Link was lost in thought until he and Sampson met up with the girls outside a stairwell that led to a subway station.
Don’t think about the audition. Crap, you thought about it, you dumbucket.
“Earth to Link.” Floyd looked at Link. “You sick?”
Link didn’t say anything. Not in front of her. Not in front of a girl. He tried to focus on the yellow police tape that sealed off the entrance to the stairs.
“If you’re gonna puke, do it now,” Floyd said. “That’s all I’m sayin’. Remember Marilyn Manson.” She smiled. “That was a damn good hurl.”
Link laughed, in spite of the bile in his throat. There weren’t a lot of girls like Floyd. Even Ridley could see that, which was probably why her feathers had been so ruffled ever since they’d gotten here. He had to admit he kind of liked the attention.
That’s just life in the henhouse, he thought. Especially when the rooster’s as smooth as this guy right here.
Floyd looked both ways and ducked inside the stairwell. The second she passed the yellow tape, she disappeared. The air rippled in her wake.
Not something you’d see in any henhouse.
“Is she Rippin’? ’Cause I didn’t hear anythin’.” Link looked at Necro.
Necro shook her head. “Nope. Doorwell. You gotta look for the broken subway stops. They’re not actually broken. They’re ours.”
“The regular old New York City subway? It’s also a Caster subway?”
“The stops are. We rotate ours through the Mortal system, so it’s a different stop every time, all over the five boroughs. Whole system. Someone got the idea when we saw all the New York City utility blockades during the last big storm. So long as we stick to the broken stops, nobody sees us come and go. And nobody bothers us.”
Link looked at her. “Doesn’t anyone ever wonder why there’s so many broken stops?”
Necro smiled. “Who? Something’s always broken. This is New York. Now come on.” She disappeared as she said it, as if she’d explained something.
Link scratched his head. It was hard for him to imagine, seeing as every time a porch light burned out in Gatlin, it practically made the news. At least, it made his mom’s personal broadcasting system.
“Try to keep up.” Sampson looked at Ridley and Link like they were a couple of kindergartners, then disappeared after Necro.
“Fun guy,” Link said.
“Or not,” Rid said.
Link shrugged. “I guess Darkborns are stiffs.”
“You think?” She sounded worried.
“You know what they say. With great power comes great nothing else.” He laughed, but Rid wasn’t having it. Not today.
She looks hotter than Myrtle Beach in July, but she’s just as crabby, Link thought.
“Come on. You want to—” Link gestured at the yellow tape. “Or should I?”
“They’re gone. We could bolt,” Ridley said. She seemed more uneasy than she should have, considering this whole Devil’s Hangmen thing was her idea.
“Yeah, right.” Link laughed, but she didn’t. Rid’s not jokin’. So that’s weird. “What are you talkin’ about? We didn’t come this far to hide like a scared cat now.”
Rid sighed. “I’m not saying I’m worried. I’m just saying. We could, you know. Take off.”
“You said that already.” So you’re worried, Link thought. “Why, Rid? I thought you said what happened at Suffer was no big deal.”
Ridley shrugged. “This audition. Lennox Gates. Sirene. I don’t know. I’ve got a bad feeling about this whole thing. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I never should have gotten us into—”
“Whoa. Back it up. This is me.” Link pulled his drumsticks out of his back pocket, where he liked to keep them. “These are mine. I got this. I’m good, and if I’m not, well, that’s on me. You can’t keep yankin’ my chain, Rid. First you’re pushin’ me to do this whole Caster band thing, and now that I’m on board, you want out? No way.”
She looked unconvinced, but at least she didn’t take off. Link knew better than to push his luck more than that.
He grabbed her hand and pulled her across the yellow plastic tape before she could say another word. “Geronimo, Sugarplum.”
The Doorwell to the subway must have used some powerful Illusionist mojo, because once Ridley and Link stepped through the yellow tape, they weren’t in the same place at all. They were in something that looked like a tunnel. Then Link felt it—the energy and electricity, the power coursing through his veins and into the world that was beneath the world.
He didn’t feel sick now. They weren’t in just any tunnel. They were in the Caster Tunnels, the Underground that ran like an unseen labyrinth through the world, just beneath the Mortal Realm. Even when he expected it, it was still a surprise. Nothing else felt like this.
It never did, not even when I was full-on Mortal.
Link breathed deep and opened his eyes wide. He squeezed Rid’s hand one more time. “You okay, Babe?”
She nodded. “I’m okay. I mean, better.”
Of course she felt better. They were back in the Underground. It was hard to remember that there was ever a time these Tunnels scared the crap out of him, though they had. Him, and Ethan. For a while, even Liv had freaked out when she came down here. Back when John Breed was just a bad biker boy—and Vexes and Sheers roamed the Tunnels like rats and snakes.