Chapter Thirty-One
Thirty-One
The first floor was dark and very quiet when we stepped off the elevator.
High above, huge light fixtures swung gently back and forth in response to the tremors running through the building, their illumination almost too faint to reach us.
As we moved into the center of the cavernous space, a powerful ripple passed through the floor, causing the smoked glass walls of the lobby to vibrate with a low and unnerving hum.
A trio of figures were dimly visible on the sidewalk outside as I hurried to the abandoned reception desk and bent over the computer keyboard.
There had to be a way to unravel the wards around the revolving doors—they were designed to identify and sequester unfamiliar magicks, and most of our contractors were covered in the stuff—but it took me a solid two minutes to figure out the convoluted menu subsystems and accessed the correct command.
The thousands of tiny sigils incised into the doors glowed briefly with orange light, and as it faded I waved Eric and the others in.
While I futzed with the computer, Amira had been drawing a large circle on the floor with powdered human bone, sifting the gritty dust through her fingers.
Now she retraced her path, this time sprinkling animal blood, while Lex sketched unfamiliar sigils behind her with a greenish sludge that smelled like rotting meat.
The revolving doors thumped and whispered, and I went to meet Eric as he stepped warily into the lobby.
He wore jeans and a T-shirt and his leather jacket, just like he had on our first date.
Behind him, Corrine and Ivan glowered at everything, both dressed in formfitting black.
“What’s the situation?” he asked quietly as I reached him.
“We’re almost ready. What’s happening outside?”
It was Corrine who answered, voice flat.
“It’s bad. There’s a huge disturbance forming over the building.
We heard chanting from high above, on the roof, but I don’t think it’s going well.
” As if to punctuate this statement, incandescent bolts of lightning grounded themselves one after another in the street outside, jagged blasts of light followed by a single concussive roar.
We all flinched, our shadows thrown in stark relief against the lobby walls, and my ears rang.
A heartbeat later, I realized my ears weren’t ringing after all—instead, I was hearing a long, drawn-out scream.
Something dark and human-size plummeted into view before scattering wetly on the sidewalk.
“Oh god,” Amira said unsteadily.
“The board is failing. We have to start the ritual now.” I turned to Eric.
“The binding should draw the creature to us, but once they begin, Amira and Lex have to keep going or we all implode or something. We need to occupy The-One-Who-Hungers until they’re done.
Once it’s safely bound, I’ll stab it in the face with the Black Blade. ”
Eric’s eyes searched mine. “We can do this,” he said quietly. “You can do this.”
Without thinking about it, I cupped the side of his face in my hand. “Let’s talk once we’ve saved the world, okay?”
His lips curved into a small smile. “Okay.” His hand lifted to mine, just for a moment, before he stepped back and gestured to the other Conclave agents.
The three of them spread out, backing away from the ritual space, Ivan drawing a pair of long knives from sheaths in the small of his back while Corrine began uncoiling a length of silver chain.
I turned to Lex where they stood just inside the circle of powdered bone. “Ready?”
Instead of answering, they glanced over at Amira, standing next to them.
Her eyes were wide, and she took a deep breath before nodding once.
Lex held out their hand, the golden chain cradled in their palm, and Amira clasped it in her own.
With a soft clinking of metal, the chain wound itself around both their wrists, binding them together.
Lex smiled at her, then looked at me. “Ready.”
Lifting my head, I stared off into the distance. This was it. This was the moment when I would rise above my self-doubts to become the hero I was always destined to be, the moment that would define the rest of my—
One of the elevators gave a cheerful ding and opened to the soft, pleasant strains of jazzy Muzak.
We all froze as someone barreled into view, stumbling a little as their shoes slid on the stone floor.
Shirt scorched in several places, blood streaming from a deep gash on one arm, Sunil barely glanced at us as he caught his balance and then sprinted headlong toward the exit, whimpering loudly as he went by.
Slamming into the doors, he pushed frantically until they began to move and then hurled himself onto the sidewalk outside.
We heard a faint shriek and Sunil hesitated, craning his neck back to peer upward just before another plummeting form smashed into him with a meaty crunch audible even through the glass walls.
“Ooh,” Lex said with a wince. “Ouch.”
“Oh god,” Amira breathed again.
“Huh.” Staring through the glass at the shattered body of my now-former nemesis, I took a moment to savor the sweetness of emotional closure before turning to the others. “Okay. Now we’re ready.”