The Ruby Moon Read Online Free

involved.”
    “What I mean,” Kendrick continued, “is there appears to be no pattern. The missing seem to have nothing in common.”
    “We only
assume
they’re being snatched,” Avery said. “What if they’re leaving because they’ve found a way out? Leaving by choice?”
    “Why wouldn’t they share the news with their closest friends? And where would they go?” Kate asked. “It’s not like most of us have homes to return to, and it’s the wrong time of year to sleep outdoors.”
    Tuck stopped. “We need to move,” he said. “We’ve got to find a place to relocate before the next person is grabbed. At the very least, relocating might buy us time to learn what’s happening.”
    “Where could we possibly go that would be large enough to hide everyone?” Kendrick asked.
    Avery shot Kate a knowing glance.
    She would go back to the tunnels tonight with or without Kate’s approval.

    Avery intended her second trip into the tunnels to be brief. She wanted to approach Tuck with the idea of moving, but she needed more information. He would ask where they would sleep, eat, meet, and work.
    She hadn’t considered getting lost.
    Yet, thirty minutes into her trip, the maze of interconnecting chambers broken by giant columns dizzied her. With only a candle to guide her, the catacomb of blown-out rooms overwhelmed. The space was enough to house an underground city. But the longer she walked and the deeper she traveled into the castle’s underbelly, the more certain she felt she had gotten in over her head.
    Armed with a pocket of matches and her jeweled dagger, she moved silently through the space, wondering how many eyes watched her from the deep shadows.
    She turned a corner and realized she had already seen this part of the tunnel.
    In fact, twice—maybe three times.
    She had heard the tunnels were a death trap to anyone incapable of figuring them out. It was the castle’s hideous joke on lawless men who hid in its subterranean shadows to avoid the dungeon or the chopping block.
    Bending, she quickly dragged her fingers through the mysterious sludge coating the floor, drew an X on the wall, and picked up her pace.
    Avery saw the same X again a few minutes later and slumped against the wall.
    Tears stung as she rested her head in her arms. She smelled dead fish and heard a voice she recognized immediately. “I told you never to come back here again.”
    Avery whipped around in time to see the dim light of a waning torch. She pushed herself up and backed away from the voice, reaching for the dagger in her pocket.
    The voice continued, “Go straight until you reach a fork. Then left until you see the X that leads to the stairs. And
don’t come back.
I know who you are. You aren’t safe here.”
    Avery turned and ran, relief sweeping over her when she reached the library and let herself back inside. She had been gone much longer than she intended.
    She wouldn’t make that mistake again.

Chapter 6
A Terrible Idea
    Girls huddled in the bunkroom, wailing. Avery knew immediately someone else was missing, but who?
    She approached a group of girls, frantically searching for Kate. “What happened? Who’s missing?”
    A great cry went up as Kate raced across the room and grabbed Avery, shaking her. Kate’s voice quavered with rage. “Where have you been, Avery?”
    Confused by the startled expressions, Avery finally comprehended what had caused the upset.
I missed supper. I missed roll call. I wasn’t in my room.
    “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I lost track of time.”
    “You were
gone
!” a girl wailed.
    “So sorry,” Avery said, louder now, realizing everyone thought she had been swallowed by that mysterious hole everyone seemed to be falling into one by one. She was overcome that girls who had never spoken to her had been mourning her demise and were now celebrating her appearance.
    Grief makes best friends of strangers.
    Within moments, the crisis had passed and the girls had moved on to other