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    CHAPTER
FOUR

 
 
         A four
hour hike led us up the slope of the mountainside and deeper into the forest.
No one said a word, which was fine by me. Talking would only deepen the
tension. Silence was usually how we handled it when things got real dicey. I
guess we were all kind of caught up in our own thoughts.
         I was
worried about Derek and Zack. Yeah, I know, I had more important things going
on that should have come out on top of my list of things to worry over, but
I’ve never been the big picture kind of girl. In that moment I was less
concerned about the danger of following Megara than I was about my brother and
the guy I was in love with getting into a serious fight.
         Sure,
they’d argued before. Lots. Once they even got in a fistfight and I had to use
my power over air to separate them. But I’d hoped things between them would get
better as time passed. They hadn’t.
         I
wouldn’t have believed it possible before, but I was starting to think they
were actually getting worse. And if it came down to a real fight, water versus
fire, I knew how it would end. And then what? My brother would be dead and I
would never be able to look at Zack the same way. I’d lose them both and I
couldn’t stand the thought.
         We
stepped out of the trees and into a narrow clearing facing a sheer rock wall.
Megara turned and waved at a tree. Before I could ask her what she was doing, a
section of the wall slid away with a hiss like in one of those science fiction
movies. Not that I’m into that kind of stuff, but I’d watched a few of them
with Curtis and it was the kind of noise those doors on spaceships always make.
         “Awesome,” Curtis said, training his camcorder on the door.
         Megara
stepped into the tunnel beyond. I started to follow. Zack grabbed my wrist and
pulled me back. “I’ll go first. You stay with Derek.”
        I started
to say something sharp, but caught myself at the last moment. He made a good
point even if he was being really annoying. If trouble lay ahead, Zack
was way better equipped to deal with it than I was.
         The
tunnel was lit with lights set way up near the ceiling behind metal grating. I
expected the walls to be stone. Instead, I found them to be solid concrete. How
had Megara managed to set this up?
         When we
left the tunnel, we entered a circular room which was empty except for a blonde
guy sitting behind a desk staring at an outdated computer. He looked at us with
a frown. “Who are these other people?”
         “Never
you mind about that,” Megara said. “Just open the door, Tim.”
         He
scowled, adjusted his wire rim glasses, and punched a few letters on his
keyboard. The door beside the desk slid open with that same hissing sound. I
don’t know about you, but I was finding all this to be way weirder than I was
comfortable with.
          “Are there other people here?” I asked. The
tunnel beyond the door sloped downward. “Are we going underground?”
         “Yes, to
both,” Megara replied.
         “The
other people,” Hannah said, “are they dragons?”
         “They
are. Renegades.”
         “And how
are they going to feel about Abby?” Derek asked.
         Megara
glanced at us over her shoulder. “These people are here because they sympathize
with our cause. Some of them are even hybrids. Young ones, though, not into
their powers yet. Their families brought them here to keep them safe.”
         I
stumbled over my own feet and it’s a good thing Derek caught hold of my arm or
I’d have done a face plant onto the concrete.
         “You
okay?” he asked.
         I nodded.
But I wasn’t. Not completely. The thought of young hybrids here, with their
families, made me feel...