Chapter 8 #2
He moved automatically, slowing enough to avoid drawing attention while still maintaining forward momentum. The rhythm of it settled into place without thought—when to cross, when to pause, where to angle his body so he could see without being seen.
Connal matched every adjustment. Seamlessly.
Luke cut another corner and didn’t bother looking back this time. “You’re going to need to stop doing that.”
Connal’s voice came immediately. “Doing what?”
“Moving like you’re hunting something,” Luke said. “You stand out.”
Connal seemed truly baffled by Luke’s request. “I am hunting something.”
“Yeah, well, try doing it like a normal person,” Luke huffed.
Connal was silent for a beat. “I am behaving normally.”
Luke almost laughed. “Trust me,” he said, glancing sideways just long enough to make the point, “you’re really not.”
Connal didn’t argue, which was…new.
Luke filed that away and kept moving, changing his pace again as a car passed too slowly on the adjacent street. He altered their path without thinking, putting a building between them and the car’s line of sight before continuing forward.
Connal immediately moved between Luke and the suspicious vehicle. Luke hadn’t asked him to. The gesture landed harder than it should have.
“You’re watching everything,” Connal said after a moment.
Luke shrugged one shoulder. “That’s kind of the job.”
Connal studied Luke for a moment. “You anticipate movement before it happens.”
Connal sounded almost impressed.
Luke pushed that aside, too. He’d already revealed too much, and since Connal was determined to follow him, he’d likely see more than he should. Luke would have to figure out how to clean up that mess later—if he made it out of this in one piece, that is.
Ahead, the buildings became taller, emptier, and more spaced out. The air felt different in the warehouse district, heavier in a way that had nothing to do with location and everything to do with neglect.
Luke slowed as his focus narrowed. He scanned the structures ahead. There. Second building on the left.
Minimal windows.
Reinforced entry.
Too quiet.
“Stay close,” Connal said again, lower this time.
Luke nodded as he studied the building ahead. The structure matched the coordinates exactly—industrial, reinforced, the kind of place no one looked at twice unless they had a reason to.
He had a reason.
But something about it didn’t sit right.
“No activity,” Luke murmured, more to himself than anything else. “No movement, no visible security….”
Which was the problem.
Connal took one step toward the warehouse, then stopped so abruptly Luke nearly passed him.
Luke halted beside him and glanced over. Connal wasn’t looking at the building. He was looking at the space around it.
“The magic here is wrong,” Connal said quietly.
Luke frowned. What exactly did that mean? “Define wrong.”
“It is…held,” Connal said after a moment, like he was searching for the right word. “Contained. Not moving as it should.”
Luke looked back at the warehouse.
From his perspective, it looked exactly like it was supposed to. Empty. Closed. Forgettable.
“Feels pretty normal to me,” he said.
But it didn’t. Not really. Not in his gut.
Connal’s gaze snapped to him, sharp. “It is not.”
Luke studied the building again, this time factoring in Connal’s warning.
“Yeah,” Luke said under his breath. “I believe you.”
Connal stepped closer, his presence pressing in again as his attention fixed fully on the structure. “This place is not unguarded.”
Luke nodded once. “Yeah. I figured that too.”
It didn’t change what he had to do.
Luke stepped forward.
Connal caught his arm—not hard—but firm enough to stop him.
Luke looked down at the contact, then back up at Connal. “We don’t have time to sit here and admire the architecture.”
“You do not understand what you are walking into,” Connal replied.
Luke’s mouth twitched. “No, I don’t, but I’ve still got to go in.”
Connal’s jaw tightened. For a second, it looked like he might argue.
“Then we go together.”
Connal didn’t release his arm immediately. Luke thought he might try to stop him again, but then Connal stepped forward. Luke blinked once, surprised despite himself, before falling into step beside him.
The door looked like it hadn’t been opened in years. Heavy steel. No visible keypad. No handle on the outside. Just a reinforced slab set into the concrete, like it had been sealed and forgotten.
Luke slowed, scanning quickly.
“No external access,” he murmured.
Then the door clicked.
Luke froze.
The heavy slab shifted inward, slow and deliberate, in a way that definitely wasn’t manual.
“That’s new,” Luke grumbled under his breath.
Connal didn’t respond. He’d gone completely still. Luke was beginning to understand that stillness meant danger.
“This is wrong,” Connal said.
Luke stepped forward anyway. The air changed the second they crossed the threshold. Subtle, but immediate, like stepping into some sort of air-locked chamber. The noise of the city vanished. Everything went still.
Luke’s shoulders tightened as he moved deeper inside, his gaze sweeping the interior automatically. The space was larger than it seemed from the outside, the walls stretching farther than the exterior footprint should have allowed.
A shiver went down Luke’s spine, and suddenly he was really glad he wasn’t alone. That was new—and probably not a good sign.
“Tell me you feel that,” Luke muttered.
Connal didn’t answer right away. When he did, his voice was lower. “Tension.”
Luke nodded once. It was the perfect word to describe it. “Yeah. Same.”
They moved another step in—
—and the door slammed shut behind them.
Luke spun, hand already moving toward a weapon that wasn’t there, his pulse kicking up hard as the heavy steel sealed with a final, echoing clang.
“Okay,” he said, breath sharp. “That’s not great.”
Pressure settled into the space around them, tightening like an invisible net drawing closed.
Connal moved instantly, stepping closer, tracking something Luke couldn’t see.
“It is activating,” Connal said.
“Yeah, I got that,” Luke shot back.
The floor beneath them flickered, not with light, but something that shimmered. Dammit. Faint, geometric lines flashed across the concrete for half a second before disappearing again.
Luke’s breath caught. “Okay,” he said, slower now. “That’s definitely not normal.”
The lines flared again, brighter, longer. They didn’t disappear.
Luke scanned the lines. They formed deliberate angles across the floor, like a security grid constructed from light instead of lasers.
No—not light. Magic. There was no point pretending otherwise.
Luke’s stomach dropped. “That’s not—”
The air compressed, hard, as if something invisible slammed down over the space, forcing everything inward at once.
Luke staggered, breath catching as pressure hit him from all sides.
Connal moved fast, one second beside Luke, and the next in front of him. A sharp, violent distortion tore through the air as something struck. Connal’s body jerked, just slightly.
“Connal—”
“I am fine,” Connal snapped.
He wasn’t.
Luke could see it now—the tightness in his shoulders, the way his stance adjusted, compensating for something that hadn’t been there a second ago.
“Yeah,” Luke muttered. “You look great.”
Another pulse hit.
Stronger.
The lines on the floor surged, light flaring up the walls now—no, not light. Magic.
Luke swallowed hard. For the first time since entering the warehouse, genuine alarm flickered through him.
“It’s a trap,” Luke said, forcing himself to breathe through the alarm.
Connal didn’t respond. His attention remained fixed on threats Luke still couldn’t see.
The lines brightened around Connal’s feet.
“It’s targeting you.” Luke grabbed Connal’s arm and pulled him sideways. “Move.”
Connal resisted for half a second, then followed.
A pulse struck the place they had abandoned, hard enough to crack the concrete.
Luke’s gaze snapped across the room, recalculating. “It’s following you.”
Connal’s grip tightened on his arm. “You understand this.”
Luke didn’t look at him. He’d gotten them into this mess, and it was his job to get them out. “Move.”