Page 63 of Phoenix Falling
The door and the word were nearly soundless. When there was enough space, I reached through and locked my grip around Risk’s forearm. Awareness sparked, sizzling through my blood like it always did when Risk was near, but I ignored it and pulled.
She resisted. My narrowed eyes and grip urged her forward, but she stepped back instead, refusing to leave. Our silent tug of war ended when I heard voices coming through from the front room. Both of us froze.
“Touch it!”
“No!”
The first voice was harshly male, the other female. Helios’s second and the psych. My ears perked up.
“You know what you’re here for,” the male barked. “And you know it will go badly for you if you don’t follow through.”
“You don’t understand. It hurts.”
“Not as badly as it’ll hurt when we get back to camp if you don’t do your job.”
Risk’s dark blue eyes met mine, no glass between us this time, and I read the pain and worry there. She inched toward the front office.
I shook my head.
Risk tugged at her hand. I bared my teeth at her. At the same time I pushed through the doorway, backing her toward the shelves that bisected the room. Azrael followed me inside.
Risk’s eyes got even wider at the sight of the lethal warrior behind me.
A scream echoed from the front of the building, high and feminine. Every muscle in my body went tight.
A slap, then sobs. “Shut the hell up!”
“It hurts!”
Another slap. “Which is worse, bitch?”
More crying. I could hear fumbling around the room.
“Find me something quick before Helios decides you aren’t worth the food we waste on you.”
Whimpers rose and fell, presumably as the female touched object after object. Her gift. Psychometry. If my guess was correct, the soldier was forcing her to “read” items by touching them, presumably to search for more intel on Maddox and what he’d been doing here. From the sound of it, they were using her gift but hadn’t trained her in how to do so without hurting herself.
Shit.
Determination rose inside me. Turning back to Risk, I jabbed a finger at her, then at the floor.Stay here.
She shook her head.
I pointed again, this time allowing my animal to flash behind my eyes. She shrank back.
Good.
Azrael and I moved as one toward the front room. With a synchronized countdown in our heads, we surged forward at the same time, Azrael clearing the door first to throw his sword with unerring precision toward the male even as I rolled to the left toward the female. I didn’t glance up. Azrael knew how to fight; he didn’t need my backup. All of my focus was on getting the female out.
She crouched beside a pile of objects on the floor near a massive desk. Her eyes were rolled back in her head as she held a letter opener in her hands, obviously reading the past through the touch of the metal. I slapped it from her grip and caught her as she slumped to the floor. When her hand landed on my bare arm, she seized up again.
A noise behind me alerted me to Risk’s presence. I jerked around, glaring at her. The move broke contact with the psych in my arms, and she slumped back, a wheeze of relief leaving her.
Azrael appeared on my other side. A glance showed me Helios’s second pinned to the wall with Azrael’s knife through one eye. The spinal cord must still be intact given he hadn’t disintegrated to ash, but Azrael left him as he was, gaping like a fish caught on a hook.
My warrior’s black eyes narrowed on the psych. “Can we get her out?”
“We can.” I scooped her into my arms. To my surprise, she began to fight me.
