The Sankari Legends Book One: The Scars We Hide
Chapter Twelve: Megan

Within seconds, Emmalie had teleported us inside the konnabuilding. Unfortunately, the room that she chose to teleport us into happenedto be a broom closet with no space at all for the four of us. We struggled toget into a better position to move out while trying to stay as quiet aspossible. If we got caught before we even had a chance to look for the twins,then this whole thing would’ve been for nothing.

Okay, Emmalie’s voice said in my head. We’re all telepathically linked now. So no talking.

I don’tsense anyone nearby, Tyler said. He and I werepositioned closest to the door, guns at the ready. Emmalie stood behind us, clenchingand unclenching her fists. Sabin had already shifted into a rat and was perchedon Tyler’s shoulder, giving us more space to move. The plan was for Tyler todrop him off at the closet air-duct,where Sabin could commence his searchfrom there.

Good, Sabin replied. We go on mymark. Megan and Emmalie go left, Tyler and I go right.

That hadn’t been part of my original plan, but I knew why he’d doneit. While we weren’t going to stay in pairs for long, it was good to have botha power and weapons fighter on each side, as well as having one telepath toeach group. So I had no choice but to go with Emmalie, since Tyler was aweapons combatant like me. Still, despite understanding why it worked that way, I wasn’t particularly happy about it. Sabindidn’t understand fully what he’d just done by putting the two of us on a team.

Everyoneready? Sabin asked. We all sent ourconfirmations and Sabin steeled his expression, something that was odd to seeon a rat. I didn’t have to be a telepath to know what was going through hismind right then. Because of my minnenabilities, I could sense the memories being recalled to his mind. And Tyler’stoo, for that matter. They both were trying not to think about the last timethey were on a mission together: last year when their graduation mission wenthorribly wrong. I didn’t say anything, since I knew neither of them could senseme seeing their memories, but I said a silent prayer outside of the telepathiclink that this wouldn’t end with the same results.

Okay guys,let’s go.

We rushed out of the closet, Emmalie and I heading left and the twoguys going right down the long hallway. As we ran, I made mental notes ofeverything we passed, so I could remember where we’d been.

Split up assoon as you can, Sabin instructed. We need to cover as much ground as possible.Remember, we’re trying not to get caught.

So stealthyit is, Tyler said. Guess that means no guns-a-blazin’ then, huh Megan?

Probablyfor the best, Tyler, I agreed, switching out my gunsfor my knives.

Soon enough, Emmalie and I reached the end of the hallway. Anotherhallway ran perpendicular to ours, so we each chose a direction and split up. Itook the left side as she took the right. The telepathic link fell silent asthe four of us continued to search.

As I rounded a corner, I forced myself to skid to a stop when Ifound myself standing in the doorway of a room that held a group of about fivekonna guards. I cursed silently and prayed they wouldn’t see me.

Just at that moment, one of them looked up from the card game theywere playing and saw me standing there, frozen like an idiot. He called out andpointed at me.

Frick.

They all jumped up and started towards me. I braced myself for afight, taking note with a hint of relief that none of them had guns on them atthe moment. I wanted to take out my own guns and shot them right here, butdoing that would blow my cover so instead I backed out a few steps into thehallway. If they radioed for back up, I would need to be able to see the backup coming.

I smirked as an idea popped into my head. I could tell from all oftheir combined memories that these guys were just grunts—they didn’t have verymuch authority and were still pretty green in terms of fighting. I decided touse that to my advantage.

As one reached up to tap his earpiece, I raised my knife andpointed it at him.

“I wouldn’t do that,” I said in a calm voice. “You see, I’m herefor just one reason, and none of you are worth the space or effort for me fightyou. Honestly, it would take me maybe two minutes tops to make sure none of youare able to call for help ever again. So if I were you, I’d keep the fact thatyou saw me a secret… just between the six of us, okay? And then you’re going tolet me go on my merry own way. Got it?”

Of course that didn’t happen. They charged for me. Fortunately, Ihad the advantage of the doorway only letting one or two through at a time, soit was easy for me to pick them off one by one.

It was slow going, and honestly I almost wished that door had beenwider so maybe I could’ve finished them sooner. But as I twisted and dodgedtheir attacks, I couldn’t help but let a small smile form on my face as Iretaliated sharply with my knives.

I’d grown up always viewed as the weak, younger girl who was inconstant need of protection. It didn’t matter which group of people I was with…whether it be my family or Sabin, Alia, and Alec; I was always the one thatnever got into fights, because everyone else felt the need to fight my battlesfor me. It was one of the deciding factors for me to go to the academy. I wastired of people fighting my battles for me. I wanted to fight them for myself.So now, as I moved with the grace and speed I’d been trained to use, lashingout as strong as I could with my deadly sharp knives, I felt the freest I’dever felt. I was finally able to protect myself.

Before I knew it, the five guards all lay on the ground around me.I had intentionally not fatally wounded any of them, but simply cut them upenough to where they wouldn’t be moving anytime soon. I’d also managed to knockmost of them out, which the dull throbbing in my hands sarcastically thanked mefor.

“Stay there, boys,” I said before taking off down the hall oncemore.

Even though I knew it was a risk to leave them alive, I also knewthat I couldn’t take their lives. Part of it was for moral reasons—I didn’twant their blood on my hands, or at least not all of it. But there was anotherreason as well. It was a struggle for me to notkill them, because the konna side of me reveled in the idea of destroying myenemies (literally, that is how I interpreted the feelings I had to fightagainst). But I knew that if I didn’t fight that urge to kill, it would only bea short amount of time before I found myself on the other side, and that was a path I didn’t want to go down.

I’d been so consumed in my thoughts that I almost missed thehallway lined with thick metal doors. Noting the suspiciousness of it, I turneddown the hall and inspected the first door I came to. It was a kind of metal Ididn’t have a name for, but I could tell it was in its purest form. It was alsoreinforced twice over, making it almost impenetrably strong. I examined thelock on the handle and noted that it could only be locked from the outside.

Prison cells.

There had to be a chance Alia and Alec were here.

I took a deep breath and reached out into the hall with my minnen, feeling for their memories. Ifthey had even once been brought through here, I’d be able to replace them.

Sure enough, I sensed the faint pulse I’d come to recognize asAlec’s memories. I couldn’t sense Alia’s, whose memories always presentedthemselves in the form of an almost annoying buzzing feeling.

I followed the pulsing trail of Alec’s memories down the hall toanother door. The first thing I noticed was that this door was different.Instead of being metal like all the others, this one was created out of athick, solid block of rubber. I took a guess at the fact that this rubber wasalso fireproof, and I had no doubt that the inside of the room was alsoenforced with the stuff. It was the only way to be sure that Alec wouldn’t getout, since rubber was one of the few things he could control.

I looked at the lock and frowned. It didn’t look easy to pick, butmy only alternative was shooting it open and that wasn’t a risk I didn’t wantto take yet.

Just then, a guard walked down the hall. He was busy looking downat a clipboard and didn’t notice me until he nearly walked into me. By thattime, he couldn’t even react as I grabbed his arm and flipped him over myshoulder and onto the ground, effectively knocking the wind out him. I kickedhim once in the head to knock him out (and only that) before grabbing the keysat his belt. As luck would have it, the first key I tried worked on Alec’s celldoor. I pushed the door open and rushed in to replace Alec lying on the ground inthe back of the room. I ran over to him and quickly inspected his injuries,trying hard to ignore the fact that he looked good shirtless, despite themultiple cuts running across his chest and abdomen. I cursed myself forthinking about that at a time like now and kept checking Alec for damage.

His face looked like someone had used it for punching bag withknives in place of fists. He had deeps cuts and bruises all over the visibleparts of his body and his breathing was shallow. I could see through hismemories what had happened, but I didn’t want to. I knew what had happenedwithout having to look. He’d been tortured, just like I had known he and Aliawould be.

Alia. Where was she? A quick sweep of the room revealed she wasn’tthere, which wasn’t surprising. Why would they keep them together? Even in hiscurrent state, I had no doubt Alec would still pose a major threat once he wokeup. Speaking of which…

I gently shook his shoulder, trying to avoid any of the cuts orbruises.

“Alec, wake up,” I whispered.

His eyes flew open and he looked at me.

“M… Megan?” he asked. He squeezed his eyes shut. “No. No you aren’treal. You can’t be.”

“I am real, Alec,” I said softly, gripping his hand. “I’m here. Icame to get you out of here.”

“Everyone left me,” he said. “They left me alone. So you can’t behere.”

Crap, I thought. Brittany had used her powers on him. I didn’t know whathis fears were, or where I fit into them, but I knew the signs that someone hadbeen attacked by a takot when I sawthem.

I was about to say something to try and comfort Alec, to reassurehim it really was me, when suddenly all the lights shut off in the room and inthe hallway and were replaced by red blinking strobes. A few seconds later, analarm started blaring, causing both Alec and me to cover our ears. The intruderalarm, I realized.

Doublecrap.