Chapter 18
“Rylan!” I screamed as the campsite came back into view around me. I’d been unceremoniously knocked out of his head when he lost consciousness, and I had no idea what was going on. My palms were sweaty, my heart pounding with fear for my cousin. Had the shock killed him?
“Rylan, wake up!”
“I think he’s alive,” Iannis said quietly.
His violet eyes were heavy with concern, but he didn’t seem nearly as worried as I was.
“That booby trap might have been strong enough to kill a human, but not a healthy young shifter. I do hope he doesn’t stay unconscious for long.
We need him to destroy the clock, and if someone were to happen upon him before he wakes, we could lose our only chance of getting inside. ”
“Fuck.” I jumped up and began circling the fire pit, agitation in every step. “Why didn’t you see the booby trap sooner?” I asked, unable to keep the accusation from my voice.
“Sunaya…” Fenris began, his eyes narrowing. But Iannis shook his head, and he subsided.
“Without actually being present, it wasn’t possible for me to detect the trap,” Iannis told me. “I was able to see the magic, but not what sort of magic it was. In my elation at spotting the key, I didn’t think to warn Rylan about the possibility of a trap until it was too late.”
“Crap.” I kicked at a rock, and it went shooting up the hillside. Dammit, but I needed to get over there! “Rylan!” I shouted again, as loudly as I could, hoping that my mental voice would wake him.
“I’m… here….” Rylan’s voice echoed faintly in my head. My knees went weak as relief surged through me, and I braced my hand against a tree to steady myself.
“Thank Magorah,” I said, my voice a little shaky. “Are you okay?”
“I feel like I’ve been hit by lightning, but I’ll live,” he grumbled.
“Can you stand?”
“I’m getting to my feet now.”
“Good. Iannis says that you need to destroy the clock.”
“Hell no,” Rylan growled. “I’m not touching that thing again. I don’t think I could survive another hit like that.”
“The trap should no longer be active,” Iannis said—he was still joined with me, so he could hear Rylan. “I believe it was a one-shot spell.”
“You believe?” I said testily. “Are you willing to risk my cousin’s life on that?”
“If he does not destroy the clock, then everyone inside will be destroyed when Lord Logar arrives with his mages,” Iannis said sternly. “There is no choice in the matter.”
“Fuck.” Why did I keep finding myself in these impossible situations? “Rylan, Iannis says the spell’s deactivated. You have to destroy the clock or we won’t be able to get you all out.”
“Fine,” Rylan said. “But you owe me a bottle of teca.”
“Done.”
“We should get up the hill,” Elnos said. “That way we’ll be able to see if the wards come down.”
We scrambled up the hill, my heart beating a rapid tattoo against my chest as anxiety chewed my gut. Was Rylan going to be able to destroy the clock? Or would it hit him with that spell again? What if he did destroy the clock, but the wards didn’t come down? What would we do then?
“I smashed the fucking thing to bits,” Rylan said, no small amount of relish in his voice. “Is there anything else I need to do?”
“The wards are down,” Elnos said, his voice bubbling with excitement. “We can get in now!”
“Yes!” I crowed, a grin spreading across my face even as a strident alarm pealed across the open air from the direction of the bunker, assaulting my sensitive ears. “We’re good to go. Get out of there and go grab Noria. We’re coming in.”
Our plan was to go around to the back of the bunker, where Annia had been captured, and blast our way through the metal hatch.
But as we began descending the hill, the garage doors opened, and guards raced outside with guns held ready.
Their single-minded rush reminded me of a suddenly disturbed anthill.
My eardrums vibrated at the high-pitched whistle of several steam engines starting up from within the garage.
“They’re evacuating,” Fenris growled. “They must have trained for this in case the ward ever fails.”
“We have to stop them,” Iannis said, changing course.
“Wait!” I grabbed the sleeve of his robe and pulled him to a stop. “I can’t go with you. I have to get to Rylan and Noria.”
“I can’t let you go off—”
“Rylan says that he has keys to the lower levels,” I said, cutting him off. “Knowing him and Noria, they’ll already be rushing down there. I can’t let them do this alone.”
“Fine.” Frustration glimmered in Iannis’s eyes, but he relented. “Take Elnos with you. And Sunaya?” he added, grabbing my arm even as I made to turn away.
“Wha—” I began, but the word was cut off as Iannis crushed me against him and kissed me, hard.
His arms banded around my waist, pressing my curves against the ridges of hard muscle that hid beneath his flowing robes.
My anger melted away beneath his touch, and I sank my hands into his long hair and kissed him back just as hard.
I doubted this was going to be the last time I ever saw him, but then again, we were going into battle.
“Love you too,” I said breathlessly, tearing my lips from his before I lost myself completely. I broke out of his grip and briefly flung my arms around Fenris. “If there are any children in there, don’t let them get away.”
“I won’t,” Fenris said, returning my hug briefly.
“Great.” I locked eyes with Elnos, who was standing by, impatience sparking in his eyes. “Let’s go.”
Iannis and Fenris dashed for the front of the compound, and Elnos and I sprinted for the back entrance.
Mercifully, the alarm had stopped ringing—I guess it was set to automatically shut off after a certain amount of time had passed.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw large, steam-powered vehicles rolling out of the garages, a hazard symbol painted on the sides.
I imagined they carried the top scientists as well as their records and samples, and hoped that Iannis would be able to stop them.
I wished I could see to it personally, but Annia and Noria were my main mission, and I had to trust Iannis to take care of it.
A bullet grazed my shoulder as we crashed through the trees, and I cried out as the scent of my own blood filled the air.
“Dammit!” Elnos swore, throwing out his hands. He spoke a series of Words so fast they came out almost as gibberish, and a green energy shield flared to life in front of us. More gunfire sounded from ahead, but, this time, the bullets bounced harmlessly off the shield.
“Bastards,” I hissed as the trees began to thin out and the back of the bunker came into view.
There were six guards lined up outside the rear entrance of the bunker, all firing rifles in our direction.
Their eyes widened as we closed the distance despite the hail of bullets.
Before they could run, I withdrew a chakram from my left pouch and flung it.
The circular blade sliced cleanly through the neck of the first soldier, then hit the second one in his right arm at an angle.
The injured man let out a bone-chilling shriek as his comrade toppled to the ground, and the other three men turned tail and ran.
Elnos flung some kind of black energy bolt at the one furthest away, and it hit him square in the back.
The soldier writhed and screamed in pain, and to my amazement, crumbled into a pile of ash.
“Alchemical magic,” Elnos said, answering the momentary look of shock on my face.
“Yeah, well, maybe you can use that to get the door open.” I yanked my chakram from the body of the injured man, who had sunk to his knees, whimpering in pain.
“I’ll take care of the rest of these guys.
” I couldn’t allow any of them to live, not if it meant they might smuggle dangerous biochemical weapons out of this forsaken place.
“No, please—” the guard babbled as I drew one of my crescent knives from the holster on my right leg.
I grabbed him by the hair and yanked his head back, then sliced his neck cleanly.
His death gurgle echoed in my ears as I dashed up the hill and after the other soldiers, but I refused to let it bother me.
After all, these men had no mercy for me, or for my country. I would have no mercy for them.
When I came back down the hill, Elnos was standing in front of the rear entrance. The heavy door had been melted down into a hunk of glowing metal, leaving the dark tunnel entrance exposed.
“You all right?” Elnos asked, eyeing the blood staining my hair and pants.
“I’m fine.” I wiped my crescent knife on my pant leg one last time, then gestured to the entrance with it. “Let’s get going.”
Since I now had inside knowledge of the compound, I led the way.
The light filtering in from the entrance behind us illuminated the tunnel enough that I could see, but Elnos conjured a glowing ball of light anyway.
The tunnel was less than a hundred yards long, and curved around the compound rather than going straight into it.
My nose detected no other lurking guards, and I imagined that the rest were either in the deeper parts of the bunker, or above as they prepared to help evacuate the scientists.
“Rylan?” I called mentally as I opened a door at the end of the tunnel and stepped into a blue-carpeted hall.
We were in the staff quarters. All the doors were flung wide open, the beds within them empty and unmade as the residents had hastily fled.
A guard lay dead in the middle of the hall, blood seeping from a head wound into the carpet and congealing there.
Rylan had probably killed him in his haste to get Noria away from the evacuation.
“Sunaya? Are you inside?”
“Yes, I’m in the staff quarters with Elnos.”
“There’s an elevator right outside the labs, in the north hall,” Rylan told me. “Get down here, fast.”