Chapter Twenty-Four
Sage
Behind the seemingly unassuming door is an equally unassuming corridor.
It’s lit every few metres by torches, the flames flickering shadows on the damp cobbled walls giving the whole place and decidedly eerie feel.
A shudder goes down my spine and I grab the closest hand which just happens to be Levi’s.
He glances down at me and his expression softens as he squeezes my hand tightly.
I let go of Levi’s hand as we reach several sets of stone steps leading upwards, so that we both have our hands free in case we run into more guards.
Ghost and Knot fly ahead scouting for guards and helping to guide our way.
On the second set of steps two guards round the corner, without any hesitation Knot dives for the guard on the left her pink magic surrounds her as she dives straight through the chest of the guard.
When she reappears on the other side of him she leaves behind a singed and smoking hole the size of a basketball.
He crumples to the floor in a heap and I make a note never to piss off Knot because holy fuck is that scary and I’ll admit a little bit impressive.
Erin wastes no time charging the shocked guard that is still staring at the corpse of his friend.
His head bounces down the stairs and I step over it.
The guards may not be supernaturals but it’s still an effective way to kill someone.
Actually I’m not entirely certain that the guards will be all human there is a small chance that there may be a couple of guards here that are supernaturals and aligned with the Order.
I can’t imagine betraying my own kind like that but Creep is the leader and very much a supernatural so it wouldn’t surprise me if he had supernaturals in the Order keeping an eye on things for him.
The Director was loyal to him and the Order and she was supernatural.
There’s not really anywhere that we can hide these bodies so the boys just push their bodies down the stairs in the hopes that it will take someone longer to find them.
“That was fucking insane.” Nate exclaims as we make our way up the rest of the stairs. “Did you know she could do that?” He asks me.
“Nope I had no idea, pretty fucking cool though. Such a good girl.” I compliment her stroking the feathers on her chest as she perches on my shoulder before flying ahead again and stopping at a wooden door.
The door leads out onto the wide and ornate hallway that we saw when Ghost flew through the castle earlier. This hallway is in better condition than the one that we’ve just come from but it’s still fallen into disrepair.
I push away my anger at such a beautiful building being so badly mistreated, the carpets dirty and worn, the once beautiful and luxurious velvet drapes tatty and torn and I can’t help but pause in front of a portrait of Nyx and her men.
They look happy and relaxed, dressed beautifully but comfortably all of them smiling.
Nothing like when I last saw them all together on the battlefield.
It’s a beautiful portrait.
At least it would be except the assholes here have defaced it with immature drawings and disgusting slurs. The darkness within me swirls restlessly, responding to my anger.
“Come on Sage.” Erin says softly, tugging my arm and pulling me away from the painting.
I follow reluctantly, desperately wanting to fix it but I know that there are bigger things that need to be dealt with right now.
It’s surprisingly quiet, we haven’t come across any more guards and I can’t believe that their security is really this lax.
Levi comes to an abrupt halt and the rest of us quickly pause as he holds up is hand signalling us to be quiet.
I use my supernatural hearing to try and hear whatever’s made him pause, it seems to come a bit harder for me, I have to consciously focus on it in order for me to hear better whereas the others don’t seem to have that problem.
I’ll have to remember to ask Erin and see if it’s the same for her.
Sure enough once I’ve focused I can hear the sounds of silverware clacking on plates, raucous laughter and raised voices.
We move towards the massive ornately carved wooden doors even my hearing can pick up that, that’s where the noise is coming from.
It sounds like there are quite a few people in there which would explain the lack of guards out here.
The Order or at least this branch of it have damn bad tactical skills.
If I’m being completely honest though it’s not exactly been difficult so far to get in here bar a few guards.
“Are you ready?” Kysen says to Erin.
She opens her mouth to reply but before she can get anything out the doors swing open and three guards walk out laughing and joking with each other and not paying attention to their surroundings at all, they don’t even notice us standing here and it’s not like we had a chance to hide when they came out.
We all wait until the doors close behind them again before we make our move.
“Hunter, Jax it’s your turn.” Levi sends down the Bond link and they both grin viciously.
This time the shiver that runs down my spine is for an entirely different reason.
One of the guards manage’s to get an shout of warning out before Hunt rips his throat out making blood arc through the hallway as he makes a gurgling noise, clutches his throat and falls to the floor.
At the same time Jax takes out the other two guards using his water to drown them where they stand.
It’s effective and damn terrifying. Once again we move them out of plain sight hiding them behind one of the large tapestry’s hanging from the wall.
“Hmm well they’re handy.” I muse and Kai snorts.
“I’ll put up the barrier before anyone else walks out. I’m going to need help though.” Erin says quietly.
“Alright, Hunter, Cole, Kysen and Jett you all stay here and help Erin. The rest of you with me.” Levi orders.
It speaks a lot about Levi’s character that although individually our Soulmate Bonded Groups have their own leaders. Jett being Erin’s and Harry being Cole’s they are all happy to defer to Levi as the leader when we’re all together.
“Ghost lead the way,” I say turning towards him before I look at Knot. “Can you stay with Erin and the others, watch their backs.”
She nods and flies over to land on Hunter’s shoulder.
“Thank you.” I reply gratefully, hating that we’re splitting up. That’s like horror movie one-oh-one never split up. It is necessary and we get that though.
I draw my Nyx swords from the sheathes on my back instead of keeping my hands free for my daggers.
Despite how lax they have been with their security so far I am not na?ve enough to think that they will still be lax with guards when it comes to guarding the Centre’s and their Bonded.
I’m not entirely sure how they have managed to keep them here in the first place.
That’s a lot of powerful people all in one place.
Ghost leads us down several corridors and down a few flights of stairs.
Our journey takes longer than it took him for the simple reason that we can’t ghost through the floor in order to make it there quicker.
We don’t run into any one else though which is a blessing and I send a quick thank you up to Nyx.
Finally we make to the corridor right at the bottom of the castle.
“This is the corridor that Ghost showed us. The door to the Centre’s should be just around this corner everyone stay alert.” Levi once again orders.
We move as silently as possible and though they seem slightly surprised that we’re there the six guards are clearly better trained than everyone else in this damned place because there is no hesitation as they charge us.
One of them pulls out a small disk and presses a button on the top grinning at us like he’s won already.
There’s no obvious effect though so we carry on dodging and striking with out weapons.
“They’ve blocked our gifts.” Harry yells to the rest of us.
The warning doesn’t worry me at all. The guys are well trained and its not like I’m a slouch at fighting without my gifts. I’m actually far more comfortable fighting without them since that’s all I’ve known from such a young age.
I’m so close to finally finding my parents.
I push away the thought as soon as it appears I need to stay focused.
It’s a fucking good job too because there’s a giant fucking broad sword coming for my face.
I bring my sword up just in time to deflect it and instead of it hitting my head and no doubt splitting my skull straight down the middle it skims my shoulder instead.
It’s so damn sharp that it literally peels the skin off of my shoulder and makes me grunt in pain as it leaves a patch of exposed muscle a couple of inches wide and four or five inches long.
I just about manage to hold in the scream knowing that if my guys hear me yell it could distract them which could cost them their lives.
The good thing about a broad sword is that its really fucking heavy so whilst it’s still on its downward swing I lift my other arm, the cut one needing a bit longer for me to block out the pain and aim for the guards side.
He’s a big mother fucker hence how he’s able to lift the big ass broad sword in the first place so it’s pretty much the only place I can reach from this fucking angle.
I expect it slice into his side and prepare myself to yank it back out quickly so that I can defend myself from the inevitable anger filled attack that’s going to follow.
I momentarily forgot that I was using Nyx’s swords though, and it slices straight through the big ass mother fucker like butter, severing his spine and completely detaching his torso from the lower part of his body.
He’s very much human and dies instantly.