White Witch, Black Curse

He couldn't come with me. My arm hit the door, and it crashed open. I raced after them in my feet, bare but for nylons, and my splat gun in my grip. To the left, a fast patter of heels drew my attention. I took a deep breath and ran through the snowy parking lot. In an instant, I'd passed the cars and was on the sidewalk.

The cold cement numbed my feet, and I ran faster. My breath puffed out, and my body fell into a rhythm I could keep up for an hour. My slit dress hiked up as I ran, and I was glad my stupidity in choosing fashion over functionality had stopped at my shoes. Ahead, the smallest movement in the light a block up told me where they'd gone. God, how had she gotten ahead so fast?

A toddler wailed, the odd cadence telling me she was being held in the arms of someone running. I couldn't help but gain on them. Ford's silhouette was clear in the light for an instant. Then they were past the light, and they were gone.

I gripped my splat gun as I followed, slowing so I didn't run into them. Coming to a stop under the light, I listened. It was dark in all directions. New Year's celebrations were going on all over the city, but here, on the outskirts of an old industrial park, it was dark.

A baby cried, and I heard the crack of cold metal.

Heart pounding, I spun. "Ford?" I called. He didn't answer, and I jogged to the end of the street. A small cement hut surrounded by a chain-link fence was the only logical option. Though the chain-link door was shut, I could see in the snow the track it had made when it opened. Footprints marked the otherwise-pristine snow.

Slower yet, I approached, my feet hurting from the cold. "Ford?" I whispered, then edged into the tiny fenced yard. It was no bigger than a dog run, and I guessed this was a switching house for the city's electric or phone lines.

But the small room was empty when I stood on tiptoe and looked in the high window, my fingertips numb from the cold. Two sets of prints had tracked in the snow. I licked my lips. Going in alone was really stupid. I looked back toward the coffeehouse. No FIB. No I.S.

I couldn't wait. "Dumb," I said as I started to remove my coat, then, shivering, hiked up my dress and stripped off my nylons instead, hanging them over the tall fence for them to find and know where I'd gone. "Dumb. You are a dumb witch," I muttered, and, shivering, I pushed the heavy metal door open and went in.

Thirty

The smell of damp stone hit me, and I recognized the scent that had been coming off Mia and Remus tonight. They'd been here before, and I moved quickly to the conventional steel door at the back of the empty room. The doorjamb had been broken from the inside, and feeling this was really wrong, I pulled it open to see a staircase going down.

"Down," I muttered as I hiked my dress up. "Why is it always down?" Gun in hand, I felt the rough cement walls as I descended. There was a bare bulb glowing, showing that the way was straight and even. Wires ran along the sloping ceiling, as if put in after the building was constructed. My steps were silent because I was barefoot, and my feet were numb on the old but unworn cement. It stank like mold and dust.

People were talking, their voices unclear but echoing. I heard a small, feminine gasp, and then Ford shouted, "Mia! It's just me. It's okay. I'm trying to help you. You have to come in, but I promise I won't let them take Holly from you."

"I don't need your help," Mia said tightly. "I never should have wished for love. How do you live like this? He's dead. That witch killed Remus!"

"He's not dead, Mia," Ford said. "It was a sleeping charm."

"Not dead?" Mia said.

It was a pain-filled whisper, and thinking Mia was ready to break, I ghosted down the rest of the stairs. The light from the bulb in the stairway was overpowered by the shifting beam of a high-powered flashlight. Slowing, I crept to the end of the stairway, and with my hands on my splat gun, I peeked around the archway.

The echoing room was huge, stretching fifteen feet high at least, with beautiful vaulted ceilings. Mia was standing in the middle with a lantern-like flashlight in her grip—Ford was before her with his back to me. I think he sensed my emotions, but he didn't turn.

Behind Mia was a sunken tunnel stretching in two directions. It looked like a subway tube, but there were no rails or tracks. There was no electricity, no benches, no graffiti. There was nothing but empty walls and forgotten bits of trash smelling of dust.

Mia's face was proud and determined in the light reflecting off the walls as she tried to soothe the toddler, to no avail since she was upset herself. She hadn't had the lantern in the coffee shop. It must have been in the little room upstairs. And it suddenly hit me that this was how Mia and Remus had been getting around, moving under the city to evade the FIB and the I.S. I hadn't even known the tunnels existed, but Mia had probably witnessed their construction.