Myst nodded once. “Give me two minutes.”
A moment later, she vanished, and I knew she was headed over to where she’d last seen our friends. Myst was an arresting creature. I couldn’t deny that. Brandon gave me a soft nudge and a quick grin. “Remember what I told you.”
“You are such a killjoy,” Astra grumbled, glaring at him.
He offered a careless shrug in return. “Punishment comes in many shapes and sizes.”
“So, that’s what you’re doing with me? You’re punishing me?” I asked. He didn’t respond right away. His fiery blue gaze wandered across the beach as the clones kept moving. Fortunately for us, the archway was not our only point of access—not while we had Viola with us. Myst and I had discussed the idea of retrieving the scheme of the runes that had been carved onto the Daughter’s body. It was needed in order for the Valkyrie to break the sigils that stopped Viola from using all her powers. The clones had taken precautionary measures with magic we didn’t understand, but we should be able to reverse it with the right information.
Myst was our best chance at setting Viola free from the runes’ limitations. Those sigils couldn’t be broken randomly, since, according to Brandon, it could end up killing her or worse. He’d warned us against trying anything that didn’t involve the original scheme. For now, however, our focus was on Isabelle, Voss, and Chantal. They’d been here for too long already. They were vulnerable, and we had to get them out.
“I like pushing buttons,” Brandon finally confessed, his voice barely a whisper. “Tell me I can’t do something, and that is exactly what I will do. Tell me I’m forbidden to enter a certain room, and I will tear down the walls that surround it.”
“Pretty sure that just makes you a contrarian, not so much a punisher,” Astra said with a slightly amused sigh. “That gets old pretty quickly, just so you know.”
“Worry not, I always have fresh material,” he said, chuckling. His humor faded as soon as Myst reappeared by our side. My skin tingled, as if her sudden presence had lit up every atom in my body. “Well?” Brandon asked.
“I think they’re still in there,” the Valkyrie said. “I heard voices that sounded like theirs. Unfortunately, each of these units is warded against my kind, so I couldn’t look inside. I couldn’t even touch the doorknob.”
Astra frowned. “They know you might try to get them out.”
“That’s fine,” I said, watching vampire doppelgangers as they walked along the shore, the water splashing against their boots and turning the white sand gray with every small wave. “Viola, take us there. We can try the lock if you can’t get in yourself.”
The Daughter took my hand and reached for Astra’s. Jericho touched my shoulder, and Myst caught my other hand. For a second, I lost my breath altogether. Her touch was electric, sending unreadable signals through my body. My skin tingled with delight. If Brandon was right, and I was infatuated with the Valkyrie, it would only spell trouble in the future. But maybe this was just my fascination regarding her species, a new creature that had briefly become the recipient of my interest and perhaps affection. Maybe I was just childishly excited by being so close to an entity from another realm—but if that were the case, why didn’t my heart skip similar playful beats whenever Brandon was around? No, that wasn’t it.
I was attracted to her. There was no point in denying it.
It sounded like a terrible idea, however, based on what Brandon had told me. But my body wasn’t listening. My soul was blinded, too. I wasn’t sure my brain could override these feelings, but I’d have to try.
The Berserker took Astra’s hand in his, a faint pink shimmer fluttering across her face when she stole a glance at him. It was so quick that I doubted anyone else noticed. Her light was never too bright when he was close, and he was still inclined to take a couple of steps back whenever she used it, but never in a way that showed it affected him. It only seemed to bother him a little, which wasn’t strange, considering he was a being of darkness. He had a certain immunity to Astra, as opposed to Haldor and his shadow hounds, however, who winced at her faintest glow. I wondered if this was about luminosity in general, or if it pertained solely to Astra.
An instant later, Viola had teleported us to the far end of the extension. Here, the narrow alleys between glass houses were crowded with palm and leafy plant pots made of white porcelain. They’d been freshly watered, and I could smell the wet dirt beneath the layer of decorative pebbles. The ocean whispered all around us, waves splashing against the support pillars beneath. A salty wind brushed past us, and I could almost taste it on the tip of my tongue.
It was quiet.
I heard footsteps leading away and down the central alley. Looking toward the source of that sound, I saw five clone guards. They had pulverizer weapons hanging over their backs and sheathed swords strapped to their leather belts, and they were all wearing the GASP uniform. The mere sight of these creatures was an insult to everything we stood for. It made my blood boil.
“So far, so good,” Brandon mumbled, looking around cautiously. Every glass panel of every unit in our vicinity was frosted white. We knew we were taking a chance by getting so close—someone could see us from inside any of these holding cells if they had red garnet glasses handy—but we had no other choice. “Can you get in?” the Berserker asked Viola.
She tried, her violet eyes burning brightly for a second, but it didn’t work. “No.
