Page 99 of The Aether

When she squinted at him with doubt, he chuckled. “Once, when I was your exact age, I ran away from home. You know what he did after he found me?” Damian tucked a lock of her unkempt hair behind her ear. Likely shedidknow, but he said it anyway. “He hugged me so tightly I could barely breathe. Afterward, he made me blueberry pancakes, and I ate them until my belly ached.”

Her engaging grin triggered his.

“Go get your pancakes, my love.”

“Thank you, Papa.”

She hugged him one last time and darted away.

Rising to his feet, he smiled at those gathered. “If one hair on her head is harmed, I’ll kill you all. You’d better stay alert. She’s quick.”

The group scrambled after her.

CHAPTER34

With the bulk of their numbers gone, the tunnels seemed cavernous and more threatening, somehow. Odd, that. Morcant and his two henchmen were gone, and the tribunal was a matter for another day, so there shouldn’t be a sense of unease haunting Damian.

Yet there was.

He felt it beneath his skin, burrowing along his nerve endings, urging him to take note.

“What is it, Dethridge?” Trevor watched him warily. “You’re on high alert. What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. A feeling, I suppose. As if all of this was too easy.”

“You call today easy?”

“For me, yes.” Again, he glanced around, unable to shake the perilous feeling. “You need to get out of here. Right now.” Scooping his wife into his arms, he transferred her body to Trevor. “Go, Blane. Take her into the hallway, then teleport to my home.”

Dodging through the wall opening, the Death Dealer was gone, and Damian jogged down the hallway to where Alastair, Castor, and Jordon remained to care for Rorie.

“We need to get out. There’s something—”

Bulbs flickered, giving an idea of how dark the place would be in a blackout.

Damian retraced his steps, pausing to study the wiring leading to the ballasts housing the lights. Concentrating on sound only, he listened for the hum of electricity, the annoying buzz he’d spent years trying to block out after its invention.

The current wasn’t normal.

A pattern disrupted the standard flow.

“Castor, if or when I say, freeze the room,”he mentally projected.

Easing into a standing position, Castor dropped all pretense of teasing and raised his hands as he prepared for battle.

“Al, take your wife and Jordon out of here. Immediately.”

Worry tightened the lines around Alastair’s mouth and his sapphire eyes were solemn.“I’d stay if it wasn’t for Rorie.”

“I know. Go.”

With the help of Jordan, Alastair got his mate on her feet and shuffled her out the exit.

“And then there were two,”Castor said.

“Or more.”

“How do you know?”

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