Free The Hunt by Megan Shepherd

on the bars above her. “What about you, Mali?”
    Two arms and a head appeared, upside down. Thin as she was, Mali had to be the only one who could squeeze her head between the bars. “I do not sleep either.”
    â€œWhere have they been keeping you?” Lucky asked.
    Cora told him about the six-by-six cell, and the grimaces onboth his face and Mali’s said they were all too familiar with it.
    â€œI do not think they have caught Leon,” Mali said. “He might come back for us.”
    Lucky snorted. “He won’t.”
    The disappointment on Mali’s face was plain to see, even upside down. In the cage, she and Leon had been matched. An arrangement that Leon had resisted, to say the least, and yet Cora knew that the Kindred had matched them because they were more alike than he wanted to admit.
    Cora reached up and squeezed Mali’s dangling hand.
    Lucky’s voice dropped an octave, as though he knew he was treading dangerous ground. “They said the Warden brought you here. He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
    Cora felt her heart beat just once, painfully, as if someone had reached into her chest and squeezed out all the blood. Had he hurt her? He’d decimated her.
    She clenched her jaw.
    â€œI’m fine.” She squinted into the darkness. “Are there black windows here? Are they watching us?”
    â€œNot as far as I can tell. It isn’t like the cage, where they watched us all the time. They don’t seem to care what we do, as long as we don’t cause trouble. Wait until you get a good look at this place during the daytime. It’s a dump.”
    Mali grunted her agreement. “We are not prime specimens anymore.”
    Cora glanced toward the other cells, listening to the faint sounds of shifting bodies as the others slept. She pulled her blanket tighter. Chicago’s blanket. What had he done to merit being dragged off on his nineteenth birthday, instead of being sent to Armstrong?And what were the Kindred’s lies he’d been yelling about?
    â€œI don’t know if I believe a word Dane says,” Cora said, “but we can’t stay here.”
    Lucky let out a harsh laugh. “We tried to escape. You know as well as I do how that played out.”
    â€œI’m not talking about escape,” Cora whispered. “Cassian has a different plan. There’s a series of tests that’s happening in a few weeks. If I run them and pass, humans will be granted intelligent species status. They won’t be able to cage us anymore. That’s why he put us here, to train me in psychic abilities secretly so I can pass the tests.”
    Mali, her long braids dangling toward the floor, let out another soft grunt. “You speak of the Gauntlet.”
    Cora nodded.
    Lucky stared at her with an unreadable expression in the blue glow. “Psychic abilities?” There was a strange undertone in his voice. She couldn’t shake the feeling that words like freak were circling around in the back of his head.
    â€œWill you do it,” Mali asked.
    â€œI didn’t say yes,” Cora said. “I can’t bring myself to trust him. He had me completely fooled before. You have no idea how awful it is to even be around him, the constant reminders that he was lying the entire time.”
    Lucky didn’t respond right away, and she realized her connection with Cassian was probably the last thing he wanted to talk about.
    â€œThe Gauntlet is dangerous,” Mali said. “Eleven humans attempt to run it before. None still live.”
    â€œThey died in the puzzles?”
    â€œA few. The physical challenges are difficult, but the moral and perceptive ones are most dangerous. They can break your mind. Some humans go insane and die after.”
    â€œWhat kind of puzzles were they?” Cora asked.
    â€œNo one knows,” Mali said. “There are rumors that the moral tests form impossible choices: for