Vagabonds

Chapter Nineteen: Unlocked Doors

As Joe's eyes jumped between the gold-tipped spires and the gilded front door of the Eckelson mansion, Eliza couldn't help but wonder if this was a bad idea. Maybe they should run back to the pickup they'd pulled off into the manicured forest inside the fence, come back another way, try something else. But what? She had no way of contacting Aquila. No way of climbing onto the roof and sneaking in the way Moose showed her. And they had to get inside before someone drove by and saw them standing there.

The only thing she could think of was the front door.

Unfortunately.

"Um, Eliza, are you sure about this?" Joe lingered at the bottom of the steps, scratching at a bug bite on his forearm. "I mean, maybe we're already fugitives or whatever, but trespassing is still a crime."

"I told you, I've been here before."

"Oookay," Joe said, and Eliza could see the effort it took to keep the apprehension out of his voice. The spot on his arm was growing redder and redder against cream-pale skin.

She stepped up to him, wrapping her dark fingers around his hand and squeezing, pulling it away from the bite.

"Do you trust me?"

"Of course."

She smiled.

"Then let's go inside."

Tugging Joe behind her and praying that she wasn't about to get everyone into even bigger trouble, she stepped up to the front door. With a quick glance over one shoulder to make sure there wasn't any black car — or black-haired woman — watching through the fence, Eliza knocked.

There was no answer.

"Maybe he's not home?" Joe said with a shrug. "Or taking a nap. Don't old people do that a lot?"

"He wasn't that old," Eliza said, knocking again.

Still no response.

"Oh darn, looks like we'll have to come back another — what are you doing?"

But Eliza wasn't listening. She was wrapping her hand around the bronze door handle, pursing her lips.

The thing about being surrounded by rich private school students was that Eliza knew all too well how wealthy people behaved. When money wasn't an issue, who cared about a little thing like theft? Phones could be replaced. Police reports could be filed. And security footage could be checked for the really valuable things. There were probably cameras coating every inch of this mansion, sensors monitoring the lawn and walls, and because of that she suspected that someone like Ian Eckelson wouldn't be too worried about anyone coming through his front door.

She turned the handle.

Just as she thought, it was open.

"Eliza."

But she ignored Joe, moving inside on cautious, cat-like feet.

The main room was silent, pristine, almost eerily neat. Last time Eliza had stood here, she'd seen the comic book on the side table. The folded-over carpet. Those things were gone, leaving the room strangely lifeless.

A thought occurred to her.

Oh no.

Terror bubbled in Eliza's stomach, pulsing nauseatingly in her veins. Was she too late? Had that woman already found them? Had the army somehow traced her steps, raided the mansion in the time between the chase and their arrival?

Or did the Vagabonds leave, knowing it wasn't safe for them in Scottstown anymore?

"Eliza, are you crazy?" Joe was hissing behind her, leaning through the doorframe without actually setting foot inside. "This is breaking and entering! You're going to —"

She didn't stick around to hear what she was going to do.

Instead, she lunged up the stairs.

No, no, no.

The word beat in tandem with her heart, brimming with dread. They had to be safe. They had to be. If they got into trouble because of her, if they left...

She crashed onto the top floor, hitting the opposite wall and rattling a painting that probably cost more than her tuition. She paused, panting, attention flashing over gilded frames and hardwood doors.

Where was that stupid elevator?

"What's gotten into you?!" Joe gasped, trailing her onto the landing. "First you run from the government, now this? Did they slip you something in the headmaster's office?"

"Joe, help me find an elevator."

"What?"

"An elevator!"

She began to run down the hall, glancing down side-corridors and feeling the weight of the mansion settling on her shoulders. It was so huge. Sprawling and vast and endless and not helping. How was she ever going to find the —

There!

It appeared down a long hallway, the bronze cage almost gold in the warm light of the sconces. Eliza veered, barreling toward the old-fashioned grate.

"That thing... looks... like a death trap," Joe panted.

"Get in," she said, yanking open the grate and swinging herself inside.

Thankfully Joe did, although his eyes were swarming with misgivings. He leaned against the other side of the elevator, looking at Eliza as if she'd finally cracked.

"Am I allowed to ask questions now?" Joe asked in a tone that might have been joking if not for the tremor in his hands.

She ignored him, unable to think beyond her throbbing fear, glaring at the rocky shaft as it slid past beyond the door.

Please let them be safe, please let them be safe, please let them be safe, Eliza chanted in her mind. But it wasn't just that. Selfishly, pathetically, she was almost more terrified that they'd gone away and left her behind, ended her whole adventure before it could even begin. Eliza couldn't go back, not now, not knowing that there was more to the world than Meru and Tori and Scottstown.

So she prayed to the tune of the elevator trundling into the basement and squealing to a halt.

"Eliza, please," Joe whispered as she went to open the door. "You gotta give me something."

She froze in the act of yanking open the creaky grate. Guilt knotted her intestines. She'd put him through so much today, asked him for more than she had any right to expect. But what could she say? There might be some people beyond these doors that are like no one you've ever met. They're the reason the military is after us. But they might be gone or captured or somewhere else and I have no idea where.

Eliza forced herself to smile, contorting her features into an expression she could only hope was comforting.

"You'll see," she said, opening the door. "Just... you'll see."

She tried to have no expectations, but she still held her breath as her eyes adjusted to the shadowed cavern.