TWENTY-ONE MILES

They wind up back at the clearing somehow, both panting and leaning against trees as they catch their breath.

"How many more?" Kieran asks, his voice muffled behind the mask.

Miles grimaces, pulling his mask off so he can take a deep breath of fresh air and hopefully not feel so stifled.

"There were eleven of us," he answers, glancing at the tunnel entrance.

They"ve already found six. Miles himself makes seven. Which means there are four others unaccounted for. Miles doesn"t know how long they"ve been searching through the woods, but it has to have been at least an hour. The likelihood of finding anyone else is dwindling by the second, and he knows it.

"We"ve done what we can, Miles," Kieran says, pulling his own mask off and looking at Miles pleadingly. "We should get out of here."

Miles hesitates, his breath catching in his chest. He feels like he"s being torn in a million different directions, and he has no idea what he"s supposed to do right now. The easiest thing would be to listen to Kieran, obviously. He"s right, they need to get out and wait for the FBI to show up. They"ve done their jobs. But none of the rest of these people knew what they were signing on for, not like Miles did.

He can"t just leave them.

He glances back toward the mansion, shaking his head.

"I haven"t seen Phoenix," Miles whispers, almost annoyed with himself for how concerned he is about the man. "He"s not out here."

Kieran blinks at him for a long moment, confusion obvious on his face.

"So what?" he asks harshly. "You said he sold you out to Blackwood."

Miles winces at the reminder, wishing he hadn"t mentioned that to Kieran when he caught him up to speed on everything.

"I"m not leaving without him."

Miles doesn"t quite have a proper reason, at least not one that he can put his finger on quite yet, but he knows for a fact that he can"t let Phoenix stay and suffer like this. If he can help, he"s going to.

"You can"t save him!" Kieran hisses, rubbing a hand over his face in exasperation. "Miles, he"s on Blackwood"s side. He made that pretty fucking obvious. You can"t fix everything this time."

And that"s when it clicks. Miles knows exactly why he has to do this, and he looks Kieran dead in the eye, the other man stopping his tirade as Miles smiles sadly.

"I can," he says, and the words sound like a promise. "I know what it"s like to be obsessed with someone, how suffocating and consuming it is. And I know what it"s like to feel like you can finally breathe again once you get over it. He hasn"t figured out there can be something after all of this yet. I have to show him."

The realization comes like a weight lifted off Miles" shoulders, hope filling his chest. It was so freeing to properly cut Frank off, to know that no matter how long he spent feeling like he wasn"t good enough, no matter how many times Frank made him feel like there was something wrong with him, he still got over it. He"s moving on, and he"s finding out that there"s more to life than just what he knows, that there"s always another step to take. He knows Phoenix can do the same.

Miles just has to show him a different road.

Kieran looks stricken when Miles meets his eyes again. His jaw is set in a tense line, and he looks away after a moment, nodding in agreement.

"You"ll come with me?" Miles asks.

It feels like there"s a gap between the two of them suddenly, and Miles doesn"t really know why, but when Kieran meets his eyes again, something in the center of his chest softens. He thinks he sees something in Kieran"s gaze soften the same way.

"Of course," Kieran answers.

That sounds like a promise, too.

But Miles doesn"t have time to think about that right now, so he shakes his head to clear it and pulls his mask back over his face. Kieran does the same, and they nod at each other before turning to face the mansion. They step toward the tunnel, following it back to the trail they"d been on when they first discovered it. It"s a straight shot back to the mansion, and they follow it as quickly as they can while doing their best to remain inconspicuous. It almost feels even more eerie to not run into anyone on the way there, the forest completely silent around them, hardly even the chirp of crickets to disrupt the stillness of the night air.

By the time they make it to the mansion, both of them are on edge, Miles" teeth grinding together as he tries to keep himself from jumping at the sway of every branch.

The mansion itself looks more foreboding than ever. Every light is off as far as Miles can tell, both inside and out, leaving the shape of it to loom in a menacing shadow against the night sky. The door doesn"t creak when he opens it, and the whole place is as quiet as a tomb.

Miles pulls his mask off when the door closes behind them, turning to see Kieran doing the same.

It"s too dark inside to see anything with them on, and Miles feels the hair on his arms stand on end as his skin pricks with goosebumps. The air inside is cold, too, colder than the air out in the forest, where the tropical climate lent some of its warmth. But the mansion feels like a mausoleum, bare and echoing even the slightest scuff of their shoes as they wander further in.

Miles leads them toward Phoenix"s room, having no clue where else to start looking, but as they pass a hallway, he stops dead in his tracks.

Voices echo from further down, and Miles can see light spilling from around the corner. He glances back at Kieran questioningly, nodding his head toward the source of the voices. Kieran sighs, but nods, stepping forward in front of Miles and leading the way as they get closer. Miles smiles softly at the protective gesture, wishing he could thank Kieran for it now.

His heart is pounding in his chest the closer they get, but all he can hear is hushed whispers. Miles hopes against hope as they near the corner, taking a deep breath just before they round it.

Two thick glass doors are propped wide open, the cold light of a hundred screens spilling out onto the floor of the room.

Blackwood stands at the center of it, smiling widely.

He has a gun leveled straight at Kieran"s chest.

Miles" heart drops down into his stomach, panic flooding him immediately. The room is huge, with one wall entirely full of screens—security feeds of every inch of the mansion and surrounding woods playing out over them. Miles" gut knots when he realizes Blackwood must have been watching them the whole way here. There are rows of lockers on the other walls, all equipped with biometric scanners and etched with a set of initials and a date on them. The whole place looks like some terrifying high-tech dungeon.

His eyes find Phoenix, standing by the bank of screens, his face pointed toward the ground. An angry red handprint sits high on his cheek, and tears glisten on his skin. He"s shaking.

"Phoenix," Miles whispers, unable to stop himself.

Phoenix doesn"t so much as flinch.

Blackwood laughs, the sound mean and vicious, not bothering to even glance back at the man behind him.

"Miles, Kieran, how lovely of you to join me here," Blackwood says. "It"s so good to see you one last time."

Kieran takes a single step forward, Miles" heart jumping into his throat, but he doesn"t manage to scream anything out before Blackwood draws the hammer of his gun back. Kieran stills, but Miles can see the tension trembling in each of his limbs. He silently prays that Kieran doesn"t do anything rash.

"Don"t move, now," Blackwood tells them with a cruel smile. "It would be a shame for anyone to get hurt. Phoenix?"

Miles watches as Phoenix jumps at the mention of his name, flinching back even as he turns to face Blackwood more fully.

"Yes, Sir?" Phoenix asks, his voice shaking.

"Get everything ready for me, would you?"

Blackwood"s voice is so casual, so uncaring, and Miles feels rage boil in his gut, hatred bubbling up. He watches silently as Phoenix turns toward the desk, his hands shaking as he punches in a code on a keypad. The surface of the desk slides apart, a biometric scanner rising up, a flashing red handprint on its surface. Horror floods through Miles as he realizes exactly what Blackwood meant when he said Phoenix was his key.

Miles may not know much about technology, but when a handprint scanner pops up with a massive label reading Self-Destruct Use Only, there really isn"t a lot of guesswork that goes into it.

Blackwood smiles as he sees the fear cross over Miles" face, tossing his head back on a laugh.

"Against the wall, you two," Blackwood instructs, waving the barrel of the gun toward the wall with all of the lockers. "I hate to be rude and cut our final interaction short, but I do have places to be."

Miles glares hatefully at the man as he follows Kieran deeper into the room, Blackwood smiling as he watches their every movement and edges closer to the door. Blackwood"s gaze shifts to Phoenix as he steps back through the doors, never lowering the gun from where it"s pointed at Kieran.

"You know what to do," he says.

Phoenix nods, presses a button, and then Blackwood disappears. Miles flinches when the button clicks, all of the screens going black, but there"s no violent eruption, no terrifying countdown. The lights in the room come back on, and Miles looks between Phoenix and Kieran in confusion. Kieran looks just as bewildered as he feels.

"Phoenix?" Miles asks, his voice soft.

He takes a hesitant step toward the man, but stops when Phoenix raises his head. He looks beyond tired. His eyes are empty, and he just looks defeated. Miles shakes his head, taking another step closer, his eyes welling with tears.

"Phoenix, please, you have to listen—"

"No," Phoenix cuts him off, shaking his head.

The word sounds so raw it hurts.

"I know what it"s like," Miles pleads. "My ex didn"t do anything like this, but you can walk away. I"m proof of that. I realized there was more to life than what he gave me, I made it out."

Phoenix just looks at him blankly, those exhausted, drained eyes focused on Miles" face, but not seeing him in the slightest.

"Walk away, Phoenix," Miles begs, his voice cracking.

He takes a step closer, ignoring Kieran"s warning, and holds a hand out to Phoenix, his fingers trembling. Phoenix"s hand twitches at his side, and Miles almost sobs in relief.

"Let"s make it out of here together."

Phoenix stares at him a moment longer, his eyes growing sorrowful, and his hand clenches into a fist.

"I"m sorry," he whispers, "but the evidence needs to be destroyed. And so do the witnesses."

Miles screams in horror as he watches Phoenix turn and slam his hand down on the scanner, his chest collapsing in on itself. Kieran"s hand wraps around his bicep, and Miles feels himself yanked back from the room, his arm outstretched toward Phoenix, who looks back at him with teary eyes.

The doors slam shut seconds after they pass the threshold, and the entire house shakes. Miles feels the heat of an explosion, the doors failing to control its power and bursting open, shards of glass flying at him and Kieran just as he"s yanked around the corner. Miles screams again, because what else can he do? This isn"t how this was supposed to happen, he wasn"t supposed to fail.

He can"t have failed.

"Miles!" Kieran shouts, shaking his shoulders.

Miles looks at him hazily through a fog of fear and guilt, tears rushing down his face. The salt of them stings along a cut high on his cheek, but he can barely feel it.

"We need to go, Miles," Kieran says, tugging Miles along. "We need to go."

And Miles doesn"t argue this time.

He runs along Kieran"s side, hoping that they"re actually making it toward the front door. He can hear the fire crackling as it eats through the mansion, and his heart aches at the thought of Phoenix still back there.

There"s nothing he can do now. It"s too late.

They finally make it out of one of the back doors, both of them stumbling down the steps into the warm evening air. Miles glances back at the mansion, but Kieran"s hand wraps around his wrist again, and he can do nothing but follow as they sprint through the woods away from the blaze. Miles knows the fire has reached the forest, he can smell the smoke and the ash starting to thicken the air, but he can"t feel the heat of it or the pain from the cut on his cheek or how the branches snag on his skin.

He can only feel the touch of Kieran"s hand on his wrist and the burn of the tears streaming down his cheeks.

Miles feels terrified and hollow and so empty it aches.

It feels like he"s never going to make it out of this forest. He doesn"t know if he deserves to.