A manticore! A werewolf!
“This level won’t have spies,” I said, certain of it. “Only dangerous magical creatures.” I gestured behind us. “Look.”
“I’ll be damned,” Andre murmured, his eyes locked on the manticore that Eva had wrestled to the ground with her black magic. “I’ve never seen a creature like that in my life! Where did they get them all?”
“I don’t know,” Diana replied. “But look!”
Francis and the werewolf were still battling, fangs against claws. They’d both gotten in a few good swipes. Thankfully, so far, Francis had steered clear of the werewolf’s teeth, the part of the beast that carried the Lycan curse.
And he’d also presented us with the werewolf’s furry back.
I lifted my hands, and without hesitation, flung my demon magic at the monster. It hit him square in the back, and slithered up to tighten around his neck. The beast struggled, but couldn’t fight off the magic, and soon enough, it dropped to the ground with a whine. His body twitched, and I cinched the dark tendrils tighter, not stopping until he moved no longer.
“I told you not to use your magic!” Francis threw his hands in the air, strangely annoyed that I’d just helped him out. “What if I’d just jumped on his head and you hit me? What then?!”
“Well, you didn’t, and he’s dead now. We don’t have time to waste. We’re on the wrong floor.” Andre’s tone was defensive on my behalf. “There’s no reason to open any more of these doors and discover more monsters. Let’s gather the rest of the crew and descend.”
I shuddered. This whole complex was creepy as hell, but that they put the spies on the ninth subfloor, spoke to one of my greatest fears: being trapped deep underground. It also worried me that they considered the spies more dangerous than the violent magical creatures.
We don’t actually know that they’re on the bottom,I reminded myself.
It was still possible that the spies were on the upper floors. Possible, but not likely.
We called to our friends, who rushed down the hallway.
“Did you see that?!” Hunter cried out. “Eva just demolished a manticore!”
“We saw,” Sam said, clearly ready to move on. “We have to go down a level.”
Simone shook her head. “I was afraid of that.” She shot a glance at Francis. “One of us should run upstairs and alert the other floors.”
So she thought the spies would be at the deepest level too.
Francis nodded. “Why don’t you go? If they’ve already found them, come get us. If not, bring the others to the bottom. Considering how many doors are in these halls, we might need help with extraction.”
We reached the stairwell, and while the rest of us traveled downward, Simone zoomed up. We hadn’t even made it to the door at the bottom level when a door above us slammed shut.
Damn, she’s fast.
By the time we reached the bottom of the stairwell, Francis was already in front of our group, prepared to attack the guards on the other side.
He cracked open the heavy door and slid through the few inches of opening. A gunshot rang through the air. The snap of a neck followed, then another. The door slid closed, and for four nerve-wracking breaths, we all stood in silence, poised to fight.
The door finally swung open, and I tensed, only to relax when Francis’ head appeared in the stairwell.
“All clear. Those guys were more prepared. These halls seem pretty secure and soundproof, but the guards have comms in their jackets. Someone could have gotten a message out when the other squads attacked. We need to be fast.”
We flew into motion, dividing into the same teams as before and taking sides. My crew ran down the right side of the hall, and we hadn’t even made it ten feet when I knew, I justknew, this was the correct floor.
“Do you feel that?” I asked, darting a glance back at Sam, Diana, Francis, and Andre.
The witches nodded.
“There’s . . . something, but I can’t place it . . .” Francis trailed off, his lips pursed.
No doubt Francis could sense the magic swirling in the air, the wards. But as someone who didn’t actuallywieldmagic, he wouldn’t be as in tune with it as the rest of us.
“Will the wards hinder us from using our powers?” Diana asked. “Or just those inside the cells?”
