Chapter 14

The chambers were freezing cold when we poured into it, marching towards the door at the end of the lengthy corridor. The prisoners were huddled in various corners of their cells, eating what was left of breakfast. As we neared the massive door, it was being pulled open, and then we were marching through it.

I recognized some sights around from the night before, the empty stone hall, the open peristyle, the manicured gardens... On one of the numerous wooden chairs dispersed around it, I caught sight of a bespectacled boy around my age sitting and typing away at the laptop opened in front of him.

As if feeling my gaze on him, he rose his head and looked back at me. Our eyes hung for an inexplicable minute.

A nudge had me reeling forward.

Someone said above me, their voice dripping with irony, "Stop staring at our technical expert, he isn't going to help you run away."

I tried to twist my arm out of his grip and ended up releasing a frustrated breath. "Meathead," I muttered.

"Watch your