Chapter Thirty-Nine #2
This was the part that sucked. We had to shield ourselves before going down because once we opened that door, there would be no hiding our raid, and there was only one way up and down.
So Bravo Team—Ailin and Seb’s team—was going down first since they’d be able to shield the cages quickly.
We didn’t want to give any of the goons a chance to use the hostages against us.
Bravo Team made it to the door at the same time as us, and I saw a few people—likely other trafficking members—already on the ground and cuffed with our guys guarding them. Clearly, no one was messing around, and anyone who got in our way was going down.
Ailin gave Rome a nod, and my viramore yanked the door open for him.
Ailin went down first with Seb right on his heels, and the rest of their team quickly followed.
I heard shouts and a few guns going off, but in less than fifteen seconds, Ailin’s voice came over the comms, saying, “Hostages are secure. Shields are up. I’ll work on getting them out once we’re over there.”
I shook my head in amazement. The fact that the cages were on the far back wall, and definitely not close to the stairs, and Ailin was able to shield them from where he was… was phenomenal.
Roman nodded at me. “Let’s go.”
“I’m right behind you,” I said, following Rome down.
He activated a personal shield at the same time I did, snapping a stick in half to bring it over myself.
I’d have to drop it once I started fighting since I couldn’t fight through a shield—and I had my dragonscale shield and could cover body parts with scales if need be—but we all definitely needed shields when descending the staircase.
No one wanted to be shot in the legs or taken out before we even got down there.
The basement was already in chaos.
Ailin and Sebastian’s green and blue shields were blocking off the entire back half of the basement where the cages were, but the trafficking soldiers weren’t about to let them walk across the basement without attacking.
And nearly all of them were attacking Seb and Ailin’s team, with only three of them trying to head off everyone coming down the stairs.
As soon as Tan was low enough, he threw a spell at the closest stair attacker, knocking the guy out—I didn’t think he was dead—in one big, silvery blast.
Seb and Ailin’s team all had shields up, and the witches were shooting spells at the soldiers. Magic and bullets were flying everywhere.
Once I realized how well in hand the Ellwoods had their situation, I concentrated on my actual job.
Finding Grand Master Brinik Norfiel and stopping him.
A huge part of me wanted him dead—he deserved that and more after everything he’d done, not only to me but to all of these poor people and who knew how many more—but another part of me wanted him to live and be imprisoned so he could suffer for a very, very long time.
Regardless, we were going to stop the bastard by any means necessary.
I scanned the basement, searching for him.
Jed’s team was already zooming through the chaos and saving the servants—much to the servants’ surprise, since they kept screaming, which I honestly couldn’t blame them for.
But I didn’t see Isidore anywhere. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not—I just really hoped she and her brother were safe—but I’d promised I’d do my job today, and I wasn’t going to go back on a promise.
So I took a breath and pushed those worries aside for later.
“There!” I pointed to the corner of the room where a set of doors were.
We hadn’t had a chance to check what was behind those doors—the blueprints showed closets—so I didn’t know where the grand master thought he was going, but I wasn’t about to let him get away or hide in the closet while everyone else fought for his horrible cause.
Basil yelled out, “I see him,” and before I could blink, he threw a big ball of black shadow magic at the blood witch.
I had no idea what the spell did, but Brinik saw it coming and brought up a spell of his own. He lifted his palm, and a blast of red energy shot out and knocked Basil’s shadow magic off course. Bas’s magic flew off to the left and slammed into a wall, leaving a large indent behind.
Thank Scales, it didn’t hit someone it shouldn’t have.
“Fuck,” Bas said.
Roman took off toward the blood witch, and I was right behind him. I ducked under flying spells and bullets, although my shield would protect me, and I almost ran into Beshiro as he grabbed another servant, moving her out of the way of a bullet just in time.
“Shit, sorry,” he said quickly. He was gone and pushing the servant behind someone’s shield before I could respond.
Finally, we were about fifteen feet away from Brinik, and from here, I could see a body lying behind the man, covered in blood. I winced at the sight—an innocent we weren’t able to save.
And a source of power for the evil man.
Shit.
As soon as he saw me, the grand master grinned this maniacal, horrible, terrible grin before he drew a rune on his hand with his victim’s blood and pushed it out toward me, sending a spell right toward my chest.
I knew exactly what the spell did—it was the one that would hold me immobile so he could do unthinkable things to me. My shield would protect me, but there was a good chance the spell would bounce off my shield and hit someone else.
I couldn’t let that happen.
All of that went through my brain in a flash, and I dropped my shield, making Roman yell out, and I stepped forward, thrusting my dragonscale shield out toward the spell, ready to block it if I missed.
With my free hand, I snapped another spelled twig, and just as the spell hit my shield, I swiped the broken twig through the red mist.
The twig sucked the spell up like it was a vacuum, and I sighed in relief, happy it’d worked.
The relief only lasted half a second, because Brinik yelled out in frustration and threw spell after spell after spell at my entire team.
Drawing my dragonscale sword, I knocked a few out of the air, aiming for the ground at my feet so no one else got caught, and I saw Roman and Dad doing the same. Tan, Basil, and Hiro had somehow made their shields absorb the spells, rendering them useless—very cool and useful.
Brinik’s magic swirled around him in a thick haze of red, like a small red tornado, causing things to go flying away from him. The haze grew so thick I couldn’t even see the man, and the wind forced me to block my eyes, holding my shield above my head as I squinted, bracing myself for impact.
As quickly as the tornado grew, it died, the hazy magic dropping to the floor and dissipating in the blink of an eye.
My eyes widened as I took everything in.
The body Brinik had been using for power lay on the ground, nothing but sunken, dried skin and bones covered in clothing—he’d drained so much life force from them, he’d literally sucked them dry. Bile rose in my throat, but I pushed it down as I searched for the vile grand master.
Brinik was… not there.
I scanned the entire area, confused and horrified that the man had disappeared before our very eyes, but I didn’t see him anywhere.
“What the fuck?” Basil murmured, turning in a circle, searching.
My dad suddenly grunted and pointed at the door Brinik had been going for earlier. “Through there.”
The door was slowly shutting, so clearly someone had gone through it.
That sneaky asshole used his tornado as a distraction so he could get away.
Not on my watch.
Roman said, “Fuck, he must have an escape route that way.”
Shit. Shit. Dammit. Fuck.
My team took off at a jog, dodging the other fights happening around us, and I had to pull a personal shield back over myself—Tan had stocked me with about a billion of them before we left—to even make it through the space because there was still a ton of magic and bullets flying everywhere.
Roman took point, which I wasn’t happy about. Not that I wanted any of my family or friends going through there first, but… ugh.
After opening the door and checking, he said, “Clear,” and entered the room.
The closet was definitely a storage space, but one of the shelving units had been pushed aside, revealing an underground tunnel. The walls were just packed dirt, but since Brinik had clearly gone this way, I assumed it was reinforced with magic, which would make it safe enough, I supposed.
The thought of a tunnel made from blood magic made me wrinkle my nose in disgust and horror, and I honestly didn’t want to go in there. I definitely didn’t want to touch the walls. They were probably covered in blood.
How much blood had it taken to build this tunnel? Had they killed people for it?
Probably.
They clearly had no trouble harming and murdering anyone to get what they wanted.
Rome said, “Keep your shields up, everyone. We have no idea how many people went through here, how long it is, where it leads, or if Brinik left us any nasty surprises along the way. Shields up, eyes peeled, be careful.”
And with that, he walked inside.
I hated that he was up front again, but I went right behind him, determined to guard his back.
No one else complained, so I figured they understood considering everyone’s viramores were on our team together.
Dad and Tan—Daddo—stuck together right behind me, and Bas and Hiro stayed together, bringing up the rear.
Based on the direction we were going, we were headed underneath the neighboring building, which was the last one on the block.
We followed the path for five minutes before Roman raised his fist, telling us to stop.
Roman dropped his hand and pointed at something on the ground.
There was some kind of round, dark red disk the size of a dinner plate, half buried in the dirt, and I could only assume it carried a spell that would activate if someone stepped on it.
Great, now the gross, bloody-walled, creepy tunnel had traps.
“You take me to the nicest places,” I said to Rome through our link, making him snort out loud and get strange looks from the others.