Free Exalted by Ella James Page B

stone like he expected it to move.
All of a sudden the wall opened, fog misted up from the floor, and Drew was
jerking the two of them inside. Not knowing what else to do, Meredith clung to
Carlin, and the three of them were in free fall.
    They landed hard, in what looked to be some kind of grain
silo. Carlin was still screaming. Drew was panting.
    Meredith's mouth had been scared shut.
    She reached out and cupped the stuff they were sitting in.
Was it grain or something else?
    “Oh God!” Carlin cried. “Drew!” She shoved him.
    “I saw us falling in a vision, right before I touched the
wall.”
    “Thank you.” Meredith threw her arms around him.
    “I don't think I necessarily deserve that,” Drew said
wryly, “but I am glad to be free of them. And, it seems, a few floors lower.”
    “Hells, yeah,” Mer said. “Maybe we're closer to Julia.”
    She tried to “feel” for her friend, but couldn't get a
sense of Julia. She did, however, feel a kind of buzzing feeling—like she'd
downed a Red Bull and then watched a horror movie; inexplicable fear bubbled up
inside her chest.
    “This is a grain silo?” Drew said.
    “Grain,” Carlin said. “I think so.”
    There was barely room between the top of the massive grain
pile and the room's ceiling for them to stand, but Meredith did it anyway, at
least for a few seconds before she spotted a door and realized they could
simply crawl to it.
    “I want to get out of here,” she moaned.
    The door opened to a crosshatched metal floor, probably
designed to catch the grain as it spilled out. Meredith walked over it, finding
herself inside what looked like an octagon, with a low-lying dirt ceiling, a
dirt floor, and a stone door on each wall. The place reminded her of some kind
of haunted dormitory.
    Torch light flickered crazily from three torches, but
instead of regular fire, they were lit by blue fire. On the other side of the
small room, there was another mystery hall, and—heck yeah!—it looked like it
slanted down.
    “Drew! Car! Come this way,” she said, sticking her head
back through the doorway of the grain silo. "There's another hall through
here. I think it goes down!"
    "How did you get out so quickly," Drew grumbled;
he was struggling through the sand like a horse in mud. Carlin wasn't much
faster.
    "You guys," Meredith moaned. She took a few steps
toward the hall, antsy to escape a room with so many doors, when she heard what
sounded like a girl's sigh. A second later she saw the girl—pretty with dark
pigtails. Meredith's heart fell when the girl cried, "Nathan."
    Catalina rushed ahead, arms out, saying, “Meredith! I'm so
sorry!”
    Carlin gasped, and Drew, who had just escaped the silo,
began trying the doors, though they were all locked. Plus, it was pointless—Catalina
could locate them anywhere.
    She reached Meredith, grabbing her wrist. “Mer, I'm so sorry!
I didn't mean to put you guys in danger! When Theirry and Adam asked… I didn't
know!”
    But Meredith didn't care what the younger girl was saying.
Her gaze had locked with Nathan's. Drew and Carlin were scrambling back into the
silo, screaming for her to follow, but Meredith's mind was on Nathan, and she
was a second too slow.
    She shrieked as strong hands grabbed her by the waist,
pressing her against soft fabric that stretched across a warm, familiar chest.
    “Nathan!”
    Without letting go of her, he clicked on a flashlight,
illuminating his face like a ghoul in a Halloween haunted house. He was wearing
a tired smile, jeans, and a charcoal Polo, and he looked rueful. “Meredith.” He
pressed his face into her hair. “We have a lot to talk about.”
    “Hell no we don't!”
    “We do.” He gripped her gently but firmly, opening the door
to the silo where Drew and Carlin were trying to climb back up.
    Meredith heard more than saw them gasp as he stuck his head
inside. “CARLIN, DREW, MEREDITH, FOLLOW ME,” he ordered. “CATALINA, YOU MAY
RETURN TO YOUR ROOM.”
    Meredith had never