“Still, we can’t leave any stone unturned.” I gestured to the wolf-shifters, who’d transformed back to their four-legged forms. “Why don’t you quickly run through this level. Take care of anyone who’s here.”
The wolves ran off.
“I think we should be on the front line.” Francis stepped forward to stand by Magdalena. “We’re the most difficult to kill.”
No arguing with that.
“Does anyone feel comfortable using that elevator?” I eyed the metal box skeptically.
“Nope and no need. There’s a stairwell right here.” Simone had wandered a ways down the hallway. “And an emergency evacuation sign that confirms there are nine levels below, not including this one. Whatever wacko website you found was right.”
Nine levels, and fifty of us. I heaved a breath. That meant we would have to split up to search thoroughly.
I shot a glance to Hunter, who had always been better at strategizing than me. He stepped forward, scanning the crowd that we’d arrived with.
He began pointing out people, ten at a time. Once he identified the groups, he gave them levels. The non-aether-blessed fae, all of whom just so happened to be wingless, got the top levels. Shifters earned the next two levels closer to the surface, while the witches, vampires, and aether-blessed fae were given deeper levels.
Once he finished, I arched my eyebrows. “So we’re hitting the bottom?” He’d given us levels eight and nine.
Hunter nodded. “I have a feeling they’ll have put the spies deepest down. And that magic will be necessary to get through barriers.”
“Shouldn’t we bring a fae in our group?” Eva countered reasonably. “What if we need aether magic?”
Hunter gestured to Francis, who was also on our team. “That’s why we have vampires. If we need help, we’ll send him to find the aether-blessed. But we can’t take all the most versatile people just because I have a hunch.”
He was right.
Having set out squads, everyone made their way to the stairwell and descended. We were passing the third floor, when I knew that whatever we found down here would be unpleasant. Screams and moans came from some hallways, and the cries of animals from others. The air around me seemed to tingle as my senses heightened.
“What the hell kind of place is this?”
“Testing site,” Diana said, her voice tight. “Some nutjob website swore it was true, and now I’m fairly sure they’re right.”
When we reached the eighth floor, Francis held out his arm. “Guards. They probably don’t know we’re coming, since the walls are so thick. They’re even hard for me to hear through. Let me go first and disarm them. I think there are only four on this level.”
He disappeared through the door. Before it closed, scuffling ensued, followed by two yells and the sounds of snapping bones.
I winced each time there was athunk, imagining blood seeping from the neck of a man lying dead on the floor.
Ten seconds later, the vampire poked his head back into the stairwell. “When you enter, keep to the middle. I tried to push them to the side so you wouldn’t trip, but the lighting sucks down here.”
I took a big breath and exited the stairwell. It was as dark as the rest of the facility, with fluorescent lights interspersed every ten feet providing an eerie, weak glow. The hall smelled sterile and metallic, like the steel walls were routinely cleaned with bleach. Twenty doors lined the hallway on each side in both directions.
My stomach twisted.Eighty rooms to check.Well, crap.
I turned to the group. “Split up. Five go left, and five go right. Make the groups as magically even as possible.”
Everyone nodded, and we split up naturally. Hunter went with Eva, Simone, and two older witches that Headmistress Wake had recruited. Diana, Andre, Sam, and Francis joined me.
We tiptoed down the hallway. Francis listened at every door, shaking his head at the empty ones. We were about halfway down the passage when he stopped suddenly. His spine straightened in a way that lifted the hairs on the nape of my neck.
“Something is in there. It’s alive, but it doesn’t sound human.”
My jaw tightened. “Should we check? Maybe it’s a shifter in their animal aspect.”
“Of course we should check,” Diana proclaimed, not bothering to lower her voice. “We need to find the prisoners. But what if something else is down here that we need to know about? What if they’re harboring demons down here? The experimental kind.” She gave me a pointed look. “You know, like in the book Merlin showed us. What if that’s what they’re doing down here?”
My mind reeled back to the illustration of the witch-turned-demon. I hadn’t even considered such a thing, but clearly, Diana had.
