wouldn’t budge, and pure blackness surrounded me. I tried to writhe against the invisible restraints.
“I’m here!” My mind screamed, but nothing made it out.
“Fucking answer me, Kovacs.”
Thrashing and fighting, panic bubbled up, as the more I fought, the tighter I felt locked in place.
“Ko-vacs.” My name was growing distant, like he was leaving.
“No! I’m right here!” I tried to yell. Not a sound came off my tongue.
“Brexley... ” The name was more a whisper, only a thread left, my last chance.
A sob wracked my chest, my body still trying to fight. Something clamped down on my leg, snapping my attention down, horror freezing the air in my lungs.
Dozens of bony fingers wrapped around my ankles. Skeletons from every direction clamored for me, clawing and grabbing, yanking themselves from dirt graves, trying to pull me down with them.
A chilling scream tore up from my gut.
With a gasp, I bolted up, fear dancing over my shoulders and shooting down my spine. Sweat dampened my forehead and back, my chest heaving.
My gaze darted around the compact room. The fire bulb above my head allowed me to search every corner, the anxiety from the dream still coating me.
Memories quickly filed back in order, my brain registering where I was.
Povstat.
I was in Prague. Inside my Uncle Mykel’s rebel base.
Taking slow breaths, I tried to calm my racing heart. Chills ebbed from the back of my neck while the feeling of the dream sat heavy in my stomach.
I glanced at a clock on the wall, which read 4:12 a.m.
Blowing out the breath I’d been holding, I fell back on my pillow. I was still tired, but my mind raced wildly, and I knew there was no way I would fall back to sleep.
I shifted with a groan, a light headache clinging to me. Ruffling through the clothes left for me, I grabbed what I needed, along with the bathroom kit, and moved to the lavatory. The showers and toilets were private, the tile and counters clean. It didn’t smell like chlorine and shit like Halálház, though any bathroom with no windows or air filter system always had a heavy smell of mold coming from the walls and water trapped in pockets in the drain. I had lived most of my life with a bathroom that could rival noble palaces, but this was becoming my norm, more familiar than a fancy palace.
A few early risers were getting ready for the day, the communal bathroom still quiet. Quickly showering and dressing, I pulled my wet hair up in a ponytail and headed up to the second floor. A man was setting up a coffee cart near the elevator, and I practically mugged him for a cup.