Page 69 of Angel Lost

I stumble, lost and no longer grounded.

Blinking, my vision swims back. My limbs are heavy, weighted by the lingering pull of the ley lines. The vibrantly red threads fade, and I’m left dazed. I take a sharp breath in, and cold evening air hits my lungs, snapping me back to my body. Gone is the safety of my dorm room, my books, the murmur of other students.

Panic flares in my chest. How did I get here? I shiver, rubbing my arms, and turn in a slow circle. The magic still hums faintly, but it’s different. Bleaker. More threatening.

A building looms beside me, dark, foreboding. Covered in creeping ivy, hiding in plain sight. So different from the crisp, serene lines of the academy. I stand there, my heart racing. I lost control. I lost myself in the ley lines like Lady Tenebrae always threatened would happen. A deep, unsettling vulnerability washes over me. Whatever this place is, it’s not safe. The air is thick with malign energy. I swallow hard, forcing myself to stay calm.

At the sound of footfalls in the distance, I edge into the bushes. I slow my heart rate, reducing the breaths I take. Please let my vampire stealth be enough. Please.

An angel rushes into view, feet skimming along the path, heading straight for the building. An angel in a Gifted Academy robe.

He pulls a lanyard from around his neck and waves it in front of him. The metal door clunks open, and he vanishes inside. Quickly, I jam my toe in the gap and count to ten. My heart pounds as I slip inside. The door clicks shut behind me.

Shit.

Ahead, the angel glides down a brightly lit, sterile corridor, before reaching the corner and vanishing out of sight. I let out my breath. All he had to do was turn and he’d have seen me. No amount of vampire stealth could hide me in this harsh overhead light.

Heavy steel doors line the corridor, each marked with a glowing arcane symbol. I try one. Locked. There’s only one way forward. I pad silently after the angel, along the polished black stone floor. Thank Hecate for my thieving feet, for Silas’s training.

I pause before poking my head around the corner, but the angel has vanished. This hallway looks much like the last. Cold, sterile. Except it branches at the end. I hesitate. Something flickers to the right and I duckdown the left-hand passageway, descending stairs until I come to a set of double doors.

The brass plaque captures my attention.

Gifted Area

I frown at the bold font stamped into the metal before easing one of the doors open and slipping through. There’s a background hum here, like faraway voices. I palm my knife and creep forward. Hearing footsteps, I panic, backpedaling, pushing at each door I pass with increasing desperation. Finally, one gives. I stumble inside just as a swirl of gray robe appears around the corner. I flatten myself against the wall in the pitch-dark of the room.

The footsteps sound closer. Shit. Suddenly the room floods with light, and I throw my arm across my eyes.

Nothing. No shouting. No alarm.

Slowly, I lower my hand.

Light streams in through a window. A window that takes up the entire wall. Three professors and a student, all in Gifted Academy robes, stand on the other side. I freeze, but not one of them notices my presence. I risk taking a step toward the door.

No one looks my way.

An observation gallery. I’m on the other side of a one-way glass. My butt hits the wall again and I let myself slide down to the floor. I watch the Gifted professors strap the student into a chair in the middle of the room. I crane my neck. Reye. It’s Reye. What are they doing to her? She seems resigned, not fighting them. This can’t be good. The very air feels like nothing good happens in these rooms.

The professors surround her and start up an eerie chant that leaks through the walls to me. They siphon energy from the ley lines, pulling more into themselves until they’re illuminated. Then, they funnel it all into the machine attached to Reye. She screams. An agonized howl of despair.

I clench my fists. They’re torturing her. I can’t, I won’t just stand by. I gather my own power, my fire, my air, my aether, and weave them together. I meld the strands of my magic, building, pulling from my allegiance, adding the elements they control: water, earth. My skin is so taut it might split open at any second, trying to contain so much power.

With a grunt I fling my arms out, sending wave after wave of elemental energy through the glass, straight at the professors. The glass shatters, spilling out in shards, landing on the floor of the other room just as the professors fall. One. Two. Three.

All taken out by my blast.

Chapter Twenty-three: Lorelei

Reye groans and I rush to her side, undoing the straps as quickly as my fumbling fingers allow. Her eyes flutter open, confusion written all over her face. I drag her up.

“We have to go,” I say, encouraging her onto her feet. “They could wake up any moment!”

I cast a wary glance at the bodies on the floor.If I didn’t kill them…

Reye bats my chest angrily. “Stop. Let me go. You spoiled it!”

She must be disoriented. I take her hand, patting it. “They were hurting you, Reye,” I say gently.

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