Page 19 of Fortress of Ambrose
“What happens when you use the Sphere’spropermagic?”
“I don’t know, it’s been so long since I’ve tried.”
The elevator doors open to Dragun Headquarters, and my heart stammers at the scene in front of me. What was a pristine lobby looks like a war zone. The Brotherhood’s sleek marble walls are scorched and cracked in several places. The glass partitions, which used to house cubicles where Jordan’s desk was, have been destroyed. The floor is an ocean of glass confetti.
“Who would do this?” I ask, then the answer hits me.With the state of the world, who wouldn’t?
The Order leadership is corrupt but not complex. Four Headmistresses rule their Houses like dictators as long as they honor the Three Rites, Rules for Cotillion, and Internship. Most other matters are handled by the Dragunhead, not as their superior but as their equal. One transcontinental Order, five in power over it all.
And now one is dead. I swallow hard.
One was caught red-handed trying torobthe Sphere.
Another is a prisoner to her own son.
And the fourth is keeping her head down.
To make matters worse, the one protective force in charge of maintaining order and discipline has disbanded. Their leader has vanished.
“Literally everyone has a reason to be angry.”
“Things are out of hand,” he says. “In a way, I’ve done this.”
“Not our problem.” I rush over to the reception area. Behind a sleek wide desk are large office doors engraved with a crest bearing the sigils of each House. But the horror behind the desk stops me dead in my tracks. A body. Or the shell of one. A hollow suit of skin lies in the chair like a deflated balloon.
Jordan mutters under his breath, moving closer. My toushana bristles, tremoring, urging me backward, far away from whatever twisted magic this is.
“What happened to her?” I ask, but he is frozen in shock. “I’m sorry. You liked her, if I remember.”
Jordan doesn’t respond. He’s pulling open her desk drawers, which are all empty. Too clean. Then he tugs on a bottom drawer that won’t open. As he skims for a key, I pull on the thread of cold still buzzing in my veins, and to my relief a puff of toushana drips from my hands. It’s open in seconds.
Jordan pulls out a stack of photographs, all taken from the same vantage point, standing over a body at its feet. He flips through photos of the dead at various locations, with closed eyes and suns branded on their eyelids. Darkbearer attacks.
“She was looking into their return,” he says.
“But why hide evidence Darkbearers were on the rise?” This is the place where people investigate magical crime.
“I’m not sure.” Before he can take us another moment off track, I step into his path.
“The Shadow Cells. Knox. Police will come through those doors any moment, and there are all kinds of things here we don’t want to have to explain. Wehaveto go.Now.”
We rush toward the stairs to the lowest level of the building, underground, and my gut is in my throat. A cold seeps over my body so biting my bones shiver when we reach the basement floor. I fidget nervously, but my heart slows at the steep drop in temperature as the Shadow Cells come into view.
We walk the long aisle of cells sealed with a writhing veil of mist in place of a door. The curious vapor turns and twists like a curtain of smoke. I touch it carefully.
Blood drains from my limbs, and the bones in my hand throb. A scream bites my lips as I try to stretch my fingers, but I’ve lost all sense of feeling in them. My hand dangles from my wrist, unable to move.
Jordan reaches for me before closing his hand into a fist.“Quell,no—”
I rub my hand as blood rushes back to it, and I can flex it again. “What kind of magic is that?”
“It’s a way we’ve manipulated toushana to paralyze and repel. Stick with me.” He stops at a cell and flips out a fire dagger from his waist. Flames erupt from it before he slashes the veil in half to reveal a familiar woman in a metal chair.
“Knox!” I rush inside. Her cell is piled with trays of food covered in bugs and a nearly empty water trough leaking water across the floor. The last time I saw her, she’d found out Yagrin and I were lying to her about who we were and why we were at her safe house. She and Willam made Yagrin leave for the betrayal. I chose to leave as well to find my mom, but it still felt like saying goodbye to people who could have been like a family.
“Quell?” She blinks in the sudden light flooding her cell. “Is that really you?” She pulls me over with a tight tug at my wrist, studying me closely before a smile bows her lips. “It’s so good to see you again.”
“You’re okay.”
