The sound, like an enormous generator shifting on, grew louder and louder.
What the…?
He headed toward the warehouses. He hiked for nearly a mile before he reached them. As he surveyed them, he didn’t notice any of the guards Hayde had seen earlier. If there’d been that many, surely they had to be somewhere.
Approaching a window, he peered into it.
No one. The moonlight that beamed in through windows on the other side illuminated a seemingly bare facility. Cages lined the wall, enormous cages, but they were empty as well. This seemed like a lot of fuss for nothing.
Veylo must have teleported his guards to another realm… or another place.
He’d have to figure that out later. Right now, he needed to get back and make sure Kid and Kinzer were okay.
***
Kinzer walked through the hall, opening doors and peering into rooms.
He and Hayde had split up, searching the floor where they’d discovered Maggie, for the Christ.
As Kinzer opened yet another door, he sighed.
This could take forever.
A soft sound tickled in his ears.
It was so faint that he almost thought it was just his imagination, but as he continued down the hall, it grew louder. It sounded like a baby giggling.
He hurried to a nearby door, where it seemed to be coming from, and opened it.
A man in a black suit stood beside a crib, holding a baby in his arms.
But it wasn’t a man. It was a higherling.
It was Janka.
He keyed into his phone with his available hand as his gaze shifted to Kinzer. Those blue eyes that Kinzer had once trusted so deeply paralyzed him. A twisted smile curled across Janka’s face.
“Well, well,” he said. “So good to see you again, Kinzer.”
“How’s the wing?” Kinzer said, hoping to dig at the vulnerability he had forced upon Janka when he’d severed his wing a few months earlier.
Janka’s smile faded. He set the baby back into the crib, not taking his eyes off his ex-lover.
As he reached for his sword in a sheath affixed to his belt, Kinzer rushed him, jabbing at him with his blade.
Janka dodged the attack so it cut through the air, grazing the back of his jacket. He reached behind him and gripped onto the blade. In a quick maneuver, he yanked the sword toward him and rammed his forehead into Kinzer’s.
The blow was so intense it stunned Kinzer nearly as much as Janka’s eyes had when he’d first entered the room.
Janka pried the sword from his grip and kicked Kinzer’s legs out from under him.
“Fuck,” Kinzer said as he hit the floor.
Janka stood over him, his smile returning. “It was a cute attempt, my Kinzer.”
Janka’s possessive statement infuriated him. He wasn’t Janka’s, and though he thought he had been at one time, those days had been nothing more than a deception.
He hurried to get up to defend himself, but Janka kicked him in the face so that he rolled across the floor until he settled on his back. Before he had a chance to recover, Janka dashed to him and kicked him in his side. Then stomped down on his belly.
