Page 140 of Owned

They both had the same gleam in their eyes.

Vengeance.

Ignoring the crumpled body on the stone floor, we gathered weapons from the cases at the wall.

I tossed a small dagger to Bastian. “Think you can keep hold of this one?”

He caught it with a flick of his wrist. “What’s your plan? I didn’t think anyone used the Spire anymore— It should be condemned.”

Valen slung a bag over his shoulder and looked at us. “It was,” he replied and glanced back at the body. “He wasn’t lying. I would have known.”

Bastian shrugged. “This won’t be easy.”

My smile was grim. “Worried?”

“Maybe we should ask our dead friend back there,” he said. He wasn’t worried at all. The only expression in his eyes was something wild and unhinged. “We’ll hit hard, we hit fast,” he said and I couldn’t mistake the way his voice was edged with the thrill of it. “No one will see us coming.”

I nodded.

They’d be waiting for us to strike, I knew that for sure, but there was nothing they could do to stop us.

Fingers of darknessspreading down through the clouds refused to touch the Hollowed Spire, as if the night itself feared to linger too near. Storm clouds loomed, and I wondered if Lucian had sent them over the city.

I wouldn’t be surprised.

Magic wrapped around the derelict building like smoke, coiling and uncoiling in sickly hues.

Bastian laughed, but there was no humor in it. “So much for shutting it down,” he said.

Valen’s eyes were sharp, fixed on the fortress. “It’s a trap.”

“Anything else you’d like to point out?” Bastian said wryly. “It might rain? There aren’t any lights around the perimeter? That the people inside that building are all fucking traitors?”

“We knew it would be like this,” I said through gritted teeth. “Don’t pretend to be surprised.”

Bastian shook his head. “What is Lucian going to do when he finds out they’ve been using this place behind his back?”

A storm of nightbirds in search of a roost for the coming dark took flight from the trees and scattered into the air.

“Do we have a plan?” Bastian said.

“Break down the door, kill anyone in our path, find Avril,” I replied stiffly.

Bastian snorted. “That’s not a plan.”

I didn’t look at him. “Do you have a better one?”

“No,” he laughed. “That works for me.”

We moved fast. There was no time for subtlety.

The front entrance was a mess of shifting colors and light, but it fell away with little resistance—Bastian barely had to tap it with his magic to push through.

I didn’t like it.

Not one bit.

We barreled through, expecting the worst. But there was nothing.

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