“I don’t think it’s glamour,” Titus said with a frown, stepping over one of the guards. “I think Lucifer accidently activated the intruder mechanism. I’ve been reading online forums recently that specialise in leaked Fae war tactics. Rather than take an enemy head on they would split them with a short portal spell.”
“Making it easier to pick us off one by one. That’s clever,” Kace added. “So we’re still in the same building, but a different floor.”
“Seems to be.” Titus slung his laptop over his back with a strap. “Which is either good, or bad.”
“Well, which one is it?”
“Oh, I don’t fucking know, K. Let me just look up all of the Fae war tactics, oh right, they keep their secrets tighter than a nun’s knickers.”
Kace braced as he kicked open the closest door, the room empty other than a dust-covered shelf. The window that was once there was boarded from the outside, and Kace remembered the entire front of the building was covered in black, shiny cladding.
“Can your beast sense anything?”
Kace quietened his breathing, drawing on his beast to stretch his senses. He couldn’t feel anyone other than himself and Titus. “Those three are dead, so where the fuck is everyone else?”
“I don’t like this, let’s try and find a way down. Or up.”
The next room was just as vacant, as was the third and fourth. At the end of the hall was a lift, the mirrored surface tarnished. Nothing adorned the walls except shadows where pictures or paintings were once placed. The wood panelling had broken, revealing raw plaster beneath.
“This floor only has one lift, so where have the other two gone?” Kace asked as he carefully dipped his fingers into his back. He felt the bullet, his body already pushing out the foreign object. Coated in blood Kace brushed his finger across the cool surface, drawing a random glyph. He knew many glyphs, having drawn and tattooed every single one on himself and his brothers.
The blood boiled, disappearing altogether within seconds, but it did exactly what Kace expected. “There’s glamour.” There were three main magics that operated on Earth Side, with witches that was either black, nature or arcane based. Druid magic, which was both glyph and natural arcane based, and lastly the wild magic of the Fae. The different magics mixed as well as oil and water, and they frequently repelled one another.
Titus frowned, pressing the call button. The doors opened with a pained squeak, the inside just as worn as the outside. There were no more buttons, just smudged mirrors that held a spiderweb of cracks. “I think you’re right. Hand me a blade, please.”
Without hesitation Kace handed over another blade, and Titus immediately popped off the surrounding case of the call button. “The thing with glamour is it only affects the appearance, and not the function.” Kneeling down he pulled his laptop back out, along with several wires which he attached to those inside the button. “This lift is on its own internal server, which is pretty efficient, actually.”
“You able to hack it?”
Titus shot him a dark look. “Of course, but it’s going to take some time.”
“We don’t have time.” Kace touched the blank wall to the left of the lift, trying and failing to call arcane to his fingertips. The wall rippled, and he was sure he saw the outline of one of the other lifts. “The entire wall is covered in glamour. It’s…”
A gentle beep, and Kace stepped back just as the wall split open like doors, revealing a large fucking bear.
Chapter32
Eva
Eva crouched as the whoosh of air subsided, quickly taking in her new surroundings. The entire room was open from one side to the other, the walls having been ripped out. A rectangular semi-transparent glass partition creating a meeting room in the centre, with a table that could easily fit twenty.
“What in the fuckery is this?” Lucifer shook his head like a wet dog, the movement quivering down his body. “Have I hit my head? You could probably host a rugby game in this space.”
“I told you it was built like a safe house,” Eva whispered, touching her hand against the boarded over window. “They clearly only needed the top floors and the bottom, so the middle has just been left.”
“I’m sorry, but what sort of safe house uses Fae portals?” He stuck a finger in his ear, as if trying to clear pressure. “Bloody uncivilised swines, that’s who. Wild magic is so fucking unpredictable.”
He stretched his arms into the air, clicking his back. Eva followed the line of his arm, stopping when she noticed two horns protruding from his dark hair. Horns that definitely weren’t there a minute ago.
Lucy raised a brow, and Eva quickly dropped her eyes as he jumped towards her. “Boo!”
She hit out, her fist missing his jaw to hit his shoulder. “What is wrong with you?”
“Okay, ow!” he grunted, rubbing the hurt. “Honestly, is no one scared of me anymore? I miss the time where people fucking pissed their pants when I walked into the room. Honestly, living on Earth Side is killing my street cred.”
“What do you mean?” Eva asked.
Lucifer blinked, pouting his lips. “How can someone so innocent get involved with a group of spicy barbarians like them?” He placed his hands on his hips, staring down at her. “I used to reside in The Nether, you know, some human cultures refer to it as Hell.”
