Azriel? I cocked my head sideways, listening intently, trying to catch even the smallest sound. What I did hear was coming from behind us—footsteps, running toward the room. Obviously, the people still working in the offices had heard the explosion.
I swore and took a tentative step forward. Metal crunched under my feet, the sound like that of old bones. I shivered and hoped it wasn’t an omen of some kind.
Azriel, please, answer me. I took another step. Blue flickered through the dusty darkness up ahead—Valdis. Hope surged. If Valdis had survived, then surely Azriel had as well. But as much as I wanted to rush over there, I couldn’t. I needed to do something to stop those people from coming in here. I had no idea what other tricks Lauren might have up her sleeve, but I doubted this explosion would be the last of them. I didn’t need innocent bystanders getting caught in the middle of a firefight.
So even though it went against every instinct I had, I resolutely turned around, raced back up the stairs, and closed the door. Azriel had destroyed the lock, but there was a heavy old dead bolt near the top of the door, so I slammed that home, then brought Amaya down on the handrail, chopping off a chunk of metal and wedging it under the door. They’d force their way in eventually, but at least I’d bought some time.
I spun and went back down into the dusty darkness. Valdis’s light pulsed across the shadows, reminding me oddly of a lighthouse beacon. I hoped like hell it was a beacon that was guiding me toward good news, not bad.
I swallowed heavily, my stomach churning faster and faster the closer I got. I couldn’t see anything resembling a dust-covered body, be it alive or dead. I couldn’t smell blood or ruined flesh, either, and that was comforting. At the very least, he hadn’t been blown into little tiny pieces.
Valdis’s light got stronger, angrier. She was lying on the cracked and filthy concrete, the flames flaring down her sides pulsing between blue and red. She was furious, and I can’t say I blamed her. I’d be furious, if I wasn’t so scared.
I stopped and looked around. The dust was beginning to settle, and Valdis’s light was strong enough to lift the thicker shadows. The standing stones were still and dark once more. I had no idea what had activated them, but certainly no one had come through them. But maybe that had never been the point. Maybe all along the barrier had been the trap, and the stones nothing more than a distraction.
It was a trap Azriel had not only sprung, but been ensnared by.
I flexed my fingers, trying to control my fear, trying to think rather than panic. He had to be alive. He couldn’t be dead. Not like this.
Is not, Amaya said.
I frowned. How do you know?
Sword, she replied. He dead, she dead.
I closed my eyes against the rush of relief and tears. Valdis’s furious flames might be a good sign, but that didn’t mean he’d escaped unscathed. Didn’t mean that death might not yet be his fate.
Damn it, he couldn’t die. I wouldn’t let him!
I reached down to grab Valdis, then hesitated and asked, Amaya, will Valdis mind me picking her up?
No, she replied. One you are.
Meaning me and Azriel, I gathered, not me and Valdis. Can you speak to her?
If wish.
Ask her if she knows where Azriel is.
Amaya was silent for a moment, then said, Know not. Alive is all.
I grimaced, but I’d guessed it wasn’t going to be that easy. Not given who undoubtedly had him.
Fear rose again, but I shut it down ruthlessly. Now was not the time for panic or fear. If it was Lauren who had him—and really, this had her fingerprints all over it, not Hunter’s—then it would be for one reason: to either get me to come to her or to hold him as ransom until the key was found.
Either way, she’d be in contact with me sooner rather than later, and that meant I had better get myself organized and ready to fight.
Because this would end.
Lauren, or Mike, or whatever the hell his or her name really was, had caused enough problems and done enough damage. I’d stopped Lucian and I’d fucking stop her, as well.
Something heavy hit the door behind me, the sound echoing loudly in the dusty chamber. I jumped and spun. The door quivered under the impact but held firm. For how much longer I had no idea. I scooped Valdis up, then stalked across to the standing stones. They didn’t react to my presence, but then, none of them ever had when I’d been in human form. I hesitated, then reached out and tentatively touched the surface of one of them.
The black stone was cool and slick under my fingertips, but within its heart, energy pulsed, making it seem as if the rock was alive and waiting. And I guess in some ways it was, as that beat was the magic, ready to react.
Stepping through the gateway would be the obvious action if I wanted to find Azriel, but I had no doubt that that was precisely what Lauren wanted. Just as I had no doubt that there’d be some sort of trap waiting for me on the other side of this gateway.
The door shuddered under another impact. I bit my lip and glanced over my shoulder. There were serious dents and splits in it now; it wouldn’t take too many more blows before it gave way.