The tiger had mentioned there was a door near to what he had called the cage, one that the shifter suspected they were hiding something behind. Fenix believed it was as good a place as any to look for a secret holding cell. They had to be holding the sorceress in this facility, one few in Archangel knew about. She agreed with him on that.
She couldn’t believe it was actually here. An entire area she had never known about. An area she doubted Archer knew about, or most of the people who worked in the building. It was quiet, as if only a few people were down here. A selected few who had probably been sworn to secrecy.
When Fenix had asked the tiger how he would recognise the door, Talon had told him it was the only one with three security locks and two guards stationed outside it at all times.
Which, Evelyn had to admit, did sound terribly suspicious.
Fenix motioned for her to follow. She fell into step beside him, on high alert as she listened hard, straining to hear anything. The area opened up into an enormous room at the end of the corridor, with six doors coming off it, and she baulked as the disgusting scent of dried urine, vomit and blood hit her.
She covered her mouth with her hand and Fenix glanced at her, a trace of worry in his green eyes.
“I’m fine,” she mumbled into her palm and waved him away. “You’re up.”
He looked in the direction she was and she knew when he had spotted the guard standing outside of one of the doors, because he made a beeline for the male. She kept her distance as Fenix charmed him, disarming him, and looked away when he snapped the man’s neck, caught his body and dragged him towards one of the doors. He opened it and peered inside, must have been satisfied that it wasn’t somewhere someone might check because he returned for the body and pulled it inside. He eased the door closed and casually walked back to her, as if he hadn’t just committed murder.
Fenix jerked his chin, silently motioning for her to keep moving.
Ahead of her, light streamed from the left side of the room. She peered down that corridor as she passed it, glimpsing a row of empty white cells. The place where Talon and his friends had been held? The tiger had told Fenix that the cage was to the left of the cellblock. She looked towards the doors in that direction and seized Fenix’s wrist when she spotted it.
A door with two guards.
Fenix’s eyes narrowed and he disappeared, reappearing behind one of the men. He snapped his neck too, but let the body fall this time, his attention immediately leaping to the second male. She hurried towards him as he charmed that one, using his powers to manipulate the man’s feelings.
“I forgot the codes for the door. Be a darling and open it for me?” Fenix stroked his fingers down the man’s neck and the guard’s dark eyes grew hazy, losing focus as his eyelids drooped.
Evelyn turned her back and kept watch as the man did exactly as Fenix wanted, punching a code into one of the locks.
“I don’t have the other one.”
She looked back over her shoulder at the guard and frowned at Fenix as it hit her. “Two guards. Two codes. You killed one of them before you got his code. Now what are we supposed to do?”
“I can’t charm two people,” he bit out and glared at her. “Don’t act like you knew both would have a different code either.”
She wasn’t. Much.
He snapped the guard’s neck before she could stop him and she scowled at him.
“You’re up.” He grabbed her arm and yanked her to him, seized her wrist and pressed it to the cold steel door. “Just think about wanting to be on the other side. Think of teleporting a few feet. That’s all you have to do.”
He made it sound easy.
It wasn’t.
She stared at the door, afraid that there might be a wall on the other side of it and the few feet she teleported might put them both inside it.
“Come on, sweetheart. You can do this,” he murmured close to her ear.
She wished she had his confidence.
She glanced around, seeking another way in. It wasn’t going to happen. Fenix had killed the only guards they had seen, and the door didn’t have a peephole or anything he could use to see the other side.
So it was down to her.
She grabbed Fenix’s arm and sucked down a breath, held it and blew it out as she built up her courage and focused on making a tiny hop that would transport her to just the other side of the door. That was where she wanted to be. Just three feet north of where she was now.
There wouldn’t be a wall there. Nothing that would hurt her or Fenix. She just had to make a tiny hop. Easy-peasy.
“Come on,” Fenix whispered.