Page 20 of Devoted

The three of us stumbled through the storage room, emerging onto the dock in a disorganized tangle of sweaty arms and legs, relief surging through me until I realized two things. The boat was gone.

So were Emberline and Luca.

A dozen figures burst from the stacks of rotting boxes, seven Ashbound and Lord Blackwood’s personal guard in their prissy black uniforms, living shadows twining around their gloved hands. Shadows I recognized all too well, with the same creeping horror I would recognize my own death.

No, no, no.

Fear became a living thing, writhing in my gut as I studied their necks… Oh gods, black veins outlined beneath their skin. I swallowed hard, frantically searching their uniforms for…

All five of them had silver stars.

On their lapels.

Fear choked the warning from my throat when they formed a defensive line, and behind that barrier of thick, burly bodies lurked the Ashbound, a secondary defense, embers floating around their skeletal forms.

Gabriel cursed. “So much for an easy escape.”

But I wasn’t even looking at the Ashbound. Those guards were the real threat. All I saw was that splat of tarry black on the wall, glistening magic oozing down the wall like sap.

And the trail of black goo tracked across the dusty dock, leading into one of the open corridors.

Then I smelled Emberline’s blood. Sweet and rich, tinged with citrus. My breathing went wonky, logic disappearing into a smear of mindless fear and panic.

No bodies. There were no bodies.

The boat was gone. They got out.

They must have escaped.

My hand shook so much, I nearly dropped my weapon. “We have to leave,” I grabbed Gabriel’s shoulder, fingers digging into tensed muscle. “And we have to get out of here now.”

He shook me off. “Not without Emberline and Luca. Do you see them?”

“They aren’t here,” I stayed focused on that oozing black mark. “The boat’s gone, so they must have escaped. We’ll have to dematerialize with Rocco. We don’t have a choice.”

But there was no clear way out and those guards… there were five of them.

Five.

I didn’t have time to explain how dangerous they were. What they were capable of. “Stay down.” I shoved Rocco behind a broken crate and wrapped a cocoon of shadows around him. “Don’t fucking move.”

And still, I didn’t take my eyes off that dripping black spot, ducking low, scanning shadows and corners, looking for something that shouldn’t even exist.

Where did it go?

Maybe it hadn’t hatched.

Sometimes, they didn’t hatch.

As one, the five guards raised their leather-gloved hands, palms out, dark shadows twining around their hands like living serpents. I didn’t have time to shout a warning before they attacked. But not with weapons.

With magic.

Streaks of inky darkness rocketed above us, and I tackled Gabriel to the ground, my ears hollowing out as their magic collided with the stone behind us like battering rams. Boom, boom, boom. One of the beams overhead collapsed, bricks and cement and choking dust crashing onto the dock.

“Fuck,” Gabriel swore. “Let me up.” But I kept him pinned down, squinting through the swirling dust, trying to see where the magic landed, trying to see how many…

Out of the swirling dust, an Ashbound lunged, claws extended like knives.