Chapter 12
The drive to the Corvus building took twenty-three minutes.
Aidon drove his BMW SUV in careful silence while I sat in the passenger seat.
I watched the city lights blur past. In the back, Nana checked her weapons.
The soft click of her shotgun being loaded was the only sound breaking the tension.
Stella sat beside her. She was perfectly still as her mind raced through scenarios and contingencies.
"You good back there?" I asked, glancing in the rearview mirror.
"Better than good, Buttercup." Nana's grin was sharp enough to cut glass. "I haven't had this much fun since I told your grandfather I was pregnant with your mother."
Stella snorted as Aidon pulled into an abandoned lot with clear sightlines to the Corvus building.
The facility loomed three blocks away. Its windows were dark except for the security lights marking the perimeter.
From this distance, it looked like any other medical office building.
It was clean and professional. All of it was nothing but a lie.
Jean-Marc's voice crackled through the earbud. "Security diagnostic window opens in eight minutes. I'm ready to loop the feeds, but I can only hold them for forty-five minutes before the system auto-corrects. After that, you'll be visible to anyone monitoring."
"Got it," I said, pressing my finger to the earpiece. "How are things at the house?"
"Layla and Murtagh are patrolling the perimeter with Tseki. Nina just fed the babies. Everyone's secure." Jean-Marc's voice softened slightly. "Mom, be careful."
"Always am," I promised as Aidon's hand squeezed my shoulder. He would be there to protect me and make sure we all got back home safely.
Stella pulled a device from her bag that looked like a modified phone.
Circuit boards and crystals were fused. I had no idea what it did or when she made it.
"I can handle the biometric scanner at the maintenance entrance.
Jean-Marc walked me through the hack. Give me thirty seconds once we're at the door. "
Ah, so that’s what it did. Thank the gods my family was thinking things through. I was so sleep-deprived that I’d forgotten that was a concern.
I checked my watch. It was 10:58 PM. My hands were steady despite the adrenaline flooding my system. The protective stone Clio had given me pressed against my hip through my pocket. Its warmth was a constant reminder of what we were walking into.
Through my bond with Tarja, I felt her steady presence back at the house. She was watching the babies with the others. "Be careful," Tarja sent. "These creatures are older and more dangerous than anything you've faced."
"I know," I replied. "But they threatened our children. Time to show them they made a mistake."
At exactly 11:03 PM, Jean-Marc's voice came through again. "Cameras are looped. You're ghosts as far as their system knows. Move now."
We exited the vehicle quickly and quietly. Aidon took point. His shadows spread ahead of us like scouts, searching for threats in the darkness. Stella and I flanked him while Nana brought up the rear. She held her shotgun comfortably. She knew exactly how to use it.
We entered the parking garage through a side entrance. It was a fire door with an alarm that Jean-Marc had already disabled. The garage was dimly lit. Our footsteps echoed on the concrete despite our attempts at stealth. The sound made my nerves sing with tension.
"Two levels down," Aidon whispered so low I could barely hear him. "The magical signature is coming from below."
My heart hammered in my chest as we descended to Level B2.
The maintenance entrance was exactly where Dr. Reeves said it would be.
In the northeast corner, tucked between a dumpster and a concrete pillar.
A dented metal door with a card reader and a palm scanner that glowed faintly green in the dim garage lighting.
Stella worked her magic. Her device caused the scanner to believe she was an authorized user. Within twenty seconds, the lock disengaged with a soft click that seemed deafening in the silence.
"We're in," I whispered. "Jean-Marc, any movement on the cameras?"
"Negative. The guards are maintaining their positions. You're clear for now," he replied through my earbud.
The hallway beyond the maintenance door was narrow and lit by flickering fluorescents that cast a bright light on industrial tile. The walls were older there. The paint was peeling in places, revealing concrete underneath.
"This doesn't match the building plans," Aidon murmured as his shadows pooled at his feet. His power was responding to the tension. "It's older. This was here before the rest of the structure."
He was right. The hallway reminded me of a fallout bunker built decades ago. The air tasted stale. That was likely thanks to being recycled through ventilation systems that hadn't been updated since the eighties, and not Dark magic.
"I can feel it," Tarja's voice echoed in my mind. "The Scythe. Its energy is saturating everything down there."
My protective stone grew warmer against my hip, responding to the corrupted magic permeating the sublevel. I pulled it out, watching it pulse with a faint golden light that pushed back against the darkness. I hadn’t noticed when we entered, but it was indeed trying to seep into my magical core.
We moved quickly but carefully. The hallway branched after thirty feet, offering three possible directions. Aidon's shadows explored each path. I have no idea what they told him, but his expression darkened.
"Left," he said quietly. "The magical signature is strongest that way."
Nodding, we took that corridor. It descended gradually, taking us deeper underground. How far down did this place go? The building plans hadn't shown anything below the main basement level. We'd been walking for at least five minutes and hadn't seen any hint of the areas we expected to.
Aidon froze suddenly, and his shadows pulled back to him. "We have company."
I raised my hand, signaling everyone to stop. Stella readied herself and had her witch fire crackling across her fists. Like me, she was also prepared to throw whatever spell she could at an enemy. Nana's shotgun came up smoothly, and she held it steady.
We rounded the corner and found three Thessmark. I’d come to suspect they could take other forms, but this was their true form. They were standing guard outside a reinforced door. They were taller than we’d encountered. Their skin was a gray that reminded me of corpses pulled from water.
Scattered across their foreheads and cheeks were boils. No wonder they usually covered their faces. Their eyes were also completely black. The moment they saw us, the largest one raised its hand, and the temperature dropped twenty degrees in an instant.
Aidon's shadows exploded out of him and wrapped around the nearest Thessmark before it could attack us.
The creature shrieked and began tearing at the shadows with talons that could cut through them like tissue paper.
Aidon flinched every time it destroyed one.
I tossed a ball of my witch fire at it, hoping to distract the thing.
Stella's magic hit the second one. It was a binding spell that should have locked it in place, but slid off its skin like water. "They're warded against standard offensive magic!" she shouted as she began recalibrating.
The third Thessmark lunged at me. I barely got my hands up in time to deflect it.
My teal flames erupted from my palms with enough force to make the air crackle.
When my witch fire hit the creature, it screamed.
The sound made the fluorescent lights shatter above us.
That plunged the corridor into darkness that was broken only by Stella and my flames.
The creature stumbled backward, the flesh where my fire had touched was turning black and flaking away like ash. Underneath wasn't muscle or bone, but something that looked like tarnished metal fused with organic matter. "Magical fireworks!" I shouted. "Aim for exposed areas!"
Nana stepped in front of me, and her shotgun boomed in the confined space. The sound was deafening. Rock salt and iron shavings—the old woman's ammunition of choice—hit the second Thessmark square in the chest. It stumbled but didn't stop. The fucker recovered faster than we needed.
"Nana, get down!" I screamed.
She dropped without hesitation, and I sent a stream of teal fire over her head.
The flames caught the Thessmark mid-stride.
I made them wrap around its torso. But this one was faster and smarter.
It rolled and used its power, extinguishing most of the flames before they could eat through its warding.
Aidon had the first Thessmark contained in his shadows, but I could see the strain on his face.
These creatures were strong enough to challenge a Lord of the Underworld.
He wouldn’t be able to fight more than that one.
The shadows tightened, and I heard something crack.
Unfortunately, the Thessmark didn't stop struggling.
Stella tried a different approach. Pulling a vial from her belt, she hurled it at the second Thessmark. The glass shattered, releasing a cloud of something that smelled like sulfur and burned sage. The creature shrieked again as its skin blistered where the potion touched.
"Take that asshole!" Stella yelled as she began backing up. "Shit! They're adapting to everything we throw at them!"
The third Thessmark—the one I'd burned—was recovering. The blackened flesh was already regenerating. New skin was growing over the damaged areas with nauseating speed.
"They heal too fast!" I called out, throwing more fire. I might as well have done it in slow-mo. The thing evaded my blast easily.
We fought for what felt like hours, but it was probably only minutes. Aidon's shadows and our witch fire were the only things truly hurting them. Every time we damaged one, it would fall back and regenerate while the others pressed the attack.
"We need to get through that door!" Aidon growled, his shadows straining to hold two of the creatures now. "We can't win this fight!"
He was right. We were in a hallway with limited room to maneuver, facing creatures that could heal almost as fast as we could hurt them. Our timer was ticking down.
"Stella, the door!" I ordered.
She didn't hesitate, turning her attention to the reinforced entrance while Nana, Aidon, and I tried to keep the Thessmark occupied. I threw everything I had at them. Fire, binding spells, and even a blast of pure magical force that should have knocked them flat.
The largest one caught my wrist mid-spell, catching me off guard. Its grip was like iron. Those black eyes stared into mine. I swear to my father-in-law that it was trying to drain my magic. It was pulling the power right out of my core.
My magic immediately flared and cast a protective barrier.
At the same time, the protective stone at my hip flared hot.
It began burning my thigh through my pocket.
The combination made the Thessmark recoil with a hiss.
I used the opening to blast it point-blank with fire, watching its face melt and reform over and over.
"Jean-Marc, we've got a problem," Stella said into her earbud. Her voice was tight with concentration as she worked on the door. "The magical lock is more complex than we thought. I need—"
"I see it," Jean-Marc interrupted. "Give me a minute. I'm routing through their security protocol."
The Thessmark Aidon had trapped in shadows, finally tore free.
His magical bonds shredded like paper, making my mate stagger.
It came at him with claws extended. My instinct was to throw a little fire his way, but I would be killed if I did that.
My breath caught in my throat when he barely dodged a strike that would have opened his throat.
"Faster, Jean-Marc!" I shouted, sending a wall of fire between Aidon and the creature. At the same time, I ducked a swipe from the one I was fighting.
"Okay," Jean-Marc finally said. "On three, Stella, press your palm to the reader and think about... cookies. Chocolate chip cookies. Don't ask, just do it."
Stella's expression was incredulous even in the middle of a fight. "You're kidding."
"Dead serious. Their security protocol is keyed to specific thought patterns. Just trust me."
I left Stella to get inside and moved closer to Nana as she fired another round of her special buckshot into the Thessmark. It didn't do much damage, but it kept the creature from being able to rush her.
The lock suddenly disengaged with a series of mechanical clicks, and the reinforced door swung open. The stench hit us like a physical wall. “Shit. That’s death magic,” Aidon hissed.
Oh gods. Something was rotting beneath layers of antiseptic and preservation spells. "Go!" Aidon commanded, his shadows forming a barrier between the Thessmark and us. "I'll hold them!"
"Not without you!" I grabbed his arm, pulling him toward the open door.
We stumbled through together, Stella and Nana right in front of us. The moment we were all inside, Aidon's shadows slammed the door shut, and I threw every locking spell I knew at it.
The Thessmark hit the other side with enough force to make the reinforced metal buckle. The locks wouldn't hold long. Once they got through, we would be sitting ducks. This had seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, not so much.
"Jean-Marc, how much time do we have?" Aidon asked, breathing hard.
"Twenty-eight minutes until the security system resets."
Beyond the threshold were stairs plunging into darkness.
"Seriously," Nana griped. "Do they all get the same evil lair starter pack?
Or is being underground some kind of prerequisite for bad-guy certification?
I mean, would it kill them to rent a nice penthouse for once?
Evil really needs to up its creative game. "
I was too distracted to show my solidarity. From somewhere in that darkness came a rhythmic sound accompanied by a wet, tearing noise that made my stomach turn. "They're not just guarding the Scythe," I whispered, horror creeping up my spine. "They're using it. Right now."
The door behind us buckled again, the metal screaming under the assault. I looked at my team. "Let's finish this," Aidon said and stepped into the dark.