“Onyx,” Blake whispered, catching Kat staring at the shiny ceiling. “The whole place is covered in onyx.”

God, what a lovely addition.

The tunnel split into a crossroads with elevators in the middle. Matthew inched toward the opening, checking out the space first. “Clear,” he said.

Silent, we filed into the elevator. I checked on Dawson. Razor-edge determination was set in his jaw. Kat was looking at the ceiling again, and I noticed it was also outfitted with onyx.

Reaching between us, I found her hand and squeezed. I could feel her heart racing. She looked up at me, and I winked. She shook her head. We were almost there. The elevator came to a smooth stop and the doors opened, revealing a waiting room—a white waiting room. Everything was white—walls, ceiling, floors.

“Lovely decorative colors,” Matthew muttered.

I smirked, but it quickly faded as Dawson moved ahead of us, approaching the third and final door. “Careful, brother. We take this slow.”

Dawson nodded. “I’ve never been here. Blake?”

Blake moved to his side. “Should be another tunnel, shorter and wider, and there’ll be doors on the right side. Cells—really, outfitted with a bed, a TV, and a bathroom. There’ll be about twenty rooms. I don’t know if the others are occupied or not.”

Others?

Kat looked at me sharply. “We can’t just leave them.”

Before I could answer, Blake intervened. “We don’t have time, Katy. Taking too many will slow us down, and we don’t know what kind of condition they are in.”

“But—”

“For once, I agree with Blake.” I met her shocked stare, and I hated myself for this. “We can’t, Kitten. Not now.”

Kat pressed her lips together, and I knew she wasn’t okay with this, but we didn’t have the time, and we hadn’t planned for rescuing more than Chris and Beth.

Blake keyed in the last code: Daedalus.

The sound of several locks sucking back into place broke the silence, and a light at the top of the door, on the right, flashed green. I moved in front of Kat as Blake inched the door open, and Matthew had done as I’d asked, blocked her from behind.

“We’re clear,” Blake said, sounding relieved.

We went through the door, discovering another onyx shield. Now we had two to get the others through. This wasn’t going to be easy. The tunnel was like the one above, but it was all white and much shorter, wider.

We were here.

My gaze tracked my brother as Blake called out before rushing down the hall, toward the last of the cells. “The third cell is hers.”

Dawson spun around as Kat and I moved close to him. He reached for the onyx-coated door handle. There was a flicker of pain across his stoic face, but the door opened, and my brother… My brother started trembling. His entire body shook as he croaked out one word, “Beth?”

I saw her then, a slender girl sitting on a narrow bed, and she looked like I had remembered—brown hair tucked back in a smooth ponytail and her elfin face pale. The moment recognition flared in her eyes, the second her gaze locked with my brother’s, I wanted to whoop with relief.

Dawson staggered forward, hands opening and closing at his sides, and all he could say was her name over and over.

She scrambled forward, her gaze darting all around, but then hitting him and staying.

“Dawson? Is that… I don’t understand.”

They moved at the same time, coming together in a rush. Their arms went around each other. Dawson lifted her up as he buried his face in her neck. When he kissed her, I shifted my gaze, wanting to give them the privacy we really couldn’t afford, but seeing them together, clinging to each other, got me right in the gut.

Dawson and Beth loved each other, and I had been an asshole to not support them since the beginning.

But we needed to get out of here.

“Dawson,” I said quietly.

My brother pulled away from Beth as he grabbed her arms, and the moment her mouth wasn’t occupied with Dawson’s, she started asking questions. “What are you guys doing? How did you all get in here? Do they know?”

Dawson was grinning like his face was going to split into two. “Later,” he said. “But we have to go through two doors and it’s going to hurt—”

“Onyx shields, I know,” Beth said.

Whelp. Douche Bag had been correct. Speaking of him, I frowned as I saw him coming up the hall, carrying the prone body of a dark-haired Luxen boy. “Is he okay?”

Blake nodded, but he was pale and tense. “I…he didn’t recognize me. I had to keep him quiet.”

Kat hastily looked away, and I knew despite all the crap Blake had done, she felt bad for him in this instance. Hell, who wouldn’t?

Beth turned toward Blake. “You can’t—”

“We need to go.” Blake cut her off and prowled past us. “We’re almost out of time.”

Beth was shaking her head vigorously. “But—”

“We need to go, Beth. We know.” Dawson kissed her quickly, and she nodded, but the panic was building in the wide hall, threatening to infect us all.

Urgency kicked adrenaline into high gear, and without any more delay, the five of us took off down the hall. Skidding to a stop, I punched the code into panel on the wall, and the door opened.

I jerked.

Simon Cutters was standing in the waiting room, so obviously not dead. Everyone stumbled to a halt behind me.

“Oh shit,” I said.

Simon smiled. “Missed me? I missed you guys.”

Then he raised an arm. Light reflected off a metal cuff he wore, with, of course, a piece of opal embedded into it. He opened his hand and let loose a damn hurricane of wind. All of us were lifted up off our feet. Kat was thrown back, smacking into the nearest door. Dawson whirled, forcing Beth against the wall, taking the brunt of the gale-force winds. Matthew hit the wall, and my legs were knocked right out from under me. I skidded several feet down the hall.

Damn.

Someone was now a souped-up hybrid, and I had no idea how that happened, but there wasn’t any time to play ask and answer.

I picked myself up, quickly looking for Kat. She was standing with Blake’s help, favoring one leg over the other. I didn’t see what Blake had done with the passed-out Chris.

Anger turned my blood to lava. “Oh, you are so dead.”

“Ah, I think that’s my line,” Simon responded, letting out a burst of energy.

“Daemon!” Kat shouted.

Spinning out to the side, I avoided a direct hit. Immediately, I summoned the Source and reared back. Energy arced across the room, a whitish-red light.

“You’re going to wear yourself out, Luxen,” Simon sneered, dodging my hit.

I smirked. “Then so will you.”

Simon winked and then spun toward Kat, throwing his hand out again. She and Blake skidded back. I shot around Simon as Blake caught Kat with arm around her chest. Appearing in front of them, I shoved Kat behind me.

“This is so not good,” Blake said, edging closer to Simon. “We’re running out of time.”

“No shit,” I spat.

Dawson shot toward Simon, but he threw him back, laughing. Another blast of energy flew at Blake and then toward Matthew. Both of them dive-bombed the floor to avoid taking a hit, and Simon kept advancing, smiling like a psycho.

Simon darted to one side, focusing on Kat. “Want to play, Kitty Kat?”

Aaand I was so done with this.

“Oh, screw this,” I growled.

Striking like a cobra, I shot past Blake and Matthew and within a second I was directly in front of Simon. The hybrid lifted his arms. I could feel the Source roaring through him as I placed my hands on either side of his head and twisted.

A crack echoed through the room, and Simon hit the floor.

Stepping back, I exhaled roughly as I closed my hands. “I never liked that punk in the first place.”

Kat stumbled to the side as I turned around. “He’s…he was…”

“We don’t have time.” Dawson pulled Beth toward the elevators. “They have to know we’re here.”