ROWAN #2
Medusa follows his gaze and lets out a short, ugly laugh. “He really thought he could do it again. He thought if he cut another one off, he could start the whole thing over.”
Lev glances toward her while keeping one hand against my shoulder. “Apparently having the last severed snake eaten didn't inspire the personal growth I was hoping for.”
Medusa stares at him for a second before a real laugh finally breaks through. It doesn't last long, but some of the tension leaves her shoulders when it ends.
I wrap one hand around Lev’s waist and pull him closer before he can wander off to inspect something else. His camouflage has faded completely, but a faint tremor still runs through his fingers where they rest near my shoulder.
“You all right?” I ask, keeping him close enough that he cannot avoid the question by moving.
Lev gives me a look that would be more convincing if his hand weren't still shaking. “You got thrown through stone twice and had claws put through your shoulder. I feel like priorities have become very confused.”
“That wasn't my question.” I slide my hand farther around his waist when his mouth tightens, and Amand comes up behind him to settle a palm against the back of his neck.
Lev leans into Amand without thinking, and I feel the tension in him ease before he finally answers. “I’m fine. Holding myself still that long while every part of my brain wanted to chase movement around the room was just harder than I expected.”
“You found him,” I tell him, because I already know where he is going with this.
“I found something that looked wrong.”
“You found him because you knew what wrong looked like.” I keep my gaze on his until he stops trying to shrink what he did into luck. “Amand and I would have walked right past him.”
Lev’s eyes lift to mine for a moment before he looks away, and Medusa moves closer while rubbing carefully at one wrist. “He knew you were figuring him out by the end. You could see it every time he tried to blend again and you called the position before he finished.”
Lev glances toward the body. “Not soon enough for him.”
“No.” Medusa’s expression flattens when she follows his gaze. “Definitely not soon enough.”
Amand crouches beside the gargoyle and checks him himself, because none of us is trusting a dead creature whose entire designation revolves around becoming indistinguishable from stone. He checks for movement and waits long enough to be certain before rising again. “Nothing. He isn't pretending.”
That should be the end of it, and for a few seconds, it actually feels like one.
Medusa is alive, every snake is still attached to her, and the gargoyle is finally dead instead of somewhere else in the city waiting to become another wall.
Lev found what none of us could see, and this time the bastard didn't get away.
Then engines rumble somewhere above us.
I turn toward the corridor while Amand straightens beside Medusa. Lev tilts his head to listen and mutters, “Please tell me this quarry suddenly offers valet parking, because I would really appreciate one harmless explanation today.”
Nobody gives him one. More than one engine cuts off above us, followed by several doors opening in quick succession, and my hand closes around Lev’s waist before I consciously decide to move.
Medusa looks toward the passage. “Did one of you call anyone?”
“No.” Amand checks his phone anyway and swears under his breath when the screen shows no signal. “And nobody should know exactly where we are unless they were already tracking us.”
Footsteps begin carrying through the stone corridor before any of us can answer. There are too many for one person and too much consistency in the way they move for whoever is coming to be wandering into the quarry by accident.
I step in front of Lev automatically, and he catches my arm before I can move farther. “You don't even know who it is yet.”
“I know enough to dislike the number of boots coming toward us.” I keep myself between him and the corridor while Amand moves to Lev’s other side.
The first person appears at the far end wearing an Essence field jacket. Another follows close behind, then three more spread into the passage with enough purpose that the knot in my stomach tightens before any of them says a word.
Lev goes completely still beside me, and his hand closes harder around my arm as he looks past them toward whoever is coming next.
“What the fuck?” Lev mutters as the Essence team spreads through the chamber.
Nobody raises a weapon, but the formation is familiar enough that I know exactly what I'm looking at. They cover the exits, leave deliberate space between themselves, and position around us instead of the gargoyle’s body.
This is containment, and whatever relief I had from seeing that bastard dead disappears.
Gerald walks in behind them and takes in the chamber without any visible surprise. His gaze passes over Medusa, the gargoyle on the floor, and the blood running down my shoulder before settling on Lev. Of course it does. “You completed the case.”
Lev gives a short laugh while keeping one hand wrapped around my arm. “You brought half a team into an underground quarry to congratulate us?”
“I came because there is no longer any reason to continue this in the field.” Gerald steps farther into the chamber, and the people behind him adjust just enough to keep their formation around us. “I have what I needed from this case.”
Everything in me goes cold, and Lev’s fingers tighten against my arm. Amand moves closer on his other side while Gerald watches the three of us with none of the hesitation he showed when we confronted him earlier.
Lev’s expression hardens beside me. “We told you the experiment was over.”
“I know.” Gerald glances toward the Essence team holding the exits. “That is why I prepared another option.”
Amand’s attention sharpens. “Prepared when?”
Gerald hesitates just long enough to answer without speaking, and Lev looks past him at the people surrounding us. “Before we finished the case.”
“The site is secure, the three of you will remain together, and the bond will not be disrupted,” Gerald says. “I would still prefer you come voluntarily.”
Lev hooks two fingers through my belt loop and reaches back until Amand takes his other hand. “Then you should have brought fewer people.”
I cover Lev’s hand where it rests against my hip, and Amand closes his fingers around the other one. The contact is deliberate, not something any of us needs Gerald to interpret for us, but his attention still drops to it for a fraction of a second.
That tells me more than everything he has said since he walked into the quarry.
The gargoyle case gave him another result, Rowan’s petrification gave him another result, and every change Lev has made since joining Essence has become another reason Gerald thinks he deserves the next one.
Now that Lev has stopped cooperating, Gerald has simply moved the experiment somewhere consent is no longer required.
I keep one hand over Lev’s and look at the people Gerald brought with him. None of them has drawn a weapon because they don't believe they need one yet, and Gerald is standing there talking about secure sites and stability as if we have already agreed to go.
He didn’t come here to bring an employee back to Essence. He came prepared to take all three of us.