I stepped inside. It wasn’t just a single-story room, but rather three, with an atrium in the middle and a soaring, white-painted, window-lined, wooden ceiling. Moonlight poured through the glass, giving the room a cool, eerie feel. I took several more steps forward, trying to pin down the location of the energy that was burning across my senses. The Dušan stirred and writhed, moving from the left to the right as she did so. I frowned, wondering if she was actually giving me a hint. I walked right. While bookcases lined the upper level and there was a café below, this level was filled with information boards and the artifacts that had been collected over the many years of restoration. I walked past several boards then stopped suddenly as the energy all but exploded, blasting heat across my skin and making Amaya hiss her fury.
It was here. Somewhere.
I scanned the half-height boxes, seeing the remnants of a rusted garden seat, the strap off an iron fence post, and a pickax.
It had to be that. Had to be.
"Have you found it?" Lucian asked softly.
"I think so," I said, reaching for it.
But my fingers had barely brushed the wooden handle when hell broke loose around us.
"What the fuck—?" Lucian said, spinning around.
"That dormant magic," Azriel said grimly, "is no longer so dormant. And we are no longer alone. We need to leave—now!"
I gripped the pickax’s rough handle firmly as he wrapped his arms around me. Power surged—his power—running through every muscle, every fiber, until my whole body sang to its tune. But this time it failed to make us into energy beings, failed to transport us into the gray fields and away from the mansion.
Valdis spat and screamed—an echo of her master’s frustration, I suspected.
"What’s wrong?" I said, fear gripping me as he stepped back and drew the sword.
"The magic is preventing travel through the gray fields." His gaze went past me, and his expression became grim. I didn’t even want to look. "Can you take Aedh form?"
I reached for her immediately. Her response was swift and harsh, no doubt due to the tension twisting my insides, but nothing happened.
"It is as I expected," Azriel said. "We have stepped neatly into another trap."