Page 43 of Alphas Never Hide

Shit.Thiswas worse thanI’dthought, butIwouldn’t get on his case about it.Iknew how fickle magic could be.

“Hey.Noworries at all,”Isaid quickly and with false cheer. “Itwas just a thought.Wecan absolutely do this without you shifting.Onehundred percent.Noproblem.We’vegot this.”

Thecolor on his cheeks darkened even more, butIpretendedIdidn’t see.Imade a production of taking off my backpack and setting it aside.Istudied and poked at the walls on one side of the room, before doing the same to the other.Onepanel moved more than the other.Hopefully, that meant it was a weak spot with nothing behind it.Ithought about going through the tunnels to hunt for something to use as a pry bar, butIcouldn’t bear the idea of going out there alone again.Ifthis didn’t work,Iwould do that next.Everyoneneeded aPlanB.

“So, um,I’mjust going to, you know, kick the shit out of the wall over here.”

Assoon as my ass hit the ground,Iflopped onto my back.Iscooted over so my ass was closer to the wall and my feet were resting at a comfortable angle against the plywood.Thebars to the cage were pressed against my right side.Ireally hoped this worked.

“Heregoes.”

Quitea few years ago, whenIstill lived with the herd, my brotherConny—man, he’d hated whenIcalled him that, but he’d been too small for a name likeConstantine—discovered a stash of oldVHStapes when he was about nine.Amongstthem was a recording of aRiverdanceshow.It’dbeen love at first tap.Hecame up with his own routines, determined to be the next big name.Iknew that would never happen.Faunscouldn’t be in human shows.ButIdidn’t see the problemwith him having an interest outside all that damn flute playing fauns weresupposedto enjoy.Becauseanythingwas better than having another flute player in the family.

Hewas the youngest in the herd, so everyone spoiled him.ButIwas the only one who’d encouraged his love of dance.Iwas already in my twenties at the time, butI’dbeen right there beside him.Ilet him teach me his choreography, which was impressive for a kid under ten.Unfortunately, the other fauns, including my parents and their siblings, were assholes and didn’t like his too-human hobby.Hisobsession lasted for three years before he succumbed to the pressure to stop.It’dbroken my heart when he tossed all hisCDsand videos.

CDsand videos.Didanyone have those anymore?Well, besides me?Istill had every bit of electronicsI’dever purchased.Myapartment was full of gadgets and machines.Myherd would flip if they saw it.IfIhadn’t already left them, they would have banned me for sure.

Butbefore that, whenConnyandIhad been dancing,I’dlearned a lot about hoof health and how to stomp for hours without hurting your hooves.AlthoughInever imagined how important good strong hooves would be in my life until now.Yesterday,I’dbeen relieved to escape with only a couple of nicks in my hooves whenI’dbroken the lock.Myleft hoof was also smaller after they’d taken samples of it to test them for residual magic, so it wouldn’t be able to take as much abuse.Butan injured foot was better than the alternative.

Todaywould test my hoof strength.Whenwe got out of here,Ireally needed to look up the manicurist the scarydragon mentioned last night.Youknow, if this worked, and we got out of this place before we died.

“It’sworking,”Haydensaid.

Iglanced down at my feet to see the wood splintering and breaking away, butIwasn’t through to the other side yet.Emboldenedby this modest success,Haydensifted through the stuff we’d dumped out of people’s bags earlier.Whenhe found a small camera tripod, he lifted it like it wasExcalibur.Thenhe used it to chip away at the plywood on his side of the bars, too.

Whenthe first hole appeared, we both crowed in victory.Itried to peer through the splintered wood to the space behind it, butIcouldn’t see anything in the shadowy gap.Thehole was big enough for my finger.

Iswallowed.Ihad a thing about not sticking my hands or anything else through mysterious holes.Allthose glory hole clips on porn sites made me cringe and want to cover my junk.Butit couldn’t be helped in this situation.Atleast it would only be my finger at risk.Italso helped thatIdidn’t expect there to be anyone waiting on the other side with pruning shears.Ishuddered.Nope.Ishouldn’t have thought about that.

I’ddefinitely watched too many slasher movies whenI’dfirst joined the human world.

Damnit.Whycouldn’t the first hole have appeared onHayden’sside?

Withclenched teeth,Ieased my finger into the hole.Iwas tense, ready to whip my hand away if anything—any tiny little thing—brushed against it.Igot to the first knuckle.Everythingwas okay.Istill had my finger.Secondknuckle.Myfinger was still attached.Ipushed my finger all the way in.

“Huh,”Isaid, wiggling my finger.

“What?”

Ipulled my finger out and tried to look inside the hole again.Istill couldn’t see anything. “Ican’t feel anything on the other side.”

“Really?”Therewas a whisper of hope in his question.

Iglanced at him. “Really.”

“Thismight actually work.”Hesounded surprised.Hisreaction didn’t offend me.Icouldn’t believe my idea was working either.

Withrenewed energy, we beat at the wall some more.Thehole grew larger and larger.Thistime whenIlooked through it,Icould see the chiseled earth several inches behind it.Thegap wasn’t a lot, but if we could get the plywood out of the way,Haydenmight be able to squeeze through it.

Haydengrinned at me.

Ididn’t think he’d ever smiled at me before.Ihadn’t known him all that long, butIwould have remembered something like that, because he was…

Iswallowed.Wasit hot in here?

“What?”Haydenwas watching me carefully.

“Uh…”Iblinked.