It was easy. Too easy. The human walked us into the house and down a corridor. Using my second sight, I could see the auras of my invisible team members, but there were also extinguishers with us who couldn't glamour themselves. Maybe we should have left them outside.
Dae-hyun must have spotted them on his security feed. We were halfway down the corridor when the doors at either end slammed shut and sprinklers came on overhead. No, not sprinklers, they sprayed Dae-hyun's iron mist instead of water. It wasn't pleasant to breathe, even for those of us it wouldn't poison. It made me wish I'd worn one of the heavy-duty gas masks the fairies had on. But at least it wouldn't kill me.
We ran for the far door and before I reached it, it blasted into pieces. I don't know who took care of the barrier, but we rushed through even as it smoked and entered a room with clean air. The human I had star-crossed got tossed around like a pinball before he followed us.
I grabbed him. “Hurry! Where is Lee Dae-hyun?”
“Through there.” The man pointed at an iron door.
Iron. Smart. And there was mesh over it. Even as I watched, the mesh started to buzz, then water flowed over it, forming a shield.
“Cut the power into his comm device,” Killian said.
The buzz stopped.
“Allow me,” Star drawled from my left.
The door blasted off its hinges and flew into the room beyond. We piled inside, most of us still invisible. A desk sat in the center of the room with three monitors atop it. Nothing much else of note. Just a skylight. That was open.
“Son of a bitch!” I snarled and dropped my invisibility. “Teagen? I thought your people were watching the house?”
“We've seen no one leave, not by any means,” Extinguisher Connor Teagan's voice came through my earpiece.
“That doesn't make any sense,” Killian said as he went visible too. He headed for the desk.
Before he got there, I felt a sting across my neck. Then I couldn't breathe. Liquid rushed down my chest, and I gaped at it, trying to process what was happening.
Is that my blood?
“Seren!” Several people shouted.
Then I was being lifted. Busy holding my throat, I couldn't stop whoever was carrying me off. And they weren't visible so it couldn't be Dae-hyun. That was my last thought before I passed out. It wasn't, however, the last thing I heard.
That would be an explosion.
Chapter Forty-Three
I had underestimated Dae-hyun.
I don't know why it never occurred to us that he could have the ability to glamour himself invisible. Maybe because he hadn't used it to escape from us when we chased him. Or maybe he had. There had been plenty of opportunities for him to go invisible without us seeing him. And he had vanished off that boat.
The motherfucker had me in magic-suppressing manacles again. I could only assume he'd taken a pair off a hunter after we'd gone visible. Which made him capable of casting an invisibility glamourandpick-pocketing. Once he had those manacles, he had snuck up behind me and slit my throat. Yup. The bastard cut my throat. And I hadn't been using my second sight, because my team had dropped their glamours, and I didn't know Dae-hyun could go invisible.
Well, fuck.
I opened my eyes carefully, hoping I could take a look around before Dae-hyun realized I was awake. My head was bent forward, I was strapped to a chair, and blood soaked my front. Not that I could see it. I was wearing black. One of the new magic-proof vests that Aideen developed was strapped over my shirt and tactical pants. It hid the blood well, but I could seethe crusty film of it over the waterproof material. Had Dae-hyun known about the vest? Is that why he slit my throat? Or was he just lucky?
If so, his luck was about to run out. Because Sever and Star would be there any second.
Or would they?
My memory was coming back and with it came a sound that sent terror through me. A boom. An explosion. What had—
“Are you going to stare at your chest forever?” Dae-hyun asked.
I lifted my head. Then scowled. “Is this a fighting cage? If so, it's really small.”
We were in a cage about ten feet by ten feet. I could hear the electricity buzzing through the water-coated wires and barely anything was visible beyond it. Dae-hyun sat on a chair before me, next to a table with the remnants of a fast food meal on it. He took a sip from a steaming mug—it was way too cold wherever we were for an iced Americano—and leaned back in his seat. A laptop was open on the table. It mostly showed scenes of trees and plants but there were a couple views of a house as well.
