Page 23 of Devoted
He dipped his head as the first creature breached my shadows, one grotesque leg easing through. Then another. Mandibles sliced and slashed, as if they were already tasting us.
“It’s now or never.”
The first reinforcements poured onto the dock, and the other three Drax lunged, uncaring they were allies. Uncaring of anything except the bright, glowing souls inside their soft, fleshy bodies. Attacking soldiers turned, scrambled for the door, going down screaming beneath a flurry of black, spindly legs and gnashing teeth as the dock became nothing but carnage.
“Now,” I shouted. Gabriel touched Rocco, and they both disappeared. Then Dante vanished.
I took one last look at the chaos, but even as I dematerialized, I knew with absolute certainty that whatever ancient horrors Blackwood had unleashed tonight…
He wouldn’t stop until he got what he’d always wanted—my soul.
8
EMBERLINE
The door opened into a windowless corridor of plain, unadorned stone walls and utilitarian overhead lights from decades ago, one of the secondary sections of the palazzo I’d never been in before.
“We have to get the fuck out of here. I don’t know what we just saw, but I never want to see one of those things ever again.” I closed the door behind us, sliding the bolt firmly home before I faced the empty hall, relief turning my legs to jelly.
Blood roared in my ears, adrenaline coursing through my veins so fast, I was dizzy from the rush. I doubled over, taking deep breaths, letting my vision clear, telling my knees to stop knocking together.
Blood still dripped from my fingers, the pain turning duller, my entire arm feeling like it was made of lead. The gashes should have been healing… but they weren’t.
“We’ll dematerialize out,” I decided, even though I didn’t know exactly where we were and dematerializing from one unknown point to another was risky. “Just… make sure you don’t reform in the middle of a wall. Then we’ll hopscotch across the city and lose them in the calles.”
“Lead the way. I’ll follow you,” my brother whispered, and I nodded.
Closing my eyes, I forced my breathing to even out, gathered my magic and… nothing.
I cracked open one eye.
Still in the unremarkable corridor.
“Any time, Ember.” Luca’s voice turned thready as he holstered his gun, flexing his shaking hands like they weren’t working right.
“Can’t you see I’m trying?” I pushed harder, but the magic I used to materialize had vanished, not a drop left in my veins. “Could be a security measure. Which means we have to find a different way out. Left or right?” I asked, flexing my hands to get rid of the tremor running through them.
“Like I have any idea?” But then he paused, listening intently. “Actually… I’m picking up some disturbances in that direction, so let’s go right and hope we find a door. Or a window. I don’t even care if we have to fucking jump as long as we get out of here.”
We hugged the walls, feet flying over the bare floors, every step echoing, my brother’s obnoxiously heavy necklaces making an inordinate amount of noise.
“Can you take those dreadful things off and put them in your pocket?”
“They were your idea,” Luca grumbled. “I told you I looked like a gigolo.”
“Gigolo or not, you’re making too much noise.”
“Me?” He glared at me over his shoulder. “I’m not the one talking. Or bleeding all over everything. If we run into more Ashbound or those guards fling another one of those sticky black spider-things at us, I am fucking leaving you behind.”
“Not if I leave you behind first,” I grumbled. Idiot.
I heard that.
When we reached the first intersection, I had no idea which way to go. Both nondescript corridors looked exactly the same, lit by identical electric lighting, the stone the same shade of pale brown. There were no paintings or gilt mirrors to use as landmarks, everything blending together in a maze of corporate blandness.
“Now what?”
Luca frowned as he peered straight ahead, brow furrowed in concentration. “I’m getting something, but it’s not exactly… I don’t know what I’m sensing, but we definitely don’t want to go that way.”
