She’s right, Rune said. Go. I’ll stay with The Elites.
Tor looked torn, jaw ticking, and then he exhaled and nodded. The strategist in him siding with me and silencing the beast that wanted to protect.
“Sloane, keep her—”
“Seriously, Tor,” Sloane drawled. “Do we have to do this every time?”
He tucked in his chin. “No. I know. Make it quick. Don’t fucking linger.”
He strode off carrying the varga woman, and the Holm shifters trailed behind him. Astrid speared me with a final bitchy look before trotting after my mate.
Leif gathered the other varga woman into his arms and shot me an apologetic look.
I sighed and shook my head. I needed to control the territorial shit. I mean, how the fuck would I cope once they started banging other women to procreate?
No. Do not think about it.
Rune stayed by my side. I’ll help you scope.
“Thanks.” I stroked his head. “Let’s see what we can find.”
“We split up and we work fast,” Sloane said. “Cora, Rune, you’re with me.”
We headed toward the low building we were hiding against a few minutes ago. It was the closest building to the tower and therefore the most viable spot for the Order to camp out and keep watch on their acquisitions.
This may just be a holding ground, Rune said. There may not be anything of note.
I smiled down at him as I pulled a set of lockpicks from my kick-ass boots and set to work on the door. “They’ve had this place for three years. I doubt this is the first time they’ve used it. There has to be something we can use against them.”
The lock disengaged and we were inside a small foyer. An office of sorts, lined with dusty filing cabinets, cheap-looking chairs, and metal desks. The windows were so grimy hardly any light got through. The open-plan space ran off into the gloom.
We set to work, rummaging through items on desks coated with a thick layer of dust.
If this place had been used at all, then it had been a long time ago. Doubt squirreled its way into my mind. Maybe I was wrong. No. There were other buildings to check out. But it stood to reason if they were using this place as some kind of on-and-off base, they’d keep their station close to the tower where they liked to hold their hostages.
“Nothing here,” Sloane said.
Wait. Rune was by one of the filing cabinets, nose to the ground. Look.
I joined him and crouched to pick up a fast-food wrapper, freshly crumpled with no dust on it.
Rune jerked his head at the cabinet. Move it.
Poppy flicked her wrist and the cabinet shot away from the wall to reveal a door.
I stepped around Rune to get to it. “Well, that’s original.”
“Wait.” Sloane grabbed my arm. “It could be spelled.” She smiled at me. “Check it.”
“Me?”
“You know how to.” Poppy gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “Do it.”
We’d covered testing for spelled items in training. Two runes needed to be drawn in the air above the item, surface, or room you were testing. I hadn’t had the chance to try it out. Yet.
With a grin I brought the runes to mind, visualizing them in my head, and drew on the power inside me. It spiraled hot beneath my diaphragm and then trickled up my arms and into my fingertips. I traced the patterns in the air. They glowed silver briefly and then a silvery haze kissed the door before melting away. If there’d been a spell on it, the door would still be glowing.
Jessie used more advanced runes, ones that detected and disabled. I wasn’t there yet.
“We’re good.” Sloane pulled open the door to reveal a dark, cupboard-sized space occupied by a set of steps leading down. “Ominous much?”
Let me. Rune slipped between us and into the darkness.
I followed with Sloane at my back and Poppy making up the rear.
I kept one hand on the wall, each step measured because my night vision wasn’t as good as Rune’s. Sloane had a hand on my shoulder as we descended.
I was about to suggest a little magical light when the world below grew gray. Rune’s huge body became visible.
There was light down there.
The steps ended in a basement-like space, but it was kitted out as a lounge with a TV, pool table, sofas, coffee machine, and mini fridge. Two freestanding lamps lit up the space, one by the pool table, the other by a desk strewn with papers and piled with books.
“Bingo,” Sloane said. “There should be some info here.”
She strode toward the desk and goosebumps burst to life over my skin. Sloane froze, her head turning slowly to the side, breath pluming in the air as the temperature dropped sharply.
There was a fizzing sound, and the metallic scent of magic hit me. Rune growled in warning.
“What is that?”
“Out. Now!” Sloane ordered.
We rushed toward the steps. Rune hit them first but was thrown backward, his body twisting mid-air so he hit the ground on all fours.
He shook himself and blinked at me. I was not expecting that.
“Fuck!” Sloane pulled her cell out and stared at it. “No reception.”
A gust of icy air blew my hair back. “Sloane, what’s happening?”
She rubbed her hands together and fell into a defensive stance. “We just tripped an alarm, cupcake. Get ready to fight.”
Poppy flanked me, power crackling off her like heat off a radiator.
Rune positioned himself in front of me, body bristling with menace as the world in front of us split and a humongous, viscous cloud of darkness slid into the room. It expanded so it was two meters wide and three meters high, blocking us off from the exit and swelling to take up the room.
My blood ran cold and panic seized my mind, because the last time I’d come face to face with this thing it had been a fraction of this size, and it had almost sucked out my soul.
It had almost killed Jasper.
And it had
