Page 93 of Witch Unbound
Turns out only combat Magiguard can use this weaponry, and at the time, the case wasn’t high-level enough to dispatch them. But with the Order involved and experimentation going on, the elite teams had been given the go-ahead to act.
The doors are blown in and the guards take charge, doing a sweep of the ground floor and then heading to the lower-level labs.
My heart gallops in my chest as I race after them with Ursula at my side. She’s no longer in charge, though. Some woman with angry eyes is.
I don’t care, as long as we get Lauris back.
We barrel through a brick tunnel, through an arch, and past cages into a cream lab filled with empty glass chambers.
“Shit.” Ursula stops and scans the room. “Fuck. It’s gone… all gone.”
She walks over to a chamber to our left. “They took the bodies.”
Angry Eyes barks orders as her team fans out and searches the rest of the lab.
She strides over to us looking pissed, as if the Order being gone is somehow our fault. “We’ll do a full building sweep, but it looks like they’ve gone. All data on the program has been removed and the portal they were using is no longer active.” She chews on her cheeks. “They must have cleared out as soon as they came back and found their comrades dead.”
Yeah, yeah, fuck the Order. I don’t give a damn about them. What about Lauris? Where the fuck is Lauris?
Chapter Twenty-Three
CORA
Tor laid Jasper on the sofa. The malevolent was out cold. I pressed the backs of my fingers to his icy cheek.
“He probably just needs to rest,” Rune said.
But Jasper and rest didn’t go together. He didn’t sleep. He didn’t need to. He was always on the ball, alert, ready for action, so this was worrying. But then, he’d been stuck in the abyss for days. That place was a living nightmare. Who knew what he’d been through.
“He doesn’t look physically hurt.” Leif was back from tucking Wren in.
“No.” Rune grabbed a blanket and draped it over Jasper. “But we have no idea what mental trauma he’s dealing with.”
I sat on the floor by the sofa and took Jasper’s cold hand in mine. “He’ll be okay. This is Jasper.”
“I’ll make tea.” Leif padded into the kitchen.
Tor walked over to the drinks cabinet and poured himself a whiskey. “You want one?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll take one too,” Rune said.
He handed me a glass with an inch of whiskey in it and then settled in the armchair by the fire with his drink.
Leif returned with a tray of tea things and rolled his eyes when he saw us all clutching whiskey glasses. “You could have told me you didn’t want tea.”
“I’ll have tea,” Jasper said.
My head whipped round to find him staring at me with his bright emerald eyes.
“Jasper!” I threw myself onto him and he wrapped his arms around my waist, hugging me tight.
“I found you.” His breath tickled my ear. “Fuck, I finally found you.”
I was peripherally aware of the guys leaving the room, but all that mattered in that moment was Jasper. My heart beat rapidly against my ribcage, spurred on by his proximity. I closed my eyes and reveled in the contact, pushing down the surge of stupid tears at the fact he was awake and speaking and okay.
He cupped the back of my head. “Look at me.”
