Whisper (Whisper #1)(61)
Dante shrugs. “Liana saw something. We need to swing by her room first to remedy a … complication. The others are waiting for us in the control room.”
Kael looks like he wants to ask more questions, but even I notice the brisk head shake Dante sends him, and I wonder what that’s all about. I don’t have time to dwell, however, since they turn and stalk back along the tunnel we just came from.
“We’re on the clock,” Kael says to Dante. “We have less than an hour before we need to get her back topside and swap her out with Shae, or they’ll take the wrong girl back to Lengard.”
Relief floods me at the realization that this abduction is only temporary. Confidence, too. Enough that I’m about to try another round of questions, when we arrive back at the fork. This time Kael leads the way down the right path.
Unlike the first tunnel we traveled along, this one has multiple offshoots, like one huge underground maze. With each new turn, my hope of escape dwindles. But Kael’s mention of returning me topside helps keep me calm, even if I’m yet to discover why I’ve been taken captive in the first place.
The two boys stop in front of a closed door embedded in the rock wall, and Kael rattles off a knocking sequence before latching on to my arm and tugging me through.
It’s dark inside the room, and it takes a moment for my eyes to adjust, especially when Dante enters and seals the door behind us. Only a solitary candle lights the space, held by a wisp of a middle-aged woman with luminescent white hair so long that it trails down past her hips. I stifle a gasp when she moves the candle high enough for it to reveal her face. Her eyes are almost as colorless as her hair, with large black pupils keeping her from looking like she’s possessed.
“I am Liana,” she tells me in a voice that is somehow both deep and high-pitched at once. “Your future is cast in shadow and song, your destiny filled with echoes.”
A shiver trails down my spine. I have no idea what her words mean, but I’m unnerved by the soft light I saw flare when she uttered them. I glance around at the others and note that while Dante seems unperturbed, Kael appears more alert than ever.
“Do you feel it now?” Dante strangely asks.
Kael gives a slight nod, his eyes roaming the darkened room. I don’t know how he can see anything, because I sure can’t. The candlelight picks up a vague shape of a bed and an outline of some other large piece of furniture, but everything else is hidden from sight.
Dante moves to lean against the door. It’s a casual movement, but I sense there is purpose in the action.
“He was keeping his distance before,” he says, “but there’s not enough space to hide in here. Plus, I’m guessing his energy is crashing from having to maintain it at full for so long.”
Unable to curb my irritation, I demand, “What’s going on?”
Kael’s eyes narrow in on the space directly to my left as he says, “We’re not alone in here.”
And with his declaration, Liana blows out the candle, and the room goes dark.
CHAPTER TWENTY
I’m pushed into the wall, and I hear a scuffle in the pitch-black room that barely lasts seconds before another flame is lit. What it illuminates causes my eyes to widen and my heart to drop.
“Sneak?”
The young boy is trapped in Dante’s arms, and he looks terrified. I feel for him, I really do, but I’m also struggling to understand what I’m seeing — because he’s not transparent at all. He’s not even semitransparent. He’s completely solid, something I know he’s not capable of controlling on his own yet. Like my Speaking ability, something is blocking him. Or perhaps, someone.
I turn to Kael and demand, “Are you doing this?”
He doesn’t take his eyes off the white-faced Sneak. “I’m afraid you’ll have to be more specific, princess.”
I frown. “Stop calling me that. And answer my question.”
“The time for your questions is later.” Kael takes a menacing step closer to Sneak. “What are you doing here, boy?”
I move forward, ready to jump in if needed. “His name is ‘Sneak,’ not ‘boy.’”
It hits me suddenly how ridiculous I sound, since I doubt his real name is “Sneak.”
“I don’t care what his name is — just that he knows mine,” Kael says. “And you do, don’t you, boy?”
I clench my jaw but keep silent this time.
“You’re Kael Roscave,” Sneak says, his fearful voice barely above a whisper. “Everyone knows who you are.”
Everyone?
“I am,” Kael confirms. “And I want to know why you’re here.”
I can see Sneak trembling from where I’m standing, and my protective instincts want me to close the distance between us and demand his release. But I have no power here — that much is clear.
“I’m not — I won’t —” Sneak takes a fortifying breath and stands up a little straighter. “I don’t have to tell you anything.”
Kael cocks his head to the side. “You’re right. You don’t.” To Dante, he asks, “You getting anything?”
It’s only then that I realize Dante’s lips have been moving the whole time in a silent litany and a soft glow is emanating from around him. His gaze is unfocused, but when Kael addresses him, he seems to snap out of his thoughts.