“We were brought here to decipher the arcane texts and fragments they already had,” Lina continued, voice trembling. “To help them unseal the convergence where the eighth andlargest fragment was hidden. The main body of the Crimson Codex. The final key was theDas Blutbuch.And tonight, we helped Mordecai Winchester crack it.” Her eyes filled with terror. “Which means he could tear that hidden space open at any moment now!”
A tremor suddenly shook the floor and walls around them, causing Lina to gasp. Dust spiralled down from the ceiling as the quake intensified.
Every instinct Viggo possessed told him that something terrible was about to happen.
“Change of plans.” He seized the lock and crushed it, heedless of the magic runes that flared against his palm. “We have to get them out, now!” He urged Lina to move back from the door and kicked it. Once. Twice.
It burst open on the third strike, crashing inward in a spray of splinters.
Footsteps thundered toward them as he herded Lina and the subdued prisoners out of the holding cell, the monastery shuddering violently around them.
“Viggo,” Solomon warned.
Wind magic detonated around Fairbridge as five guards rounded the corner—two of them dark mages, shadows already coiling around their hands.
Viggo narrowed his eyes.
CHAPTER 39
Evander and Rufusclimbed through the monastery in tense silence, every faint creak of the ancient floorboards setting their nerves on edge.
The building groaned faintly around them, the walls buffeted by the storm raging outside. Snow had found its way through gaps in the window frames, dusting the corridors with white powder that crunched softly beneath their boots.
Evander kept his senses extended, probing for the taint of dark magic even as he tried not to breathe in its foul smell. It was everywhere, soaked into the walls and pooled in corners like stagnant water. But there were fresher traces amid the general corruption. Signs of more recent dark magic activity.
The first floor was clear of people.
They came across a trio of guards upon reaching the second floor.
Three men stood near a window in the corridor leading off the staircase, their backs to Evander and Rufus as they conversed quietly in German. Evander could taste the faint signature of dark magic clinging to them.
He caught Rufus’s eye and held up three fingers where they crouched low on the stairs. The inspector nodded and drew thepistol Richter had given him, the weapon enchanted to fire silent stunning bolts rather than bullets.
Evander gathered his wind magic, climbed the last steps, and struck.
The first man never knew what hit him. He slammed headfirst into the window with a sickening crack and dropped like a puppet with cut strings. The second man had time to turn, eyes widening in alarm, before Evander wrapped his head inside a giant sphere of water and bound his limbs with wind magic.
Rufus came up beside Evander and fired his pistol twice at the third man. The projectiles whizzed through the air, caught him square in the chest and abdomen before he could shout out a warning, and extended spider-like legs that sank into his flesh. They each delivered a bolt of crackling energy.
He convulsed violently before crumpling, his eyes rolling back into his head.
Evander levitated the dark mage he’d bound toward them as they reached the landing.
He grabbed the man by the throat and slammed him against the wall.
“The two women you kidnapped tonight at the Opera House?” Evander hissed in his face. “Where are they?!”
The dark mage struggled violently against his restraints, muffled gurgles escaping him. Corrupt tendrils seeped from his hands.
Evander raised a ball of fire magic and applied it to the rippling, liquid cage surrounding the man’s head. The dark mage screamed silently, his skin reddening as the water sizzled.
A gargled “Stop! I’ll talk!” escaped him.
Evander retracted his magic, his heart thundering inside his ribcage.
“Down the corridor, to the right,” the dark mage gasped. “There’s a room where they’re being interrogated.”
Evander clenched his jaw. “Rufus, if you would please do the honour.”
