Chapter 339
The voices continued their conversation as Elain and the others stood listening. It was a bit of a struggle to try and understand what they were saying, even with her now improved fae hearing, but Elain thought that she could make it out. She stiffened a little when she realised that they were discussing the others being moved to a different location. Wanting to know more, she inched closer, tilting her head as she tried to hear more. The voices were low though and, when Elain's feet toed the faint line of light spilling out the door, she forced herself to stop moving closer.
With a sigh, Elain figured that whoever was talking wasn't going to just tell her where the others had been taken so she turned to look at those who were all still inching up close behind her. They all froze when a sound echoed up the hallway from behind them and Elain's heartbeat began to thunder through her body. Someone was in the hallway and, as the sound grew louder, she realised that they were heading toward her. They needed to get out of the hallway.
Ashk grabbed the handle of a nearby door and tugged at it, but the door remained closed. Russet eyes met hers across the dim hallway and Elain saw the spark of fear. The only option was the open door which contained the voices.
They could fight them, Elain figured. There didn't sound like there were too many of them in there and, if they were desperate enough, Elain knew they could put up a fight. She knew that Ashk would have some fight in her, the redhead had fire in her blood and she had lived in the Autumn Court for her whole life. There was no way that Ashk couldn't fight if need be. Elain also would not put it past Kera. The blonde seemed like she could get pretty savage if she was pushed.
"Right…" Elain breathed. She sidled up to the open door and peered around it. Blinking in surprise, she realised that it was some kind of large kitchen and she quickly let her eyes sweep the room. There were long benches and tall shelves and pots hanging from hooks. It looked like the kind of kitchen that was used to cook copious amounts of food for large crowds, and Elain relaxed a little at that. There were two fae that she had seen and they had been standing together by one of the benches on the other side of the row of tall shelving. If they were careful, Elain was almost certain that she and the others could slip in and behind the shelves unnoticed. If they were quiet enough, she was sure that they could get to the other side of the kitchen and then out the door she had spied on the other wall.
This was, Elain reasoned, a risk. But, it was a risk that she was sure they needed to take because the sound in the hallway was growing closer and it now sounded like footsteps. She did not want to still be in this hallway when whoever that was got to this door. If they were found now then they stood no chance of escaping again. The door would not be left unlocked twice.
"We have to go in." Elain said, glancing over her shoulder. She felt the dreaded sigh that someone exhaled and she understood the sentiment. There was no arguing however, and Elain hadn't expected that. She had thought for sure that they would not want to do what she had said, and she supposed that was true enough, but they evidently saw the need and she was thankful that they weren't about to waste time debating on it. "There's a door across the other side. We can get behind the shelves, just don't let them see you."
"You do it first." Noor breathed, and Elain nodded. She would, of course, do it first. There was no way she was going to make someone else take that risk before she had done it herself. Without another look at them, Elain snuck a peek around the door to make sure that nothing had changed within the kitchen, and then she slipped around the door as silently as she could and tiptoed quickly until she could duck behind the shelf. A quick look back to the door revealed Tisia's anxious face a moment before her friend hurried to join her, and Elain gestured for the next person to follow them. It appeared to be going well, and she was confident this might just work the way she had wanted it to.