Cold air hits my face first. Then sound filters in, muffled, like I am underwater and someone is shouting from above the surface. The world tilts and rocks with each step. I am being carried, slung over someone’s shoulder like a sack of grain. My head lolls forward, hair hanging in my face, but I cannot lift it. I cannot move at all.My wrists hurt. Silver cuffs. The wolfsbane still burns, but it is dull now, distant, like the pain belongs to someone else. I smell antiseptic, concrete, and, underneath it all, fear. My fear, probably. Or maybe it is the general stink of a place where bad things happen regularly.“All personnel to the eastern exit immediately,” Elder Stone’s voice cuts through the fog. She sounds different: clipped, urgent, the grandmotherly façade completely gone. “The building is compromised. Secure all sensitive materials and evacuate according to protocol.”I force my eyes open a crack. The corridor rushes past below me, polished stone giving way to concrete, then t
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