Page 71 of Silent Lucidity

Keeping the hovercar nearly half a kilometer away from the manor, Tenthil brought it around to the building’s rear side. The hole he’d blasted in Abella’s former quarters had been covered by a flat white material that stood out starkly against the surrounding adornments, an obvious weak point on the structure.

The lack of visible guards outside roused Tenthil’s suspicions. Tegris wanted their presence known—hence the clearly-marked transport out front—and would have warm bodies on site if they’d been hired to protect the manor. Where were they?

Narrowing his eyes, Tenthil scanned the manor and its grounds.

“Looks about the same as always,” Abella said softly. “Though this is my first time seeing it frominsidea car.”

Tenthil gritted his teeth. “Wish he were alive so I could kill him again.”

Abella brushed her fingers along the side of his jaw. “Like you said, he’s gone. And I don’t think I ever thanked you for everything you’ve done for me.”

He turned his head to face her, met her gaze, and smiled. “You are with me. That is all I need.”

She returned the smile and slipped her fingers into his hair, leaning forward to press her lips against his. Tenthil fought back his urge formoreas he kissed her back.

We are here for a purpose.

Abella pulled back and chuckled. “After.”

He groaned and shifted on his seat, hoping to relieve the sudden, throbbing ache in his groin. “Yes.After.”

As Tenthil returned his attention to the manor, a brief, metallic flash caught his eye. Brows falling low, he leaned closer to the window and squinted. Even with his sharp vision, it took him a few seconds to spot the object that had produced the flash—a small surveillance drone hovering over Cullion’s property. A quick scan off the nearby airspace revealed two more.

Were they supplemental to the existent surveillance equipment, or had the system not been repaired since Tenthil blasted the control room to pieces?

He piloted the hovercar to street level and landed it in an alleyway a few hundred meters from the manor. After cutting the engine, he gently tapped the disc-shaped signal jammer he’d attached to the control panel. “This has about an hour and a half left. Need to get in and out, quickly and quietly.”

“Okay.” Abella peered past him. “If we don’t run into too much trouble, it shouldn’t take long. I know exactly where his hiding places are.”

“Keep in contact with me at all times. Don’t know what surveillance is inside.” He swallowed and drew in a heavy breath; he didn’t like that his next words would echo what he’d heard time and again from the Master. “We can leave no evidence. No witnesses.”

“I know,” she said quietly.

Tenthil grasped her chin between his forefinger and thumb, forced her to meet his gaze, and kissed her. It was the only way he knew to tell her he was there, to assure her they would be all right, to swear he would keep her safe. He withdrew only when some of her tension eased, and somehow—despite allowing his tongue to emerge and lick her taste from his lips—kept himself from tearing her clothes off and taking her right there.

They exited the vehicle and walked, Abella tucked against his side, through dimly lit alleyways toward Cullion’s manor. The area was quiet, a result of the affluence of its residents and their love for expensive, private security. Tenthil saw no other living beings. There was only trash, all of it stacked in the shadows to await collection like it was an embarrassing secret.

Tenthil slowed their pace when they entered the alley behind the manor. He glanced upward as they neared the outer wall, spotting one of the drones; the hovering machine was difficult to discern against the dark, distant ceiling even from this close. Abella’s stride faltered. This was a vulnerability he’d rarely glimpsed from her. He knew she’d suffered here, suffered at Cullion’s hands, but she hadn’t often shown just how much it affected her.

“You are okay,” he whispered, running his palm up and down her arm. “I’m here.”

She nodded and pressed closer to him. “Should be somewhere along here. A hatch, or something. I saw the ladder from below one of the times I tried to escape, but they caught me before I made it any farther.”

He nodded. Though it was his instinct to keep his attention directed up, toward what his subconscious deemed the most immediate threat, he turned his gaze to the ground—here, it was a combination of concrete and thick metal sheets, blended together, somehow, into a relatively even surface. It was less of a patchwork than in some other sectors, but still exemplified the random way the Infinite City had been constructed—outside the sanctums, there’d been no unifying plan for most of Arthos.

That blending of materials served to make the hidden opening more discreet; when he first saw the faint, parallel seams, he nearly dismissed it as a quirk of the construction, but a slight tilting of his head revealed the perpendicular lines that met the others to form a rectangular outline. He crouched over it. Abella’s thigh pressed against his as she sank down along with him.

Tenthil ran his palm over the hatch slowly, seeking a control mechanism or a compartment to open. The metal surface was gritty with accumulated dirt and grime.

“Is that it?” Abella asked in a low voice.

Replying with only an indifferent grunt, Tenthil continued his search until his hand brushed over a rougher spot on the metal rectangle—the texture created not by the dirt, but the metal itself. He wiped away some of the grime and ran a finger over the spot, leaning closer to study it.

A light flicked on at the touch of his finger. He pulled his hand back and instinctively twisted to block Abella’s body with his own as the light quickly coalesced into a small, holographic control panel—a keypad.

“Think it is,” he muttered as he reached into his pouch to retrieve his masterkey. After setting the tool in place on the hatch and activating it, he turned his head—checking in both directions along the alley—and glanced up. Fortunately, the nearby wall sheltered them from the nearest drone. Even if it couldn’t capture Tenthil and Abella on its sensors, it would have likely detected the motion of the hatch opening were it in a direct line of sight.

The masterkey flashed green. The hatch beneath Tenthil rumbled and released a soft hiss. He snatched up the masterkey and moved backward onto the street, pulling Abella with him, as the hatch sank a few centimeters and slid sideways into the ground.

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