Chapter 18 #2
Elnos and I sprinted in the direction Rylan had indicated.
We passed more dead guards on our way, and ran into two live ones that I dispatched with my chakrams. I didn’t want to use my magic unless it was absolutely necessary—it was a drain on my energy, which I needed to preserve if we were going to get out of this bunker alive.
“Here it is,” Elnos said, sounding a little out of breath as we approached the elevator door. He scowled as he noticed the keyhole in the panel, where a call button would normally be. “I’m guessing your cousin didn’t think about the fact that we don’t have a key?”
“Nope.” I strode over to the elevator doors, then wedged my fingers into the crack and pulled. The doors screeched a little in protest as I pulled them apart, revealing the elevator shaft that dropped sharply into utter darkness.
“Looks like we’ll have to float down there,” Elnos said. He muttered the Words to the same levitation spell Fenris had taught me when we were in Mexia, and his feet began to lift off the ground. I did the same, and followed Elnos down the shaft, slowly descending to the next floor.
“Hey, wise guy,” I said to Rylan as I lit a flame—even my eyes couldn’t make out anything in this blackness. “We’re headed down the elevator shaft. Is this floor I’m coming up on the one you’re at?”
“Yes! Hurry. We’re under attack.”
“Fuck,” I hissed aloud, wishing I could go faster.
Unfortunately, this spell wasn’t meant for that sort of thing, so I gritted my teeth and waited the extra twenty seconds until I touched down atop the elevator box.
Using one of my crescent knives, I pried open the hatch and cut an opening through the ceiling tile, then dropped down.
Elnos floated in behind me as I forced open the doors, just in time to see one of the guards grab Noria from behind, and press a gun to the side of her head.
“Don’t move!” he cried, eyes darting between Rylan and me.
There were four guards still standing, and two more lying dead on the floor, blood seeping from the gunshot wounds in their head.
Rylan had his gun pressed to the head of the guard he held, but his eyes were glued to the guard who had Noria.
Noria was still in her nightgown, which was now torn and stained with blood, and Rylan looked a little worse for wear too.
A knife lay on the grey tile a few feet from Noria, and I guessed that was her weapon.
Rylan wouldn’t be so foolish as to take her down here without giving her any way to defend herself, but of course she was no match for trained guards, knife or no.
“Or what?” I taunted, calling on my magic through instinct rather than Words.
I focused on the gun in the guard’s hand, and the metal went white hot, warping the barrel.
He yelped, instinctively letting go, and Noria burst from his grasp, lunging for the knife on the ground.
I flung a chakram at the guard who’d threatened her life, then rushed to intercept the two who were closing in on Noria, swords drawn.
Rylan shot the guard in his grasp point-blank, and Elnos magically thrust another guard back against the wall with enough force to crush his skull.
I caught the remaining guard’s downswing with one of my knives, then grabbed his sword arm and twisted until the elbow joint snapped. He screamed, sword clattering to the ground, and I drove him face-first into the wall.
“Where is Annia Melcott?” I snarled in his ear, pressing his arm into his back as I leaned against him.
“Sh-she’s in the cell at the end of the hall,” the guard babbled. I could smell the tears and snot running down his face, and urine too—the bastard had wet himself.
“And the shifter children?”
“I-i-in the other rooms, sp-split up,” he sobbed.
“They’ll each have their own cell,” Noria said, her voice remarkably subdued.
I turned to see her standing next to Rylan, with Elnos’s arms wrapped around her from behind.
The knife was still clutched firmly in her right hand.
“The scientists won’t have wanted to risk skewing their data by cross-contamination. ”
“Shit.” I glanced toward the rows of doors lining the long, grey hallway. They were made of thick, reinforced steel. No windows, though there was a slat to stick food through. “Do we get them out now?”
“We should wait for Lord Iannis,” Elnos advised. “He’ll be able to heal them. We can’t risk exposing ourselves, especially since they’re shifters. You and Rylan could catch whatever they’ve been infected with.”
“Fine.” I grabbed the guard and snapped his neck—there was no use in letting him live only to have him try to kill us again the moment our backs were turned. “Let’s go get Annia then.”
I dropped the guard’s body and let it fall as I marched down the hall.
The others hurried after me, Noria breaking free from Elnos’s grip to rush to my side.
She didn’t look at me, her eyes firmly fixed up ahead, hope and fear etched into her pale, gaunt features.
My heart pounded in my chest as we approached the final door, dreading what I might find.
Would Annia be all right? Or had the Resistance broken their word to Noria and tortured her anyway?
If so, I would hunt down every last person in this compound and kill them. Slowly. And with relish.
“Annia?” I shouted, pounding on the metal door. “Are you in there?”
“Sunaya?” Annia called back, relief evident in her hoarse voice. “Is that really you?”
“Yes,” I cried, tears springing to my eyes. “We’ve got a whole welcoming committee here. Stand back from the door so we can get you out.”
“Those are the best fucking words I’ve heard all day.”
A faint shuffle in the room told me Annia was moving backward. Rylan, Noria, and I moved to the side as Elnos stepped forward, raising his hands toward the door. He spoke a few Words, and intense heat began radiating from his hands.
“By Magorah!” Rylan took another few steps back as the heat waves rippled over us. Noria and I followed suit—my skin was close to burning. “Is he summoning the very sun itself?”
“Thankfully, even mages can’t do that,” Noria muttered.
I glanced down at her, surprised to see the bitterness in her dark eyes as she watched Elnos literally melt the door.
Was she seriously projecting her hatred onto Elnos, after all he’d gone through to rescue her?
She should be kissing his feet right now, especially since he was rescuing her sister.
I wanted to shake some sense into her and scold her for being so unfair, but this wasn’t the time, so I bit my tongue and waited for Elnos to finish.
Paint was melting off the walls as the steel door liquefied.
Before the red-hot metal could spread across the floor, Elnos spoke another Word and began shaping it into a pile out in the hall.
The heat in his hands turned to bitter cold as he worked, cooling the metal down so that it would maintain its shape.
“Holy shit, did winter come early?” Annia asked as she stepped out into the hall. She wore white cotton pants and a creased shirt, and her left arm was in a cast and sling. Her dark eyes were rimmed with shadows, but they warmed with relief and gratitude as they took us all in.
“Annia!” Noria flung her arms around her sister, careful not to jostle her injured arm. “I’m so glad you’re safe.”
“And I’m glad you’re safe,” Annia said, squeezing her as tight as she could manage with her single arm. Her eyes met mine over Noria’s mop of red curls. “Thank you for coming after me. I thought I was done for.”
“I couldn’t very well leave my best friend behind,” I said with a grin, fighting tears. I wanted to hug the breath out of Annia, but Noria was still clinging to her, and I was loath to break them apart.
“So this is the famous Annia, eh?” Rylan asked, looking her up and down. There was masculine appreciation in his eyes, and I raised an eyebrow.
“Yes.” Annia’s eyes narrowed on Rylan, and her upper lip curled in a sneer as she took in his guard uniform and moustache. “Though I don’t know who the hell you are.”
“It’s my cousin Rylan.” Rolling my eyes, I undid the illusion that still cloaked him. Annia’s eyes widened as Rylan’s true form was revealed. “Iannis had him flown in from Prison Isle. I guess he decided a family reunion was in order.”
“Sunaya?” Iannis’s voice sounded in my head, tense with concern. “Where are you? Did you make it inside the bunker?”
“Yes,” I said, turning to look at the other doors lining the hall as apprehension settled in my gut. “We found Annia, and the location of the captured shifter children. We need you down here if we’re going to get everybody out.”