I had never been so afraid of approaching footsteps in my entire life. The fire in front of me cast a black shadow against the gray wall. Aubrey stopped, sighed, and then said, “We have to send in the Anchor.”

An echo of the scream I wanted to release in response to her words rattled around inside my skull. Screaming would do us no good. I pressed my hands against my lips as if in prayer, a ritual that stayed with me from the before times. Something else that would do me no good. Not down here in the Underground.