The Majors, Cold Fury (Book 2)

Chapter 39: Scott POV

It was midnight.

Me and Gem were crouched in an alleyway off of Escape Avenue.

"Ok, so here's the plan-" Gem started. I pressed my hand against the house to my right to steady myself, and frost instantly spread from my fingertips.

"Sorry." I said and pulled my hand away.

Gem frowned, then pulled two things from the bag she had brought. Two blackstone forearm cuffs. "You'll need to wear these."

I scrambled backwards away from them. "There is no way." I said.

"Scott, they can't know it was you in there. I'll take them off as soon as we finish." She pleaded with me. "Fwhip will take one look at the frost and know you were the one who released her."

"Ok..." I said slowly after a moment, taking them from her hands. The dark circles I had noticed before instantly cleared from under her eyes...partially. I clamped them onto my forearms and shuddered as the frost melted off my body and the compressed feeling returned in my chest. I lost my balance and slid down to my knees. "Ok."

"Now, here's the plan." Gem continued. "We're supposed to be in Azurite. So, I can't be seen either. But I have a keycard." She held a piece of white plastic up. "I'll slip inside, then enter cell 13b. You have to get to the courtyard unseen, then slip through the open window I'll make by spelling the bars off. Then, we have to get to the lowest floor, minus seven and to her cell. Got it?"

I nodded. "Is there a part of the wall that's not patrolled?" I asked.

Gem shook her head. "There's not. But the moon will be slightly to the West soon, leaving shadows on the East. Navigate to the East wall and get in through that entrance. It leads to the busiest part of town, so there's less cameras. Keep an eye out for blinking red lights. That means there are cameras recording."

I nodded, going over the steps in my head. "Alright...what happens if I am seen?"

Gem pursed her lips. "I don't know...even if you knock them out, they'll tell Fwhip."

"So, we'll have to kill them?" I said slowly.

Gem's eyes widened slightly, and she shook her head violently. "Even if they see you, don't kill them! Just leave and wait for me. We'll go back to the Crystal Cliffs and pretend we were never here."

"But Erin-"

"We'll try again tomorrow. If you're not by the window in an hour, I'll retreat back here and wait for you." She said, before standing up and striding out of the alleyway.

After a moment I pulled myself up using the grooves of the bricks on the building and made my way out of the alleyway as well. I pulled my cloak tightly around my shoulders as I maneuvered my way away from the prison, out of the guards' sightlines before heading East.

The prison came back into sight 10 minutes later. I avoided the lampposts, and down one alleyway, I reached the wall in complete darkness. I sat there for a while, memorizing the pattern of the guards, before clambering up the metal rungs attached to the side of one of the nearby houses.

I crouched down on the roof, waiting for the guards to pass before leaping into the patrol path and swinging myself over the barrier, sliding down the opposite end of the wall, into the prison.

Almost everything was brightly lit in the courtyard, but the shadows from the moon gave me a broken path of darkness to traverse towards the castle-turned-dungeon.