Lover Uncloaked (Stealth Guardians #1) - By Unknown Page 0,102
water.
Under cover of darkness, Aiden directed his colleagues toward the main entrance, examining the locking mechanism. It was untouched.
“He must have taken Leila in another way,” he said to nobody in particular.
Behind him, Hamish grunted. “Doesn’t matter. Once we have her, we’ll figure out which way to get her out. If need be, Logan can always break the door open later.”
“Right,” Logan confirmed.
Aiden turned back to them. In addition to Logan and Hamish, Manus and Enya were with them. Pearce had to stay at the compound, unable to move. Besides, he had to give them a constant update of Leila’s position in case she was moved again. In the meantime Pearce had also alerted Aiden’s father who was on his way. Jay, one of their other compound mates, had been pulled off his assignment and was going to meet up with Barclay, then join Aiden and the others at Mercer Caverns to provide more manpower.
“Let’s go,” Aiden ordered.
“We should wait for the others,” Enya cautioned. “You don’t know how many demons Finlay is meeting with. We might be outnumbered.”
“We can’t risk waiting any longer. The demons can show any moment if they haven’t already. And if they take her to the underworld, not even the tracker will help us.” Aiden would never allow this. He was so close to getting her back, there was no way he’d let this opportunity slip through his fingers just because they might be unevenly matched against the demons.
“Fine,” Hamish agreed.
“Then let’s move.”
One after one, they passed through the entrance and moved into the dark interior. Aiden smelled the damp air, the mustiness, as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. Not paying the natural beauty of the caverns any attention as he moved downward into the belly of the earth, he kept his senses sharp and alert, ready to cloak himself from everybody’s eyes, even the Stealth Guardians’ behind him, should they encounter any demons or the traitor.
His hand tested for his weapons, making sure they still were where he’d stashed them: one dagger in each boot, two at his belt, and a sword in his right hand.
The descent was a long and winding one. As soon as they reached the first branch of the cave, they scanned their surroundings. It was empty. Slowly, they moved forward along the carved out path that led them through the labyrinth. Nobody spoke, knowing their voices would echo and give them away.
Aiden felt his heart beat faster with every step. He didn’t like the silence. What if it meant they were already too late? He tried to block the frightening thought from his mind. No, he would save her. She was here somewhere.
A hand on his shoulder stopped his progress. Then he felt Hamish’s mouth at his ear and saw his hand stretching past him.
“There. Light.”
Aiden nodded and edged forward toward the next cavern, holding his hand up to his friends to indicate they should wait for him. Then he reached for his power and cloaked himself.
In his invisible state, he approached and reached the edge of the walkway as it opened up to a large room. It was much bigger than the one before and illuminated by a ring of fire burning along the wall. His eyes instantly honed in on the two figures near one wall. Leila was sitting propped against a stone formation, while Finlay stood a few feet from her, scanning his surroundings, clearly waiting for somebody: the demons.
Aiden let his eyes run over Leila’s body. As she lifted her head now, he noticed a red bruise on one side of her neck. His hands clenched into fists, wanting to beat Finlay to pulp for having harmed her. But he refrained from following his urge. Satisfied that Leila was otherwise uninjured, he rushed back in silence.
He uncloaked himself when he reached his friends. They huddled around him.
“Finlay is there with Leila. Both are at the right wall, two o’clock. We’ll go in cloaked. Surround them. It’s a circular room. Enya, Manus, use the pathway on the left, make a loop; Logan stay at the entrance to block him from escaping. Hamish, you and I take the path to the right. Once I’m close enough to touch Leila I’ll give you a signal, we’ll uncloak, then attack Finlay.”
“No,” Hamish whispered back.
Aiden gave him a sharp look.
“We need to wait for the demons. If you attack now, the demons might smell a rat and not show,” Hamish continued.