The corridor outside was chaos, with guards rushing toward Braen’s office and guests streaming toward the stairs. But for a split second, she caught sight of someone unexpected. That young woman—the one from the Wild she had seen before. She was running in thewrong direction.
She was running toward the basement with a gun in her hand.
Nadi’s heart soared. There was hope. But she couldn’t help her—no matter how hard she wanted to. She allowed herself to be swept along with the crowd, clutching her purse with its precious cargo.
She had to reach the rendezvous point. If Raziel saw the commotion, he would know something had gone wrong, but he’d wait for her at their predetermined location before implementing the backup plan.
Heart racing, Nadi pushed her way through the panicking crowd, taking the stairs two at a time. The smoke had spread to the second floor, adding to the confusion.
She reached the ground floor and cut through the main dining room, now empty as guests fled. The kitchen was ahead, its doors swinging as staff abandoned their posts.
As she pushed through the kitchen doors, a hard body slammed into her, driving her against the wall. A guard—one she recognized from her reconnaissance—held a gun to her head.
“Don’t move,” he growled. “I just saw the exact sameyoucome through here ten seconds ago. What the fuckareyou?”
Her hand inched toward the blade strapped to her thigh, but before she could reach it, another figure appeared behind the guard—Raziel, his movements a blur as he gripped the man’s head and twisted. The sickening crack of breaking bone was followed by the guard’s body crumpling to the floor.
“We need to go. Now.” Raziel took her arm, pulling her toward the service entrance. “Braen’s men are locking down the streets outside.”
“How did you know?” she asked as they ran.
“I saw the smoke. Figured you’d gone to our contingency.” His lips twitched in what might have been a smile. “Besides, you’re remarkably punctual. When you didn’t appear at our meeting point, I knew something had gone wrong.”
They burst through the door into a narrow alley behind the club. The night air was cool against Nadi’s flushed skin as they ran, the sounds of pursuit growing louder behind them.
“This way,” Raziel urged, pulling her into a recessed doorway. “There’s a warehouse we can cut through. We can lose them on the other side.”
“You can turn into bats. Go. I’ll be fine.” She was suddenly jealous of the Nostrom family ability to shift their forms into the flying rodents. It would come in handy right about now.
“And leave you to be captured and tortured for information?” He huffed. “Hardly.” He put his shoulder into the metal door, breaking the lock with a loudwham.It would alert the guards to where they were, but it was a calculated risk. It also gave them the means to escape. The warehouse on the other side was deserted, and it was fast enough to cross. When they got through to the alley on the other side, it was empty.
“Did you get the proof?” Raziel asked as they paused to catch their breath. It had been raining recently, and the damp cool air was a blessing.
Nadi nodded, patting her purse. “He kept a ledger. I assume as dirt. Transaction records. Buyers. I hope it’s enough. But Braen—he knew I wasn’t his assistant. He knows I was fae.” She kept out the knowledge of the other one she saw there. That wasn’t important to Raziel.
“He’s more perceptive than most,” Raziel admitted. “But it doesn’t matter. We have what we need. He doesn’t know we’re working together, and he won’t connect the dots.”
A distant shout echoed through the warehouse—the Rosovs had found their escape route.
“Time to go,” Nadi warned.
Raziel’s expression hardened. “We keep to the alleys. Ivan is waiting six streets up, but we have to keep to the shadows. This is Rosov territory.”
They ran through the darkness, using the twisting network of overhead roads in the metropolis to shadow them. Here, on the outskirts, it was almost as good as being underground in the Wild, for as little light reached them.
Raziel moved fast, and had no pity for her shorter legs. Nadi’s lungs burned as she pushed herself harder, her fae blood singing with the familiar thrill of the hunt—even when she was the prey. Behind them, the heavy boots of Braen’s men echoed off thebrick walls, growing closer despite their best efforts to lose them in the labyrinthine streets.
“This way,” Raziel hissed, pulling her sharply to the left into an even narrower passage between two crumbling tenements. The space was barely wide enough for them both, forcing them to run single file. Poorly maintained mortar crumbled from between the bricks as they scraped against the walls, leaving chalky streaks on their clothes.
Water dripped from the overpasses, forming puddles that splashed beneath their feet in the low areas of the cobblestones of the alleys and dripped from the rusted fire escapes of the closely crowded buildings.
The shouts grew louder. “There they are! Stop!”
Gunfire erupted, bullets ricocheting off the concrete walls around them. Raziel pulled Nadi behind a support column, shielding her with his body. “The exit is just ahead,” he said, his voice tight. “But we’ll never make it with them right behind us.”
Nadi peered around the column, counting at least six pursuers. “We’re outnumbered.”
Raziel’s eyes gleamed in the darkness, his fangs extending. “Not for long.”
