‘But it’s not a commodity,’ I said. ‘Not any more than the air we breathe.’
Monroe reached for my hand and squeezed it. He didn’t need to say anything; neither of us did.
When we reached the first crossroads, we came to a halt. Monroe lifted up his head and sniffed the air. ‘Julian was definitely here,’ he said. ‘And recently.’ His mouth flattened into a grim line. ‘He wasn’t alone.’
I stiffened. ‘Can you recognise the other scent?’
He shook his head. ‘No.’ He looked at me unhappily. ‘There are several.’
I hissed through my teeth. So we could assume that Barrett had brought in more people – and without our knowledge. It confirmed the secret tunnel theory. I was beginning to get an inkling about where the entrance might be located, too. One problem at a time, however.
Monroe exhaled. ‘Charlotte, I can smell blood. I can’t tell if it’s Julian’s or Boyce’s or it belongs to someone else. But it’s fresh and clinging to everything.’
Something hardened deep inside me. ‘Then let’s get our arses into gear.’
He nodded and pointed left. ‘That way.’
We took off again. An odd skittering sound lit through the street behind us. I glanced back but couldn’t see anything. Maybe it was a giant rat. Maybe it was something worse. It didn’t matter; Julian was our priority.
We continued for another half a mile, turning once to the right. It seemed that the deeper we continued into the city, the more silent everything became. I knew these streets and I knew them well, but there was a prickling threat rippling through the atmosphere that I hadn’t ever sensed before. Monroe felt it too. His hair was standing on end at the nape of his neck, as if he were wolf right now rather than man.
He slowed down and jerked his head towards one of the shadowed buildings. ‘There.’ He clenched his teeth. ‘Julian is in there.’
I tipped my head back and gazed at the building. It was nondescript, with little about its architecture or cleanliness to commend it. The windows were black with soot, indicating that it had been badly affected by fire at some point, no doubt from the fiery rain in the first days of the apocalypse if the state of the roof was anything to go by. There were no other signs of life.
‘Wait here.’
Monroe frowned but didn’t speak. I padded over to the far corner of the building and leaned to the side, eyeing the guttering that was hanging off the semi-destroyed roof. I flicked out a thread of magic, twisting it round the edge of the guttering, and tugged on it until I was rising through the air. In seconds I was at the top floor, peering through the highest window.
The grime and soot made it difficult to see anything. I squinted and swung closer. I could make out a few static shapes that looked like cheap office chairs and desks. I changed hands, switching my magical tether from my right to my left, and looped over to the next window like some strange cross between Spiderman and Tarzan. There was nothing to see inside that window either.
I released some of the tension on my magic rope and dropped to the third floor. The fire that had gutted the building had clearly been most destructive higher up. The windows here were less coated with soot and I could make out a little more of the room beyond. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see anything that was living. Or dead.
I was about to scoot across to the window on the other side when the faintest flicker of movement caught my eye. I held my breath and pulled back so that whoever was inside wasn’t alerted to my presence. It was unlikely that any of Barrett’s goons would expect someone to be hovering outside the window at this height; this wasn’t a magical skill that I used often so I doubted he’d be aware of it. All the same, if this was the trap that we were anticipating, the more surreptitious we were before triggering it the better.
With most of my body out of sight from the window, and Monroe looking on from below, I peeked in again. I couldn’t make out whether it was Julian who was inside – or who might be with him – but I hadn’t imagined the movement. Someone was in there.
I dropped down to the ground.
‘Third floor?’ Monroe asked, keeping his voice low.
‘Yep.’ I wrinkled my nose. ‘I can’t see who or what is in there but I’m sure that’s the place. Something is moving in that room.’
I looked at the door. It was firmly shut but I’d give good odds that someone was waiting on the other side. ‘If we go in through the front and there are more of Barrett’s wankers waiting in there for us, we’ll be sitting ducks.’
Monroe snorted derisively. ‘They don’t have power like we do.’
‘Maybe not, but they do have guns. And they may have the numbers.’ I touched him gently on the cheek, my fingers brushing his stubble. ‘We don’t have to be stupid about this.’
Something gleamed in his blue eyes. He wanted to burst in with a show of strength and prove to the world that no one was a match for his might. I fully understood the sentiment but both of us knew better. ‘Fine,’ he said. He angled his head upwards and sighed. ‘I suppose you want us to enter from the roof.’
I grinned. ‘Well, there is a conveniently gaping hole across half of it. It’s not like it’s that high up.’
‘I’m not afraid of heights,’ he growled.
I patted his cheek again. ‘Of course you’re not. The big bad wolf would never be scared of something like that.’
He curled his arm round my waist and pulled me in tight. ‘Watch it.’
I lifted
