Free Neverfall by Brodi Ashton

so angry before or since … until yesterday.”
    “I know. I heard about Reid. I’m sorry.” Jack’s mouth hung open for a moment, and he took in a deep breath. “Nikki must’ve been devastated last night.”
    Nikki’s dad shrugged. “She definitely wasn’t happy. I thought she would’ve come to you, but obviously that didn’t happen.”
    Jack’s shoulders sagged, and he hung his head low. “She did come to me. But we had a miscommunication, and I didn’t get a chance to talk to her.” He heaved a shaky breath. “It’s all my fault.”
    Nikki’s dad put his hand on Jack’s back. “Don’t say that. I’m sure everything will work out. Why don’t you go home, and as soon as she gets here, I’ll have her call you?”
    Jack raised his head and stared at the mayor with the most helpless expression I’d ever seen. I could interpret that lost look, even though Mayor Beckett obviously couldn’t. Maybe all the memories I’d gotten from Nikki through all the times I’d fed on her so far helped me read his face. Or maybe it was because I’d always been good at reading faces.
    But right now, Jack’s face looked despondent. As if he knew she was never coming back.
    Maybe this guy was smarter than I’d given him credit for.
    Knowing that this was my best chance, with Mayor Beckett outside, I crept through the trees that framed the side of the Beckett house and went around to the back. The grill on the patio was lit, with hamburgers cooking.
    Excellent. The patio door had to be unlocked.
    I went inside and down the hall, which had four doors. One I could see, though—it was the master suite. One was a bathroom. The other two were closed. I mentally flipped a coin and chose the door on the left.
    The bed was neatly made. A history book lay open on a desk in the corner. Framed pictures lined up along the bottom shelf of a bookcase, showing Nikki and various friends. Several of Jack.
    But the most telling sign that this was Nikki’s room was the newly splashed Dead Elvises T-shirt draped over the chair at the desk.
    I ran my fingers over the image, smiling at the care that she took to iron it.
    “Oh, Nik,” I whispered. “We’re going to have so much fun.”
    I tucked the note underneath her pillow so that only the corner showed, and then I left her house.
    Somehow, seeing where Nikki lived made me all the more anxious to get back to her again.
NOW
    After the Rats of NIMH bugged out .
    “They do that every night?” I said, my voice hoarse. I guess I’d been screaming the entire time the rats were nipping at me.
    I heard Devon rustle the straw beneath him. “If it helps, the rats make it easier to mark the passage of days.”
    My chest constricted. I couldn’t catch my breath. “I can’t do this. I can’t be stuck here forever.” I started punching the ceiling, over and over, until I heard a horrific snap. “Shiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttt!”
    I cradled my crushed hand, the silence following my outburst intermittently broken by my own gasping breath.
    “Maybe you won’t be here forever. You only have three months until your trial.”
    I shook out my hand and then froze as the words sank in. “Trial?”
    “Yes,” Devon said hesitantly. “Didn’t they tell you when they brought you here?”
    “I don’t know. Maybe they were explaining the finer points of the incarceration while they were bashing my brains to a pulp. What about a trial?”
    “Delphinian trials begin three months after detention. They decide if you are to be imprisoned for eternity. Or … not.”
    “Not? You mean they might set me free?”
    “If by ‘set you free’ you mean they kill you, yes.”
    I closed my eyes. “So my options are an eternity of rats feeding on me, or death.”
    “Yep. Makes you wish you could choose, doesn’t it. I would rather be dead, but the only way they’ll kill me is if they find the relic, and I don’t want to die knowing it’s in their hands.”
    “That’s the only reason you’re staying