Traces of Sulfur: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Series (Blade Keeper Academy Book 1)

by Madeline Freeman

  “Get inside as quickly as you can,” Liza said. “I’ve got a couple guards heading in your direction, but they’re still about forty seconds out.”

  My throat went dry as Derek reached for the handle of the last door on the right. He twisted it, but the door didn’t open.

  “Give me your lock pick,” Derek said, holding his hand out to me.

  His words took me by surprise. “My what?”

  He turned, his eyes wide. “You didn’t bring your lock pick?”

  “You mean the one you borrowed after losing yours?” I shot back. “You haven’t returned it. I figured you brought it.”

  He winced. “I thought I gave it back to you.”

  I gaped. “You didn’t. What are we going to do?”

  “Is there a problem?” Liza asked. “Company in thirty seconds.”

  “We could break the window and open the door from inside,” Derek suggested.

  “Are you insane? The guards will notice that.”

  “You know what else they’ll notice? Us standing in the middle of the hall. Have you got a better idea?”

  “Visual contact in twenty seconds,” Liza noted.

  I couldn’t believe it. We were mere feet from our goal, and—once again—the mission’s objective was just out of reach. Frustration bubbled in the pit of my stomach. We needed to find somewhere to hide—to lie low and figure out our next steps.

  The static crackle of a walkie-talkie floated through the air, turning my blood to ice. “All units.” Although the voice was distant and quiet, it was clear enough to make out. “Potential roof breach. Someone tranqued Keats. All available units, respond.”

  I wiped my hands down my face. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse.

  Panic sparked a plan in my mind. I spun on my heel and gripped the nearest doorknob. It didn’t twist, so I moved on to the next one.

  Derek stared at me like I was crazy, but when the knob fourth twisted, I pushed the door open and gestured for him to follow.

  The room we found ourselves in was just as dark as the last one, and it took my eyes a moment to adjust to the gloom after the hallway’s glare. Unlike the last room we were in, this one clearly saw regular use. The desk had wire baskets marked In and Out on the upper right corner. A large desk calendar dominated most of the space, and pens littered the surface.

  Not sure we had enough time to haul ourselves into the ducts overhead, I lunged for the desk and pulled the chair out of its resting place.

  “We should stay up here,” called a voice from the hallway. “If someone really is in the building, we can’t have everybody on the roof.”

  I held my breath as darted under the desk. “Derek,” I hissed. “Find somewhere…”

  Before I could get the words out, Derek jammed himself beneath the desk with me. “Seriously?”

  “Where else am I supposed to go?” he whispered.

  I sighed, but I couldn’t argue. I hadn’t spotted any other obvious hiding places, and it wasn’t as if we had the luxury of time to look.

  For the moment, we were safe. The guard outside the door hadn’t seemed interested in searching rooms. And if he did, Derek still had his tranq gun. Nothing about this situation was ideal, but we were too close to give up now.

  We would have to wait and hope for another chance.

  Chapter Seven

  The guards remained on our floor for an hour before Liza hit us with some bad news: the drone’s battery was almost dead.

  “I need to get it back to the bunker or it’ll crash—and the last thing we want is the guards around City Hall to find it. I don’t give angels much credit, but a drone with a thermal imaging camera on it is pretty suspicious,” she said.

  “And there’s a chance they could trace the signal back to you,” Derek murmured. “We understand. We’ll stay here until you can get another bird in the air.”

  “Another?” Liza snorted. “Even if we had a second drone that could make it all the way to you without being noticed, I’m not about to try to attach the camera to something else. It took Eden hours yesterday to make sure the drone was stable enough to fly. I might as well charge it up.”

  “So we’re just stuck here?” Derek asked.

  “Looks like it,” Liza said. “Sit tight, you two. There was initially a bunch of commotion around a room on the second floor, but there hasn’t been much movement in the last half hour. You’re lucky they seem to think no one made it into the building. The guards are holding steady in the center of the main hall on your floor. As long as you stay quiet, they shouldn’t come poking around.”

  She didn’t say goodbye, but she didn’t need to. The line fell silent, and my gaze drifted to Derek. Although the space was cramped, there were few people I’d rather be stuck under here with.

  Silence filled the room like a physical presence. Although I knew we needed to stay quiet, the thought of not speaking for what could be hours made my skin itch. “What do you think is in there?”

  Derek’s eyes flicked to me. “In where?”

  “That room on the second floor. Liza said when they first thought someone had broken in, they went to check on a room on the second floor. What do you think is in there?”

  He tipped his head back against the thin black metal of the desk. “I haven’t given it much thought.”

  I knew Derek well enough to know he wasn’t in the mood for conversation, but I couldn’t rein in my need to talk. “The guard on the roof mentioned something about the Aether Blade. Any idea what that could be?”

  Derek’s brow furrowed. “It’s the fifth of the Eternity Blades.”

  Although his expression made it clear he thought I should know what he meant, the term didn’t ring a bell. “The what?”

  The corner of his mouth quirked in a bemused sort of way. “The Eternity Blades. You know—the ones the Blade Keepers use.” When his words didn’t elicit the appropriate reaction, he shook his head. “The Keepers? Angelkind’s most elite warriors?”

  I lifted a shoulder. “Sorry. I don’t keep up much with who’s-who of the angelic world.”

  “You should,” he insisted. “You’ve got to know your enemy.”

  His word choice hit me the way it always did, causing my stomach to twist. I’d never heard Liza or Marco use the word to describe angels, but Derek seemed to have it in his head that demons were diametrically opposed to them. I wasn’t sure I believed that. Did angels treat demons poorly? Sure. And there was no love lost on the demon side toward angels. But that didn’t make our kinds automatic enemies. Liza and Marco worked with fallen angels frequently, and many of our medicine drops were for nephilim, who were half angel.

  Part of me wanted to press in and dig down into his thoughts about angels being the enemy, but I didn’t think this was the venue for the discussion. Instead, I shifted the conversation. “Well, we’ve got time. Tell me about the Keepers.”

  Derek released a heavy breath, but even in the darkness, I detected a glint in his eyes. One thing Derek loved more than almost any other was being considered an authority on a subject. “Well, like I said, there angelkind’s most elite group of warriors. They each have a special sword. There are five Blades—Aura, Ignis, Terra, Unda, and Aether. But it’s been…” He lifted his palms. “…generations since all five had their Keeper.”

  I scoffed. “With all the guards they train, they can’t find five good enough to call elite?”

  He shook his head. “They don’t find the Keepers. The Blades do. There’s this whole ceremony. And if the Aether Blade is here now, I guess that means it’s ready to pick its latest Keeper.” He sucked his teeth. “I don’t like it.”

  I scoffed. “Why do you care?”

  His face tightened and a muscle in his jaw jumped as he chewed on his words. “The Keepers exist to control us. They’re stronger than ordinary ethereals. It’s something about the thaumaturgy within the Blades themselves. They were forged in the eternal realm, and somehow the Keepers draw power from there
.”

  I shivered in spite of myself. But there was a flaw in his story. “If the angels have some super soldiers on their side, why don’t they, like, unveil them and make everyone fall in line?”

  “Maybe they will once they find the fifth.”

  “Like four super-strong warriors aren’t enough?”

  He threw up his hands, smacking my thigh in the process due to our close quarters. “Don’t ask me why angels do what they do. Maybe it’s because they’re all young. Around your age, I think.”

  I snorted. “So these special swords from the eternal realm picked four seventeen-year-olds to be angelkind’s protectors? Sounds legit.”

  He shrugged. “I guess there’s a reason. There’s a reason for everything, right? Even this.” He gestured between us.

  Heat rose in my cheeks, and I was thankful for the darkness. “What? The two of us trapped under a desk with angels outside the door?”

  “The two of us having some uninterrupted time together,” he clarified.

  My face went from warm to positively flaming in the space of a breath. “Derek…”

  “Tell me it never crosses your mind.” He paused, but I didn’t respond. “For a long time, I convinced myself that you were just too young when we got together, but now I realize that we were both too young. Things could be different now. We could make it work.”

  I tried to swallow, but my mouth dried up like desert sand. Maybe Derek was right. Maybe we had been too young when we explored the possibility of being a couple. I was only fifteen, and although Derek had just turned eighteen, he was still raw from losing his father and jaded from his time on the street. I romanticized what we could be, desperate to experience my first kiss and focused more on having a boyfriend than making our relationship work. And it would be a lie to say I hadn’t thought about starting over. But with the restlessness within me lately, I wasn’t sure we’d be any better off this time than we were before.

  I let out a breath. “I don’t think we should make any decisions tonight.”

  He nodded, hugging his legs closer to his chest. “You’re probably right. But we should talk when this is over.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, we should.”

  He adjusted his arms, tightening his grip around his legs. “I’m going to try to catch a bit of sleep. You up for taking first watch?”

  “Of course.” Given our current situation, I wasn’t sure I could fall asleep anyway. I shifted as much as I could to get comfortable before settling in. It was going to be a long night.

  Chapter Eight

  The first gray rays of light had brightened the sky before Liza contacted us again. “I haven’t heard anything from you, so I assume no one captured you.”

  I pressed my comm to activate the microphone. “Good morning to you, too.”

  “It took longer than anticipated to get this thing back in the air. You’re going to have to look at it when you get back.”

  Derek stirred. His eyelids fluttered, but they didn’t open.

  “Where’s the drone now? Can you see us? Is it safe to get the medicine?” I shook my head to cast off the vestiges of sleepiness still clouding my mind. I’d tried to wake Derek for his shift on watch, but I hadn’t been able to rouse him. Although I was certain I’d drifted off a few times, the bits of sleep I snatched weren’t nearly enough to have me firing on all cylinders. I just hoped that once I was able to get the blood flowing in my extremities again, it would give me enough to power through and finish the mission before…

  A jolt of panic sent my heart galloping. “What time is the person from Amberg supposed to be here to pick up the package?”

  “I’m not entirely sure that’ll be happening,” Liza said. “It’s been all over the news this morning. The chancellor isn’t giving a speech like they’d been promoting. Apparently the Aether Blade is ready to select its new Keeper. They’re holding the trials there today.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “We heard one guard talking about the Blade last night.”

  “According to the news, there’s already a line forming,” Liza said. “I’ll have a better sense of just how many people are out there in a minute. The drone is almost in range.”

  I nudged Derek, who muttered incoherently. If Liza would be in position soon, we needed to be ready to move. “Derek,” I whispered, jostling his shoulder. “Time to wake up.”

  He groaned. “Just a little longer…”

  I shook him harder, ignoring his request. “Get up. And be quiet.”

  His face scrunched, but he finally opened his eyes. After a few baffled blinks, his expression changed from confusion to recognition. Muttering something about the mission, he pushed the desk chair back and climbed out from our cramped hiding space.

  I followed as soon as he was out of the way. My legs burned and tingled as blood rushed back to my muscles. I sat with my legs stretched out in front of me and rubbed my thighs, but it did little to relieve the pins-and-needles sensation.

  “All right. The drone’s in place,” Liza said, causing Derek to jump with surprise.

  “Get away from the window,” I hissed. The vertical blinds were pulled closed, but angled to let in some light. The last thing we needed was someone spotting Derek and sending a team to investigate.

  “The line is… Well, it’s long,” Liza said. “It stretches down and around the block. It’s growing by the second. Luckily, the line is on the opposite side of the building as you. After you grab the meds, I’ve got an escape plan.”

  I activated my microphone. “Is this floor clear?”

  “Aren’t you forgetting something?” Derek asked, folding his arms over his chest. “The door is locked. How are we supposed to get in?”

  My chest tightened around my lungs. He was right. The locked door was the whole reason we had spent the night here instead of back home. Cautiously, I got my feet under me, pleased when my still-rubbery right foot accepted my weight. I surveyed the desktop, but there wasn’t anything useful littering the surface. I pulled out the center drawer and grinned. Jackpot. After selecting two paper clips, I held them out to him.

  “Second floor is clear,” Liza said as Derek accepted at the tools I proffered. “The last two guards just went downstairs.” She paused. “On the news it looks like they’re getting ready to let people in. This might be the best chance you two have.”

  Derek nodded as he twisted the clips to straighten them. “All right, then. Let’s go.”

  I allowed him to take the lead as we moved to the door and snuck through the hall. As I waited for Derek to pick the lock on our target door, the feeling finally returned to my foot, lessening a bit of my anxiety from being out in the open like this.

  After what felt like forever, the lock finally clicked and Derek pushed open the door. The office beyond had the same desk and the same vertical blinds as the room we’d just left, but there were more touches of personality here. The desktop displayed pictures of children grinning gap-tooth smiles and a man and woman beaming into the camera. A thin rectangular table lined the wall opposite the desk. On it stood a glass vase bursting with orange, red, and yellow flowers. I assumed they were silk, but I didn’t have the time to check.

  “Do you have eyes on the package?” Liza asked as I closed the door behind us.

  Derek activated his mic. “Negative. Are we sure this is the right room?”

  “According to Chamberlain, it should be here. Look around—carefully.”

  Derek strode further inside and began opening drawers on a tall gray filing cabinet.

  I scanned the room. The owner of this office hadn’t wanted to leave the medicine out in the open, but I doubted it had been out of fear of it being stolen. If they’d worried it was a target for theft, they wouldn’t have left it here at all—they would have scheduled a meeting and ensure proper security the whole way.

  After checking the top three drawers, Derek moved to the bottom one on the cabinet. “So, are you just going to stand there or…” He jiggled the handle. �
�This one’s locked. I bet this is where they put it.”

  Before I could argue, he crouched down and began fishing around in the lock with his paper clips.

  As he worked, I couldn’t shake the feeling he was wrong. We were inside City Hall in search of something precious few people knew would be here. It seemed more likely someone stashed the case out the way. If the orderly desktop was any indication, the person who inhabited this office liked to keep things tidy.

  Like the desk we’d been crammed beneath, this one had five drawers. I pulled open the large bottom drawer on the right side. Several file folders—each neatly labeled—hung within. I almost slid it closed once I reached the halfway point, figuring it was filled with paperwork, but I glimpsed something red before I could. Pulling the drawer out all the way, I spotted a red box like the ones Liza and Marco sometimes used to carry multiple vials of medicine.

  “I’ve got it,” I whispered.

  Derek barely glanced over his shoulder. “Are you sure? Because I really think…”

  Ignoring him, I set the box atop the desk and undid the front clasp. I opened the lid and pulled out one vial. “Vigovis. That’s it, right?” I tapped my comm. “Liza, I’ve got it. You said to take two vials, right?”

  “Yes,” Liza said. “Now grab it and get out of there.”

  Abandoning his lock-picking, Derek joined me at the desk. He studied the box for a moment before reaching for it. Before I could ask what he was doing, he lifted the upper layer of vials to reveal a second beneath it. “There’s got to be fifty bottles of this stuff here. We should take more than two.”

  I shook my head. “Liza said two. Now let’s put this back and get out of here.”

  “She’s right, Derek,” Liza said. “You have what you came for.”

  Derek jabbed his comm to turn on the microphone. “We should take it all.”

  “That’s not the mission,” Liza said, her voice tight. “Marco is the only one we know with B4. We’re not going to hoard it when there are people who need that medicine now.”