I have to slow my pace and linger at the entrance before she finally shuts her door.
And then I’m flying up the stairwell, tossing the cookies to the side. Fuck taking the steps two at a time. My wings burst out and I’m soaring in a matter of half a second. I spiral past the first five floors and I’m running down the sixth floor hall before a breath even hits my lungs.
I pass the doors without even glancing at the little golden numbers that are glinting in the overhead light.
Because a door is slightly ajar just ahead, and I know it’s his just from the hushed growls that are crawling out into the hall.
“I know you fucking know. Tell me where she is.” Malek’s tone is a shaking thing and when I slip inside, long black talons are slicing through his fingertips.
“Down boy,” Saint whispers.
It does absolutely nothing to calm the wolf.
The three of them stand around a small armchair and when I walk closer, I find Shade sitting there casually, his fingers steepled in front of his dark hair as he looks up at the three furious men surrounding his little coffee table.
“I told you, her tracking bracelet is off the map.” His palm gestures down to the glowing gold lines and drawings filling the air between them.
It’s a translucent thing. Buildings etched of elaborate threads show an identical layout of Academy of Six. Tiny dots litter the magical page and when he zooms in over each one, a name fades into sight.
Our names appear like star dust in the air between us, hovering just over the thin lines that make up the faculty housing building.
Saint Von Hunter, Malek Ramirez, Phoenix Rutherford, and Syko Sovern.
“We’ve searched each name listed individually and she’s not here,” Shade explains.
“Then search farther. Search hell. She’s in hell,” Phoenix growls, his arms shaking at his sides as his fingers bite into his palms.
“We do not have the funding to extend our maps into the bowels of hell, Mr. Rutherford.”
Of course they don’t.
“Then I’ll find her myself.” Phoenix spins on his heels as if the entrance to hell is somewhere right in front of us and everyone just forgot to tell me.
My hands lift and for a moment we just stare at one another. The demon and the nephilim. We don’t interact much. But we have more in common than just Izara.
“That’s a stupid fucking idea,” I whisper.
“Fucking around for over an hour while she’s in hell isn’t any better,” he bites back.
“You and I both know I’m not legally allowed to let you go to hell, Mr Rutherford.” A steady voice calls to us from behind the fuming demon in front of me.
“Good thing I didn’t fucking ask then,” Phoenix says under his breath.
He pushes past me but the professor stands at once, the map dissolving into thin air the moment his strange eyes settle on something I can’t see.
“You four need to leave. Right now!” He pushes at Malek but the wolf shoves his hand away with a snap of his sharp teeth. “Go. Now,” Professor Shade warns.
But it’s too late.
Storming boots thunder the halls and then the door bursts open like a gust of heavenly winds. A dozen armored guards fill the small living room and stinging pain cuts into my side as I fall to the floor.
Shade stands watching us all and trying to calm the men who keep lashing out at us. It’s all a chaotic sound of churning words and aggressive sparking weapons.
“Breaking into faculty housing is unacceptable,” one of the dark masked men says as he stabs Phoenix with the weapon in his hand. “Confinement. All of you.”
The men lash out at us again with their magical clubs.
Malek fades away first with the burning scent of magic clouding the air.
