Alone [Book 3 of the Life Hearts Trilogy, previously called Lost Hearts]

An Old Frenemy - Blue's POV

So the Evolutionists are gonna be WAYYY out of character

~~~

We all walked through the narrow tunnels of the Watcher fortress in a single file line: Grian at the front to navigate, me in the back to handle any rear attacks if they happened, and all the trapped Evolutionists in the middle. I had my borrowed iron sword drawn.

Every time we came to a dead end, Grian simply put his hand on the wall and it melted away. But I was still sweating from the tiny space and the danger.

"Here," Taurtis said. The entry hall was big enough for all of us to stand in it at once with some elbow room. Good, because I liked my personal space.

In front of us was a large Dreamstone door, shimmering like mother-of-pearl. But at the same time, it seemed to draw the shadows to it.

Grian tried the door. It was locked. So he tried using his magic.

The door stayed in place.

"Why isn't it working?" Zee asked, peering over Mini's shoulder.

Grian frowned. "I don't know."

"It should work," Tomohawk said. "It's still Dreamstone."

"But it's stronger than the rest of it," Grian said. "I can feel it."

"You just need to try harder, then," I said.

Grian put his hand on the door and concentrated. "It's fighting me," he said, gritting his teeth.

Then the door silently swung open... into another maze.

"Oh, no. I thought this would lead out!" Salems said.

"It'll just take a little longer," Netty comforted her with a shaky voice. "We know this is the door the Watchers use."

We went through another maze of hallways, occasionally coming across a door that we peered inside, found nothing, and moved on.

We had no way of knowing where the exit was, so we were wandering blind as the walls shifted around us.

We came to another door identical to the last thirty. We just bypassed it, sick of seeing empty rooms.

Then a voice drifted out through the door.

"I can hear you walking. I told you, I'm sorry, I know I failed, could you please go away and leave me to suffer in peace?"

We exchanged glances. The voice was familiar - usually, I heard it with a joking tone, and I never knew when it was being serious. But it held no humor in it now. It just sounded sad.

Grian and I, and probably most of the Evolutionists, knew who it was.

"Should we leave him here?" Grian asked.

"Stop imitating people!" the voice yelled. "You've punished me enough!"

"Of course not!" Netty said.

"Nobody deserves to rot in the Downside-Up for the rest of eternity, no matter who they betrayed," I said.

Grian looked reluctant, but he pressed his hand to the door. It swung open.

Curled in the corner, refusing to look at the door for fear of what he would see, was Martyn.

"Is this what you think this is?" Netty asked gently. "A punishment?"

"Stop pretending to be them!" Martyn yelled, still refusing to turn around.

"Martyn, I'm not a Watcher. I'm not pretending to be me."

"No, I'm not looking, you're not real," Martyn sobbed.