“You can’t be serious,” said Devon. “The Order already took away Brant’s magic, and your—”
“I know what they took.” My trembling hands clenched. “But think about it. Who has all the answers, including my missing memories? Who has Cobb?”
Brant’s face went chalk white. “You can’t—”
“It’s this or give yourself up to the vampires,” I said. “I’ll hand you over myself—or you can help me break into the Order’s jail and find Cobb.”
Cobb would know who in the Order was involved in the conspiracy… and he’d know where whatever remained of the Crow’s allies would be hiding. Unlike Sledge, he hadn’t been a thick-headed foot-soldier. He’d been deeply involved with Dirk Alban’s schemes against the Order from the start.
The irony of the Death King and I working to save the very people who’d ruined both our lives was not lost on me. But Dirk Alban’s actions had left a trail of death behind them, and however cruel the Order’s punishment had been, I had to believe that those of us who’d stood up to him had been preventing something much worse.
Now all I had to do was lie through my teeth to get answers from someone who’d lost it all at the Order’s hands, and who would stop at nothing to take out the Death King.
I looked into Brant’s eyes. “You got out of the jail once, right? You know the way around, don’t you?”
“I guess,” he mumbled. “But how are you going to get into the jail without getting caught?”
I reached for my cantrip pouch. “With these.”
It took a solid twenty minutes of arguing to get Ryan to agree to my plan, and even now, Devon had her most judgemental face on. Brant, meanwhile, sat on the sofa wearing an expression which suggested he’d sell his soul for the Death King’s ability to teleport away from us.
Ryan and Dex had gone through the node to set up their diversion, which left it up to me to wait for the signal. On cue, my phone pinged with a message from Ryan telling me they’d travelled directly from the Death King’s realm to the node near the Order’s base, and Dex was preparing to unleash his diversion.
I, meanwhile, would be going into the Order alone, with Devon and Brant waiting on the other side of the node. I turned on the invisibility cantrip and my body vanished from sight. My senses heightened as I turned on my second cantrip, and all sounds were amplified, along with my vision.
Brant tried to pull me into an embrace, but I stepped aside the instant his fingers brushed my arm. “I’ll see you later.”
Then I stepped through the node, drawing in as much of its power as possible as I did so. Trix stood on the other side, ready to go through and take Brant with him to the Death King’s territory.
I headed towards the Order’s HQ, waiting for Dex’s signal. After a few seconds, a series of sparks flew from the lobby. Then Ryan’s magic blasted the doors open, giving me a free shot to run in, still invisible, between the security guards and into the building.
Pandemonium filled the lobby as a series of loud caws broke out from the back yard. I spotted Dex soaring gleefully overhead, having freed every one of the confiscated vampire chickens the Order had on their property.
I walked through the chaos, my sense-enhancing cantrips warning me of anyone in my path, then slipped into the elevator and pressed the button for the basement.
A hand rested on my shoulder. I spun around, glimpsing the outline of Brant’s shape with my enhanced eyesight.
“What are you doing?” I hissed. “If we get caught together—”
“We won’t, because we can’t be seen,” he insisted. “I know the lower levels of the Order inside out, Liv. I’ll make sure we get through without running into anyone.”
“Where’d you get that cantrip?” He must have an invisibility spell of his own if he’d given Trix the slip. The sneaky bastard.
“The market,” he said. “It won’t last long, but it should be enough. If I get caught alone, I’ll let them take me in so you can escape.”
“That’s a bloody terrible idea.” I couldn’t say I trusted him either, but he was here, and so was I. We had no choice but to go on.
The elevator ground to a halt and I stepped out into a bleak corridor with solid concrete floors and walls of metallic grey-silver. While I didn’t like to admit it, it was nice having someone at my back who actually knew their way around this part of the Order. Last time I’d been here, I’d been caught in a fog of missing memories and couldn’t recall anything substantial about the layout.
Pressure built at the back of my head the further I walked, as though a tight helmet slowly compressed my head around the sides.
“Can you feel that?” I whispered.
“What?” Brant murmured back. “Are you okay?”
A stabbing pain hit me behind the eyes. Images flickered to life in my mind as we entered yet another corridor, lined with heavy doors. Some doors were open, revealing blank-walled rooms. Interrogation chambers.
I’ve been here before.
The image of myself being steered down the corridor by Order guards flitted through my mind’s eye, and cold sweat trickled down my spine. They must have brought me here after finding me at the scene of the crime. Beside Dirk Alban’s dead body. In the next corridor, bars covered one wall, cutting off a row of holding cells.
Nausea swept over me, and for an instant, the lights dazzled my eyes and gave the impression of bloodstains on the walls.
The light flickered again, and Brant swore in a low voice. “Are you doing that?”
“Me? No.” I could hardly see straight. My vision doubled, while the world swayed to the side. I leaned on the wall for balance, and a fresh wave of images flitted through my mind.
Walking through the corridor flanked by guards.
Standing inside a cell looking at the wall, blood still on my hands.
Dark shapes moving around me. Cobb walking across my path, his gaze fixed somewhere on his feet. When he heard me pass, he looked at me with his eyes simmering with fury.
I flinched away. At the time, he’d been a stranger to me, and yet now my thoughts from the present mingled with the memory, a chill raced down my spine. He blamed me for his fate… blamed me for getting him caught.
He blamed me for Dirk Alban.
“This is all your fault!” he screamed at me, and his voice merged with Dirk Alban’s…
A sharp pain in my cheek brought me back to reality. I’d fallen against the wall, and Brant caught my arm.
“Liv? What’s wrong?”
“Something about this place is hurting me,” I whispered back.
Was it just the sense-enhancing cantrip I’d used, or was it the fact that this area was designed to contain spirit mages?
“Then we’ll go back,” he insisted. “It’s not worth hurting yourself over.”
“No—we must be close.” I trod further down the corridor, each step bringing a spike of pain as Brant’s fingers dug into my arm. “We’re here…”
We came to the end of the holding cells and to another corridor containing a row of heavy doors, each inset with a small barred window.
The one on the right lay open, revealing an empty cell with metallic-coloured walls. I peered inside, bewilderment filtering through the fog in my mind.
Then Brant appeared out of thin air beside me, cursing under his breath. His invisibility cantrip had burned out—but what was with the empty cell?
Cobb. Had the Order traded him to the vampires, too?
“Looking for me?” said a soft voice.
Mr Cobb stepped out into the corridor. He wore a plain grey uniform that matched the colour of the cell, but he was smiling. His gaze flickered over Brant with obvious satisfaction.
Brant stiffened. “What the hell are you doing out of your cage?”
“I should be asking you the same question,” he said. “I thought you were taken to the vampires to await trial, along with your beloved Olivia. Are you alone?”
“Yes,” he growled. “Yes, I’m al
one. Who let you out?”
He smiled, his eyes cold. “Didn’t you hear? The Order judged that I was not in my right mind during the events of two months ago. They pardoned me.”
No way. I looked from his cold stare to the box he carried, which contained a number of disc-like shapes gleaming with runes.
Brant backed up a step. “You can’t be serious. You murdered Order personnel. You nearly started a war. Who the hell set you free? What did you bribe them with?”
I’d never admit it, but I found myself fervently glad Brant was here, if just because he was proof that I wasn’t hallucinating Cobb’s presence entirely. They can’t have pardoned him. No damn way.
“The Order makes the laws, and they can be changed like… that.” He snapped his fingers. “Isn’t that why you were fighting for change? You wanted this. Unless you betrayed Olivia for nothing.”
Brant let out a hoarse scream and threw himself at Cobb. The box of cantrips fell to the ground, and it took every ounce of willpower I possessed not to join in the fray myself. Neither of them had any magic, so they could only fight with their fists. There must be something I can do.
Cobb was already free, which meant his allies in the Order must be acting openly. We’d got here too late to stop Dirk Alban’s allies, and revealing my presence would only hurt both of us.
I spotted a gleaming cantrip on the floor, which Cobb had dropped. While his attention was elsewhere, I picked it up, freezing mid-step when Cobb forced Brant backwards into the vacant holding cell. His mouth was bleeding, but his eyes glittered with triumph as he slammed the barred door on Brant.
“If you see Olivia before you die,” he said, “tell her she would be wise to consider her options. If she gives herself up, we can guarantee the safety of her loved ones—all of them. If not…”
A chill raced down my back. Did he know I was hidden nearby? Perhaps he did. After all, Brant would have no real reason to risk his safety by coming down here alone.
“Fuck that,” Brant spat. “It was your people who sent assassins to kill the vampires’ ambassadors, wasn’t it? You wanted to free me so Liv would take the blame.”
Footsteps pounded behind me. Cobb smiled, then he vanished. Dammit, he used a cantrip.
Two guards ran into view, and they zeroed in on Brant the instant he pushed his way out of the cell.
“Well, well,” said the guard. “Look who’s back. Guilty conscience?”
“I see you’ve put yourself back where you belong,” said the other guard. “I wonder if any other fugitives have turned themselves in?”
That was my cue to leave. I backed through the corridor until I came to a fire alarm, then broke the glass. I ran as soon as the alarm blared out, my footsteps buried in the howling sound. I skidded around a corner, hardly noting the pain as my enhanced senses protested at the noise coupled with the sensation of having my magic suppressed.
Brant had bought me time, and if I showed my face anywhere in the Order, they’d connect my appearance with Brant’s escape and lock both of us up. Cobb had vanished from sight—along with the cantrips he’d pillaged—and the best I could do was get everyone out of this building before he used them to mount an attack.
I set off two more alarms before reaching the elevator, slipping inside along with a guard patrol and trusting the blaring alarm to hide my heavy breathing. The two guards argued all the way up to the lobby, at which point I darted out and towards freedom. All I could do was hope that Cobb would get flushed out during the evacuation, but the fact remained that someone in this building had let him out of his cell.
Admittedly, Cobb was less dangerous on his own, invisible or not. He’d only managed to start a war because he’d had the Death King’s soul and an army of liches on his side. Speaking of whom, I didn’t see any sign of His Deathly Highness among the staff evacuating the Order’s headquarters. Either he’d used his lich trick to vanish into the Parallel again, or he’d been elsewhere.
He couldn’t possibly have known Cobb walked free… right?
I left the Order’s headquarters and hurried back towards the node, my mind whirling. Was Cobb seriously threatening my family back then? Had he known I was there, and was he trying to imply that if I died, my family would live? It sounded like an empty threat, but who knew?
Nobody waited at the node, so I travelled through into the living room and found myself levitated into the air.
“Shit!” Ryan let go of me, and I landed in a heap on the sofa. “Don’t scare me like that. I thought the Order took you.”
“So did I.” Devon backed up next to Trix, her eyes wide. “When Brant didn’t come back…”
“They took him.” I crawled off the sofa and straightened upright. “The Order took him. He gave himself up, but Cobb—he’s free, and he’s roaming around the Order at will.”
“Whoa,” said Devon. “They freed Cobb? What are they on?”
“Someone did, but I don’t think it was a unanimous decision.” I removed the cantrip from my pocket with shaking hands. “This is what Cobb was stealing from the Order.”
“Huh.” Devon flicked the switch, and my skin tingled, but nothing happened. “Weird.”
“You just… hit the button?” Ryan said. “What if it had decapitated you?”
“It wouldn’t have.”
“Thanks a bunch!” Dex appeared in a flash of sparks. “You ditched me.”
“I thought you’d already left after you released the vampire chickens,” I said. “Nice job, by the way.”
“You can’t distract me with compliments,” he said. “Where’s fire-boy?”
“Gone.” A hollow feeling filled my chest. “The Order took him. Cobb had an invisibility cantrip. He vanished the instant the guards showed up. But he was roaming around the cells for a reason.”
“And risking recapture by stealing this crap?” Devon tossed the cantrip into the air and caught it again. “Must be valuable. I’ll take it apart and see.”
“Go ahead.” Guilt swirled inside me. The Death King would be pissed at me for ridding him of the chance to lock up Brant himself, but I couldn’t help wondering if he’d known about Cobb’s escape. What were his meetings with the Order really about?
Was he involved after all? Surely not, given that they held links with the same people who had condemned the House of Spirit to a fate worse than death.
The Order had done that. The legal side of the Order. I understood why Cobb wanted to burn them all down, I’d say that much. But that didn’t mean I’d let him get away with threatening my friends and family.
“I don’t understand.” Trix eyed the cantrip anxiously. “I thought the Order found him guilty.”
“Someone in there overruled the decision.” Which suggested he had friends in high places. “Not like we can give them a warning without ending up condemned ourselves.”
He could do a lot of damage as a free man, but he still had no magic of his own—and it had been the Death King who’d been his original target. He’d needed his soul amulet and the magic which came along with it. Which meant there was a strong chance that at least one of the remaining fire mages in the castle had been sent by Cobb to finish the job his former allies had failed to complete, and to claim the soul of the King of the Dead.
Tomorrow was the last chance the enemy had to target the Death King’s contest and bring their forces directly into his castle. Whether the Death King himself knew or not, we had to be ready for them.
16
I was too shaken by the day’s events to sleep properly, let alone astral project. Going near the Order seemed like tempting fate, even though I wanted to know who among them had given Cobb the freedom he desired. Questions circled my mind like vultures, and I rose feeling less rested than I had before I’d lain down.
Downstairs, I found Devon sitting in the living room surrounded by bits of broken metal.
“Got the cantrip to work, then?” I asked.
“No, and now my other ones are playing up, too.” Sh
e grunted. “Have fun with His Deathly Highness.”
I groaned. “I still haven’t told him why Sledge is in his jail, let alone this new crap.”
Devon waved me off. “Good luck.”
I stepped through the node—or I would have, if I’d been able to sense the current of energy. Instead, I remained standing in the same place. “Huh?”
“What?” asked Devon.
“The node.” I reached for the energy again, only to find nothing waiting for me on the other side. “Did the node switch off?”
Devon frowned. Then she picked up the cantrip I’d taken from Cobb. “My other cantrips have been acting up all night. I wonder…”
“Wait, you turned off the node?” I said. “When you hit the button?”
“Must have,” she said. “Why would the Order have something like that in their headquarters?”
“I don’t know, but Cobb was carrying a whole box of cantrips.” I couldn’t think why he’d want to turn off nodes, but the guy didn’t do anything without reason.
“Shit,” she said. “How are you going to get to the Death King’s castle, then?”
“I can use another node,” I said. “I just hope the effect isn’t permanent.”
She frowned at the cantrip. “It might wear off by itself. Most cantrips do.”
“Can I take that with me?” I reached out a hand. “I think the others should know what Cobb was stealing.”
“Go ahead.” She pressed the cantrip into my palm.
In truth, I didn’t completely trust Devon not to run around shutting down the other local nodes out of curiosity, but the Death King needed to know about the most recent development. If nothing else, if someone tried to escape through a node again, it’d be a good way to bring them to a halt.
The nearest node to my house was a few streets away, which wasn’t too much of a walk, but I half expected to find the Order waiting on the doorstep when I went outside. Even if they hadn’t suspected me of breaking into their headquarters, I was on thin ice after Brant’s escape already.
Trial of Shadows (Order of the Elements Book 3) Page 16