Not what they were looking for.
And of course there was nothing at the Glass House. Not even some interesting tunnels.
It was Ax’s idea to use the scanning equipment to check the Old Alumni Inn.
That amphitheater just never looked right. It was actually creepy as fuck. And when Ax said, “It reminds me of an altar,” I knew in my gut that’s what it was.
“What did you find? What were they looking for?”
Ax’s eyes go very sad. “Bones. They were looking for bones.”
“What kind of bones?”
It’s Dante who speaks next. “Babies, Cooper. They were all babies.”
I collapse into a chair. And it takes all my self-control not to throw up. “You found babies down there?”
“It’s old,” someone says. That’s when I remember the FBI brought me here. I look at the man who is speaking. “Our initial reports say they’re at least eighty years old. But they could be much older.”
One of the agents approaches me. “You mind?” He’s pointing at me.
“What?” I look down as he slips my tie clip off my tie.
“It’s a recording device. We gave it to Miss Mona Monroe to give to you. We heard everything your brother said.”
“Ax,” I say. Because I don’t want him to know those things Jack told me.
Ax just shakes his head. A signal that he’s not ready to go there yet.
I let out a long breath. Then I remember what else is happening. “Cadee and Isabella are at the tomb! We need to go get them, right now!”
“Before we get into that, we need to talk about this envelope you sent us.”
I look up at the man who took my tie clip. “What are you talking about? What envelope?”
He sits down at the table across from me and places a glossy blue and gold High Court College envelope in front of me.
I open it. Squint at the stuff inside. “What is all this?”
“You tell us. It’s got your name on that letter.”
I scan the letter, still confused. “I didn’t send you this stuff.”
The man across from me smiles. “We were hoping you’d say that.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR - CADEE
I come to coughing and gasping for breath. The smell of smoke fills my lungs and I cough again.
“Wake up!” Someone pulls me up into a sitting position. Slaps my face. “Open your eyes and wake up!”
The command is not as easy as it sounds. My eyelids are so heavy and it’s really hard to breathe.
“The house is on fire, Cadee! Wake up!”
My eyes open and when I look up, I’m staring straight into Chairman Valcourt’s eyes.
He pulls me to my feet. Pushes me into the hallway and I stumble forward.
When I glance to my left, the curtains are on fire in another room. For a minute I don’t know where I am. Then I’m being guided into the foyer and it all comes back to me.
He shakes me again. “Did you hear me?”
“What?”
“Elizabeth is here somewhere! I have to get her out! I need you to run! Now! Into the woods. Find Isabella! They drugged her too!”
“What?” I push some hair out of my eyes. “What are you talking about?”
“They’re burning it down, Cadee. The FBI is raiding the tomb as we speak. Find Isabella! I left her in the woods. Find her, and then find the gate!”
And then, without giving me a chance to respond, he pushes me out the front door, closes it behind me, and turns the lock.
I’m just about to start pounding on it, to make him tell me what’s going on, but that’s when I realize the house next door is on fire too.
And when I stumble down the driveway, I count three more mansions ablaze.
The whole street is on fire.
It mesmerizes me for a moment.
And then the sound of a helicopter fills the night. People are in the woods, screaming.
I look down the road, past the burning mansions, in the direction of the tomb.
Then I remember what the Chairman said. Find Isabella. I left her in the woods.
“Isabella!” I scream it and stumble across the blacktop road. There is a path that leads into the woods. A path that will almost certainly take me to the tomb if I follow it. But that’s not where he told me to go.
“Cadee!” Isabella screams back. “Cadee, where are you?”
I’m still dizzy and sluggish, but I move forward on the path and enter the woods. “Isabella!”
Then I see a flash of white. “I’m here!”
She’s drugged too. Her body sways uncontrollably as she props herself up against the thick trunk of a tree.
She is wearing a thin white robe and no shoes on her feet. And even in the haphazard moonlight, I can see that they are bright red. A stark contrast against the white snow. Her robe is open in the front. She is naked underneath and there are weird symbols painted on her breasts and stomach.
She pulls the robe closed, her teeth chattering when she speaks. “Wh-where do we go? Wh-what do we do?”
I almost say I don’t know. But I do know. “The gate. We have to find the gate.”
“What gate?” She looks around, frantic. “What gate, Cadee?”
And again, I’m about to say I don’t know when I realize I do.
Victor.
I had a conversation with Victor once, last summer. He was trying to talk me into leaving that first day. And he said, There’s a path, Cadee. Right behind the Glass House. And that path takes to you to a gate. And outside that gate lives the real world. You could just slip out the gate and be done with it.
“Come on. I know where it is.” I take her and help her walk along the path. There are tons of people in the woods. FBI agents, I guess. High Court cult people too. They are yelling and screaming.
But they are all at the tomb and we’re not going to the tomb, we’re going to the Glass House. There’s a helicopter overhead. Several, actually. But Isabella and I are both wearing white. We blend in with the snow as we carefully make our way over to the Glass House and find the path.
We follow it and the commotion in the woods becomes a thing of the past. And finally, we do find a gate.
A very small gate that leads to a very narrow road, where a car is idling with its lights off.
Then the driver’s side door opens and Cooper steps out.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE - COOPER
Isabella drops to the ground, taking Cadee with her. Cadee looks up at me. “Cooper! What are you doing here?”
I rush over and help pull Isabella to her feet. “I’m saving you back, Cadee Hunter. And we are not gonna argue about it this time. You’re getting in this car and you’re leaving this place forever.”
I reach for the passenger door and open it up. Isabella slumps down into the seat and I buckle her in. I catch sight of the red markings on her chest and pull her robe closed a little tighter. Then I pause to look her in the eyes. “You’re gonna be OK, Isabella. I promise.”
She brings her freezing and shaking hand up to my cheek and starts to cry.
I don’t know what happened to her tonight. I don’t think I want to know, at least not right now. I have way too much work ahead of me to fall into a rabbit hole of despair. So I take her hand in mine and gently kiss her knuckles, letting my breath warm her a little. “You will be OK.”