“We’ll see.” Theo shrugged. “But you better believe I’ll be sure to kill you first.”

  Blane glared, his gaze narrowing on Theo, and he took a step forward. Theo’s chin lifted, and he stared down Blane with a murderous gaze in his eye. I knew Theo would feel no guilt if he pulled the trigger this time.

  The wind shifted, and from the subtle look Gunner gave me, I knew it was time. I stepped up beside Theo. “We don’t have to do anything. They’ll do all the work,” I said, nodding behind Blane, behind his men, who were too focused on us to notice the presence of more than twenty Reeks stalking towards us. “You may have covered up your smell with their blood rather well, but your blood is like a honing beacon to them.” I glanced to the bullet wound on his shoulder seeping red. “Good luck.”

  Before any of them had a chance to react, the Reeks attacked. A swarm of them converged on us. The men screamed, and one of them let go of Gunner. He punched the other in the face and sprinted towards us.

  The Reeks grabbed one of the guys, tearing him literally in half. Blood and guts and flesh spilled from him, and it drove the Reeks even wilder. More came and they would keep coming.

  Theo gripped my arm, pulling me onto the path Gunner was already sprinting down.

  “Move,” Gunner ordered, and I pushed my body harder and faster.

  Behind us, I heard screams. Last I saw, Blane was somewhere in the middle, his two daggers slamming into the Reeks, but there were so many, all wanting a taste of his blood. Part of me wanted to see Blane ripped apart, but I couldn’t risk it, so I ran harder, struggling to keep up with Gunner, Theo right behind me.

  The forest turned black as more Reeks came, all drawn to the sound, drawn to the blood. Gunner had his own weapons out, and he cleared a path to wherever he was leading us. There was a camp nearby, but it was not in the direction he ran.

  A hand brushed my back, scraping against the fabric of my jacket, before I heard the bullet whizz by. The Reek dropped behind me, and Theo swiftly leapt over it. He aimed another at the Reek to make sure it didn’t get up.

  We couldn’t run forever. And there were too many of them to outpace for much longer.

  “Gunner! Do you have a plan?” Theo yelled.

  “Always,” Gunner replied and veered off to the left, crashing through a set of tall shrubs grabbing at my exposed skin.

  Sleek rock scaled up a wall ahead of us, a boulder nearly thirty feet high and straight up and down, impossible to scale. It spread to the left and right farther than I could see, trapping us.

  I swore under my breath as Gunner slowed his pace and dropped down to his knees.

  “Now what?” I yelled. My blade swept through another Reek, slicing it in half.

  Beside me, Theo aimed bullets at the three Reeks only a few feet away—another two were coming from the other side.

  “Gunner?” I said through clenched teeth.

  “Yeah, yeah. One sec.” I glanced behind me and ducked just in time as a Reek swung its arm through the air where my head had just been. I stabbed the knives into his middle and kicked him in the chest. The Reek bounced off the stone wall before landing in a heap.

  Gunner was pushing a large rock aside, and just behind it I could see a small crack in the stone barely big enough for one person to fit through. With another grunt, Gunner pushed it clear.

  “Hurry up,” he said, waving his hand for me to enter the hole. I glanced inside; it was pitch black. “Stop gawking and get moving!” Gunner yelled, and I crouched down, entering feet first. “Weapons away,” Gunner ordered, and I obeyed again, sheathing my knives in my sleeves.

  I glanced behind me to where Theo now used his fists to fend off the Reeks surrounding us; more were coming from the forest. He no longer used his guns, which could only mean he’d run out of bullets. I turned to move back to him, to help, but Gunner pushed me.

  “We’ll be right behind you,” he promised, and he didn’t give me a chance to reply before he shoved me, and I began sliding down sleek stone.

  I held my breath as a scream crawled up my throat, and the drop caused my stomach to flip. The slippery stone below me allowed my body to slide through the pitch-black tunnel down and down and down. I closed my eyes, even though I could see nothing in the darkness, and the air in my lungs escaped me, and I was sure I couldn’t even scream at this point.

  My feet thudded when I finally hit the floor. The force pitched my body forward, and my knees slammed into hard ground.

  It was still so dark I couldn’t see a thing. I swept my arms out and found I had landed in a small opening. Rock circled me, and the low hanging roof made it impossible to stand.

  The sound of fabric rustling against the smooth rock drew closer, and I heard a low grunt before a body smashed into my side. Warm, strong hands gripped me.

  “Sienna?” Theo said into the darkness, his voice so close, but I couldn’t see his face.

  “Yeah, it’s me,” I answered, sighing with relief that he was okay.

  Another swishing sound before Gunner ran into us with a groan. “Ugh, give me some room,” Gunner mumbled. The sound of a match striking stone echoed through the silence, and a small light lit up the space.

  As my eyes adjusted, I noticed we had ended up in a small cavern, the stones dark grey and black stopped where we stood, and a narrow tunnel led down deeper into more darkness. The light of the small match Gunner had lit produced an iridescent glow sparkling against the dark rocks. He reached for a torch placed in a hole in the wall beside the narrow tunnel that looked as if it’d been there for a long time. Spider webs gripped to the wall and torch. When he lit it, more of the tunnel came into view.

  Above us, the sleek, smooth stone we’d slid down wound up to the surface at a steep incline. It would be impossible to climb back up, so our only choice was to go down the narrow tunnel before us.

  “Where are we?” I asked, my voice echoing.

  Gunner turned a crooked smile towards us. “Welcome to the Tunnels of Venzier.”

  SIENNA

  “What is this place?” I asked, ducking under the sharp, jagged rocks swooping overhead. The tunnel we walked down got smaller and smaller the farther we went, until we were nearly on our hands and knees. Then it opened to a large, wide cavern with three more entrances to choose from.

  Theo offered a hand as I dropped down a small ledge to follow Gunner. He didn’t hesitate as he took the far one on the left.

  “Tunnel system under the mountain,” Gunner said.

  “Under the mountain?” I said. “You mean to tell me you knew about these tunnels all along, and you didn’t tell us? This is where you were hiding? While we were nearly killed on a daily basis out there?”

  Gunner glanced over his shoulder. “Listen, sweetheart, I don’t know you. You’ve been here for, what, two weeks? What makes you think I’m just going to go spilling every secret I know to some spoiled-ass brat who thinks she deserves to know everything?”

  “I’d watch your tone, Gunner,” Theo warned.

  “Nah, mate, I’m good. I quite like my tone.” He shrugged. “And princess here needs to learn that I don’t give a shit about any of you. I’m here to survive. I’m just trying to stay alive, okay? I’ve been pretty clear about that since day one. So don’t go blaming me if you thought I’d spill secrets over bed time stories.”

  I clenched my jaw and gripped Theo’s arm when he moved towards Gunner, his fist balled at his side, as if he’d wipe the smug look right off Gunners face if I let go. I never should have expected Gunner to help us or share any of his secrets to surviving in the Void. Everyone was selfish, only Theo would care if I lived or died.

  “So, how’d you manage to nearly get yourself killed earlier before we saved your ass?” Theo growled.

  “Those guys have been watching me for a few weeks now. There’s always a new group of idiots thinking they can take over the place. They’re like the Poachers, but working together. Your pal, Blane, is their leader for now. Won’t last. He’ll die, and they’ll replace him in a heartbeat, but they’re all the same… always wondering, like you guys, where I go and how I’m still here after two years. I felt them following me and didn’t want to expose my little secret, so I let them think they caught me and ask their questions.”

  “They would have killed you,” Theo said.

  “They would have tried.”

  “If we hadn’t showed up, those guys would have torn you apart,” Theo pressed.

  “While I appreciated the help, I didn’t need it,” Gunner drawled, taking another tunnel to the left when we were met with the choice between two. “Those guys don’t scare me in the least. We aren’t the only ones in this forest, and we definitely aren’t the strongest or the smartest.”

  “What does that mean?” I asked.

  “You’ll see,” Gunner said, and his voice trailed off.

  I stumbled the last step out of the shallow tunnel and into a large, open cavern. My eyes trailed the stone up and up. It arched overhead creating a tall roof. Torches lined around the large space, black and silver stone covered the roof, walls and floor. And in the center of the open cavern were small canvas tents and… people.

  One of the men stopped what he was doing and moved towards us. He was huge, twice the size of any man I’d ever seen. He had long, white hair, striking violet eyes, and was clad in white clothing. The bare skin of his arms was dark tan against the white.

  “Who are these people?” the man demanded, his voice deep and cold.

  “This is Sienna and Theo.” Gunner jabbed a thumb in our direction before stepping past the man and picking up a fruit from the table the man had been working on.

  “Why are they here?” the man asked, as if we weren’t standing right beside him.

  Theo subtly took a step in front of me, positioning himself between me and the large man assessing us—Theo did his own assessments, his gaze resting on the weapon at the man’s side.

  “They were trying to be all heroic and save me, but instead they just caused a big mess and a ton of Reeks came, so I had to take them down here to save us all.” Gunner leaned against the table and took a large bite of the fruit, juice spilling down his chin before he wiped it away. The smell made my mouth water.

  “They cannot stay here,” the man said.

  “Yeah, yeah, I know the rules. We’ll be heading out soon, just refuelling is all,” Gunner said.

  “What is this place? Venzier?” I asked.

  The man narrowed his eyes on me, and Theo tensed at my side. “No, this is not Venzier,” he spat. “It’s the last place my people have since your people brought those things into our forest.”

  “You’re not a Marked kid?” I asked.

  Gunner nearly choked on his fruit. “God no,” he said. “Do you not know your history? You really know nothing about this forest?”

  I focused on the man. Something about his appearance seemed familiar, but I couldn’t explain why. Behind him a girl had stepped out of her tent to see what the commotion was about, and it was then I realized why there was a sense of familiarity about them.

  The way they stood. Their postures, rigid, yet poised to attack at any moment. Their attention was trained on me while watching their surroundings, always aware of everything going on around them. Weapons were casually placed at their hips and across their backs. That was what Ava had been like… the stories she’d told me.

  “You guys are… you’re…” I somehow lost my words. How was this possible? They had disappeared, hadn’t they? Moved out of the forest and into the cities. Ava had said they were forced out, but here they were. “You’re one of the Mountain Men, and she’s a Lady of the Muted Forest?”

  The man nodded. The girl to his right narrowed her eyes at me, assessing my threat level. “We do not go by those names anymore. We are now one tribe. The Guardians of Venzier.”

  “But how? I thought you had all left the forest,” Theo said, his posture still rigid as more stepped out of the tents covering the cavern. There couldn’t have been much more than twenty, all clad in the same white attire. Behind the tents, I noticed a small garden near the back under the cover of some sort of light system. They had used jagged, shiny metal and strung it from the roof to where I assumed a break or crack in the stone filtered in sunlight and lit up the space below.

  “Most have. Not all of us could get away in time,” the man said, and he glanced back to the girl behind him, the corners of his mouth turned down with a somber look.

  “How long have you been here?” I asked.

  “We were born here, so all of our lives.” The man shrugged.

  I glanced around. Meat hung in one corner, what looked like a small grouse, and a large fire in the middle of what I assumed was living quarters. Theo took a step closer to me. His hand, warm despite the chill under the mountain, wrapped around my forearm as if he was ready to bolt at any moment.

  “But—”

  “Story time’s over, princess. We’ve got to be going before the sun sets,” Gunner interrupted me.

  “We can’t stay here?” I stupidly asked.

  “No,” the white haired man said firmly.

  Gunner shook his head. “They were already nice enough not to kill you guys for coming into their home unannounced. Staying here is definitely out of the question.”

  “But there are so many kids out there. You could keep them safe if they would allow us to stay here, away from the Reeks,” I said.

  “Not gonna happen.” Gunner stepped in before the man could answer. He moved to pull me away from the middle, but Theo growled and Gunner raised his hands in defeat before gesturing for us to move along. Bright eyed warriors stared back at us, all twenty of them, none much older than me, some younger.

  I sighed and let Theo guide me towards the back where a wider tunnel led upwards with jagged stones looking liked steps.

  “Why won’t they help us?” I asked when we were far enough away. Theo was behind me keeping watch that we weren’t being followed while Gunner led. He didn’t trust these people.

  “Our people brought the Reeks into their lands—kind of anyways. We took their way of life and their entire families. Most of these guys were babies when they were hidden down here by parents who eventually died at the hands of the Reeks. They were forced to stay here to keep themselves safe, entering the forest only for food and supplies, but they lost so much.” Gunner’s voice was softer than before. “I found this place by accident. And they nearly killed me the first day I arrived, but I’ve grown on them. Even so, they won’t allow even me to spend the night in here. They know the consequences if more were to come down… the chances that one of them could let a Reek in by accident or simply take everything they’ve built. We’re not exactly shining examples of good people now, are we?”

  I nodded. I understood they would do anything to keep their family alive, and that meant not risking helping us because no one could be trusted.

  “What is Venzier?” Theo asked.

  “An ancient city built under the mountains here in the forest. Sealed up and never to be opened again. The tunnels surrounding it are all that is left,” Gunner said.

  Theo found my hand and squeezed it gently. I glanced over my shoulder, his eyes met mine, and a sudden feeling of dread hit me. Without an artifact and no more time left, we could be gone before the morning. I didn’t want to leave this place, didn’t want to lose Theo, and my heart felt as though it was being torn apart as I watched him place a light kiss on my hand. He didn’t need to say anything; I knew he was thinking the same thing. We’d hardly had any time alone, and I was beginning to forget how he smelled and the feel of his bare skin against mine. I wouldn’t get the chance ever again. It wouldn’t matter that this place existed or that we might have a chance to survive if we could convince the Guardians to take us in if we didn’t live to see tomorrow.

  We reached a dead end where a bolder closed up an entrance, but the cracks around the side revealed the dim light of the sun still setting. Theo pulled me against his chest, my back pressed against him, and wrapped his arms around my body, resting his chin on the top of my head. I let out a long sigh as I watched Gunner move towards a small crack in the wall.

  “Here.” He pulled something out and placed one in my hand, the other in Theo’s. An artifact each. Mine was a small circular item that nearly rolled out of my hand, while the other looked to be half of a tablet, wires spreading out the broken half.

  I gaped at it. “How did you get these?”

  “Been collecting them and stashing them here.” He narrowed his eyes on us. “Don’t get any ideas; they’ll be moved by tomorrow. And don’t even think of coming back down here. These people will kill you on sight. I’m surprised they didn’t today.”

  Gunner moved to slide the rock away from the entrance but I stopped him. “Wait. We need one more.” I remembered Camilla still waiting in the camp for us to return. I made her a promise.

  “Like hell I’m giving you anymore,” Gunner said.

  “If you want us to keep your secret, we need one more,” Theo said firmly. I glanced up at him, surprised he even cared if Camilla lived. He’d nearly killed her before, when she’d tried to murder me, but somehow everything changed in the Void.

  Gunner paused, then turned back around and glanced at Theo with an amused look. “Finally growing a pair, are we?” He reached into the crack and shoved another artifact into my outstretched hand. “If the Poachers steal them from you, I won’t give you a replacement.”

  I nodded.

  Gunner pushed open the stone door, and we ran into the forest. I let Gunner take the lead back to Camp Ten while Theo and I watched for Poachers. We were farther north than we had been before, but the Reeks were minimal here, probably still feasting on whatever was left of Blane and his crew.

  The artifacts were heavy in my pocket, and I prayed no one spotted the unusual lump against the usually tight, smooth fabric. But we arrived at Camp Ten without incident.

  I climbed down the ladder first, searching for Camilla in the sea of kids who had come into camp for the night. She was tucked in a back corner, every blanket we had covered her, but I could see she was shivering. I shook her awake, and she mumbled incoherent words before her eyes fluttered open and then fell closed again. She wasn’t going to make it much longer.