Page 26 of A Lost Light

A chorus of screams rose up in the wake of the flames. Something else caught fire and exploded, sending a burst of light and heat out of the end of the hallway where we were headed, like something from an over-the-top action movie.

“Goddess, Aahil,” I complained. “Noteveryonewho works here deserves to die. Some of them might be on our side, you know.”

He just gave me a graceful shrug and a wicked smirk. “Then they should be smart enough to get out of our way.”

“Two dead,” Dyre said evenly from up in front. “Shall I bring them with us?”

I shook my head. “Not right now. Let's save the horror show for if wereallywant to make enemies.”

He sighed as if I ruined all his fun, but refrained from making any new servants. For the moment.

We reached the junction of the hallways and Aahil extinguished his flames with a dismissive wave of his hand. The walls were merely scorched, showing that he had usedsomerestraint. But there were a couple of smoking, twisted lumps of metal that must have been guns lying next to a badly barbequed corpse.

I was never going to be able to sleep again after this.

I hadn't really thought in terms of killing people. Though I knew it might come to that. And theyhadbeen trying pretty hard to killusfrom the moment we set foot in here. Even if we hadn't stormed into their headquarters, they would have killed us on sight for just walking down the street.Best suck it up, Lovell,I told myself firmly.You can have a crisis of conscience later.

“There's magic up ahead,” Elijah said from behind me. I pulled my attention back to the matter at hand, picking up the spell that I should have been able to detect, if I wasn't so busy getting distracted by my inconvenient morals.

“Spell trap,” Aahil said in an unimpressed tone.

“They tried to use these on Elijah and I when we came here scouting,” Ambrose mused. “Not terribly effective when we could just phase out of this plane of existence. But I'm not sure how they'll hold up against the artifacts.”

I poured more magic into my spell, making sure the amplifier and the nullifier were firmly fused and the spells were as strong as possible. “The nullifier should take care of it, right?”

Dyre did something with his magic, his graceful fingers weaving some complex sigil in the air as pure black magic flowed from him, boosted by the amplifier. I was reminded yet again that he was more than just a necromancer—he had been a powerful, highly trained witch before anything else. The spell trap imploded with a pop, leaving behind barely any trace of magic.

“There,” the necromancer said, unconcerned as always. “Let's take the stairs.”

I muttered my agreement, and we headed for the stairwell at the end of the hallway. I didn't want to get trapped in a metal box. And besides, we'd barely fit in an elevator anyway. I really did have my own small army….

My head started to ache from all of the magic that was flowing through me, and from how hard I was concentrating on the spell. I had to focus all my will to keep myself centered and not let my thoughts drift.

I expected more attacks in the stairwell, and I wasn't disappointed. The door clanged shut behind us and the vents started to belch some kind of sickly-sweet smelling smoke.

“Why does that smell familiar?” I bit out, glancing around us as we hurried down the stairs.

“I'm getting several different kinds of poisonous flowers,” Dyre murmured.

“Altered, though,” Niamh added from somewhere behind me. “That's fae magic.” She did something with her own magic to cast an additional shield around us, just as my vision started to blur.

“Hold your breath,” Hasumi instructed. Then the water weaver's magic rose up, pulling water from the air, creating some kind of steam cloud that filled the protective bubble around us. Then they condensed everything to water, trapping the noxious fumes and pushing them downward with the rain, washing the toxins from the air and carrying them away beneath our feet.

I let out my held breath and sucked clean air into my lungs. “Neat trick.”

Aahil sent out a stream of fire that melted the nearest air vent shut. Then he proceeded to do the same to each one we encountered along the way as we descended. I almost started tofeel a little smug. All the SA’s deadly little tricks were nothing against us.

But when we burst out of the stairwell at the lower level, into a hallway lined with interrogation rooms, the big guns were waiting for us.

“Strom,” I said flatly, as we came to a halt. “I'm surprised you came out of the woodwork to actually do something. I thought you preferred to let everyone else do all the work while you fuck people over from behind the scenes.”

The director held twin balls of lightning in her hands. Her bitter expression was exactly the same as the last time I'd seen it. Although, I thought maybe she looked a bit less smug this time around. Less sure of her superiority.

“Lovell,” she spat. “I knew you were up to something with your collection of slaves and abominations. This only proves that I should have put you down before, when I had the chance.”

I shrugged. “Yeah, you probably should have. Because I was harmless before, but now, I'm pissed. And I'm going to fuck your shit up. Move. And take all your idiot lackeys with you, or you're going to end up dead or in a coma.”

She was flanked by a bunch of agents of various paranormal types. All of them felt like high magic users. Leave it to her to keep the strongest agents nearby so she could protect her own ass. My head was really starting to throb by now. I didn't want to kill more people. But this bitch and anyone stupid enough to follow her? I wouldn't feel too bad about that.

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