Page 52 of Heartless Enemy

Levi tilted his head back and looked up at the windows on the floors above. Running a hand over his jaw, he considered.

“I’m not as proficient with the move as I would like,” he admitted. “Not yet, anyway. So creating something to reach the higher floors will take far too long. But yeah, I could create one that would reach the second floor in a couple of minutes since it’s about the same height as the defensive walls.”

“Do it.”

He nodded. And then got to work.

While Levi raised enormous amounts of metal and shaped them into crude steps, I kept an eye on our surroundings. Just because no guards had been here when we scouted it out didn’t mean that they would never come. Which was why we needed to get this done quickly.

Thankfully, though, the garden was still empty by the time Levi finished.

He didn’t show it, but I knew this required a lot of energy on his part, so I hurried up the steps the moment they were in place. He followed quickly.

We slowed down when we got closer to the top, and ducked our heads before peering into the window above. It led to what looked like an unused room. White sheets covered the few pieces of furniture that had been placed inside.

Because I was so accustomed to the crowded city of Malgrave, it was strange to see a spacious room that wasn’t even being used for anything. Though, with a castle as big as Helspire, I supposed that White had more rooms than he would even know what to do with.

Since there was no one inside to see us, I straightened and then tried to pull the window open. It groaned slightly in its hinges but didn’t budge. Tilting my head, I squinted in through the glass to see that it was secured from the inside by a latch.

“Can you melt it?” I asked, not turning to look at Levi. It was more of a polite suggestion since I obviously already knew that he could.

“No.”

I blinked. With eyebrows raised, I turned to stare at him in complete bafflement.

“I need to release the stairs first,” he explained.

My brows furrowed. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s two separate things. And as you know, everyone needs to release their first attack before summoning another.”

“But… Aren’t you some super special exception to that rule? I’ve seen you do it. Raise and lower multiple metal walls at the same time.”

A sly smile curled his lips, and he gave me a quick rise and fall of his eyebrows. “It’s a trick.” He chuckled at the shock that flashed across my face. “I’ll show you when we’re back in Malgrave. For now, just climb up onto the windowsill.”

I did as he said. It took a bit of maneuvering, but I managed to curl up at the edge of the windowsill so that Levi could climb onto it too.

Once we were squeezed together, he released the grip on the stairs. The block of metal faded into nothingness, leaving us stranded there on the ledge. A flash of panic rippled through me.

Levi only turned towards the window and touched his palms together.

Since we were taking up the entire windowsill, we would never have been able to open one of the windows to climb inside. So Levi melted the hinges on the window instead and pushed it inwards.

It creaked, almost falling to the floor inside. Levi quickly grabbed it and lowered it down gently instead. Then he squeezed through the now open side of the window. I edged along the windowsill and then climbed through.

Only once both my feet were firmly planted on the smooth marble floor inside did I release a long breath of relief. My heart pattered in my chest. That had been… more nerve-wracking than I had anticipated.

Levi arched an eyebrow in silent question.

I nodded, telling him that I was okay. Then I picked up the window and held it in place while he re-formed the hinges. Once it had been returned to its original state, we started towards the door.

Our boots whispered against the floor as we crossed the deserted room.

Only white sheets watched us as we edged the door open and glanced out.

A polished marble corridor met us on the other side.

We exchanged a glance.

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