Merlin's Children (The Children and the Blood) (42 page)

Their footsteps became the only sounds. After a while, the floor leveled out, though nothing else changed. Darkness pressed at them and the air felt too close, as though, if they weren’t careful, it would run out. The concrete ceiling hung low, a thin sheen of moisture clinging to it and reflecting the blue lights.

“Who built this?” Harris whispered to Brentworth. “You?”

She closed her eyes briefly, fighting back the urge to snap at him to stop using the air.

“When we established Chaunessy as a possible hideout eight years ago, yes,” Brentworth answered. “It seemed prudent that, in any given location, we create a method to evacuate those for whom portals are not an option, should they happen to be with us during an attack.”

A few steps ahead, she saw Cole look away.

She tried not to wince. The math was obvious, the implication more so, and neither were the point. Not fully, anyway. The wizards were going to use portals to get through Chaunessy the moment they arrived. Meanwhile, Cole would be left in the basement, without any defenses to speak of, seventy-odd floors from where the Merlin would be trying to end the war.

But it didn’t matter. Reality of the situation be damned, she knew that just like her, there wasn’t a chance in hell he would’ve stayed behind.

“You sure it’s still sound?” Harris pressed, interrupting her thoughts.

Brentworth gave him a wry look, but he didn’t answer.

She swallowed and kept walking.

Minutes crawled past with all the energy of dying slugs, leaving cloying moisture that clung to her skin and slid in itchy droplets down her face. The air thickened, becoming hard to inhale, and on the shadows the blue glow danced, revealing nothing but the same endless stretch of concrete she’d crossed for the past thousand steps or more.

The floor began to slope upward.

A short gasp escaped her, and the others walked faster, even as she did the same. Climbing swiftly, they reached the top of the incline, where the tunnel came to an end in a featureless concrete wall.

Stepping around Brentworth, Elias reached for a hatch in the low ceiling.

His hand froze an inch from the handle. He swore.

“Barrier,” he whispered.

Cornelius turned his face away as though restraining the urge to curse as well.

“I… why would they…” Brentworth started, his composure cracking as he stared at the hatch. “There’s no reason for this. It’s underground. No one could possibly get a portal around the wall defenses to–”

“Obviously,” Elias interrupted. “They’re thorough.” He glanced to Harris. “Can you get us past it?”

The detective scanned the ceiling, a helpless expression flashing across his face. “No keypad. I can’t–”

Elias cut him off with a gesture, already looking to Nathaniel, who glanced down at her.

“Like hell,” she answered the implicit suggestion.

Cornelius closed his eyes, shaking his head at her, and then turned to Elias. “Break through it. We move quickly and bypass as many levels toward the security office as we can.”

“They’ll know the moment you do that,” Harris protested.

Cornelius’ expression made his knowledge of the fact clear.

“You don’t have another plan?”

The wizard ignored him, turning to Brentworth. “How close is the nearest location for a portal?”

“About thirty feet down the hall in either direction,” the old man answered. “Eastern door leads to the stairs. Western to a supply closet. Either are deep enough to hold a portal.”

Cornelius nodded and looked back to Elias.

“Give me my gun,” Harris broke in before he could speak.

The wizard regarded him flatly.

“Give me my gun,” the detective repeated. “If you’re bringing half the building down on us, I’m damn well going to need a weapon.” He glanced to the guards, finding the one who’d been with Gavin when they searched him at the parking garage. “Well?”

The guard looked to Elias questioningly.

“Just stay out of the way,” Elias said.

Harris scoffed incredulously, and then his gaze caught on Cole. “No,” he stated, shaking his head. “You’re
not
doing this and leaving us defenseless–”

“Give it to him,” Ashe interrupted.

Elias turned to her. She didn’t take her eyes from Harris. Breathing hard, the man looked like there were few worse things he could consider beyond being stuck in a hallway with wizards hell-bent on killing him and anyone else in their path.

“He has a point,” she said quietly.

“Your majesty,” Cornelius protested.

She looked down, the gun tucked in the back of her jeans feeling heavier than any weapon ever had. With a sharp breath, she tugged it out and extended it to Cole.

He blinked, his brow drawing down in wary surprise, but he took the gun.

“Do it,” she said to the guard harshly.

The man looked from her to the councilmen, and then pulled out the weapon and handed it to Harris.

“So we going?” she asked Cornelius.

He stared at her as though he couldn’t believe what she’d just done. She turned to Elias, arching an eyebrow in tacit repetition of the question.

Elias shook his head at her disbelievingly. “Punching past that thing won’t hold long,” he said to Cornelius.

The wizard grimaced. “As I said,” he replied. “Quickly.”

Elias met his eyes, and then his mouth tightened. “Yeah.” He glanced to the others. “You heard the man.”

He drew a breath and then lifted a hand toward the hatchway. A wry expression passed over his face.

Magic slammed into the hatch and crackled out across the ceiling, throwing sparks as it went. She ducked low, the others around her doing the same, as the electrical storm chewed at the invisible edges of the barrier, driving them back farther and farther till Elias finally dropped his hand with a gasp.

“Move!” he ordered.

Nathaniel didn’t have to be told twice. Grabbing her arm, he hauled her toward the tunnel’s end as a guard rushed the hatch and threw it wide.

The barrier was already expanding back toward them.

Like a tide sweeping in on all sides, the shield raced to fill the gap blown open by Elias’ magic. She could almost see it coming as Nathaniel took her waist and hoisted her swiftly after the guards through the opening, and as she tumbled to the basement floor, she felt it rush by her through the dark concrete. Cornelius and Elias leapt after him, propelled by magic as much as muscle, with Cole and Harris scrambling through the hatchway on their heels.

A shriek rang through the hall. She shoved off the ground, staring in confused horror.

In the hatch, a guard hung suspended halfway through the blue-green pool of opalescent magic filling the opening.

Nathaniel snagged her arm, spinning her back toward him as the screaming began and the smell of burning flesh permeated the air. “Go!” he barked roughly.

The wizards ran past her, racing for the storage closet.

Shadows swallowed the doorway before they’d made it ten feet. The guards skidded, their magic surrounding them, as Cornelius turned for the stairs.

A portal was already appearing behind them.

Taliesin poured into the hall.

Magic flew at her from both sides, striking her defenses hard. Lightning came from everywhere, lashing out at the Merlin and ripping back into the Taliesin, and the cinder-block walls disintegrated into ballistic debris from the blasts. Bullets hit shields, ricocheting away to meet magic with explosions of their own, and all around her, people were yelling.

She looked back, spotting Cole and Harris crouched against the wall with Brentworth ducked nearby.

Electricity raced at them.

She ripped it from the air and threw it at the Taliesin by the stairwell.

“Run!” she shouted.

Harris grabbed Cole’s arm and bolted for the stairs as the portal vanished.

Magic hit her from behind, crackling over her defenses and making her stumble. Immediately, Cornelius struck back, and she heard screams as the attackers fell.

“Get us out of here!” he yelled at Elias.

More Taliesin rounded the corners at either end of the hall.

She swore, setting them on fire as Elias flung a hand toward the closet doorframe. Shadows enveloped the doorway with impossible speed.

“Go!” Elias shouted.

The Merlin raced for the portal.

Taking the steps two at a time, Cole chased Harris up the stairs.

He couldn’t believe they’d just left the wizards.

Grabbing the banister, he whipped around the landing and drove himself up another flight. Rough metal scraped at his palm and his legs already were beginning to burn. Endless steps spiraled away above him, twisting into oblivion like a surrealist painting from hell, and somehow, he had to make it to the top.

He hated wizards. Of course they’d come in on the bottom floor; they didn’t have to worry about little things like gravity and distance with portals at their disposal. And it wasn’t like elevators were an option. Not with the magic-wielding crowd tearing everything apart. He remembered how that went all too well.

He couldn’t believe they’d just left.

“We get to the security office on the fifteenth,” Harris called. “You don’t say anything. Let me do the explaining.”

Cole kept running. Harris wouldn’t want to hear his response anyway.

An explosion reverberated up the stairwell as a door five floors below blew outward and tumbled to the basement, taking part of the banister with it. Debris strafed the walls and shouts rose, indistinguishable over the distance. Catching himself on the rail, he stared down for a heartbeat before realizing he’d stopped.

He couldn’t believe they’d…

Ashe could take care of herself.

A ragged breath escaped him as he shoved away from the railing and propelled himself up the next flight of stairs. Ashe was a crazy-powerful wizard. For all he knew, that blast had come from her. Plus, she had over a dozen bodyguards at her side. She’d be fine.

And he had to stop this before things got any worse.

Air grated on his lungs as they passed another floor. People were killing each other down there, and more outside Chaunessy as well. People were dying all around him; people he knew. And while he wished he could just not give a damn about them, because God knew it would be easier, that didn’t change the truth.

He couldn’t let this happen. He couldn’t let his dad…

The door on the level above burst open and slammed into the concrete wall.

“– the
hell
they made it to the seventh floor!”

He skidded to a stop at the sound of Brogan’s voice and, a few steps ahead, Harris did the same. The detective looked back frantically, thoughts racing almost visibly across his face, and then he abandoned the stairs to rush down to Cole’s side.

“Don’t say a word,” Harris hissed, grabbing his arm. “Just look angry.”

It wasn’t hard to follow the command.

“You get your people down there and kill the–”

The giant cut off, coming to a sharp stop at the sight of them, and the eyes of the wizards trailing him went wide.

“Found him running from the fight downstairs,” Harris explained tersely.

His anger became anything but feigned, and Cole felt his face darkening.

Brogan’s mismatched eyes narrowed at the reaction. Curtly, he motioned to the other wizards. His gaze never left Cole as they rushed past him, aiming for the destruction below.

“Is that true?” the giant asked, descending the stairs more slowly.

Silence was the only answer he could give. The alternatives would probably get him or Harris killed.

The wizard’s lip twitched coldly.

“I was taking him to the fifteenth floor,” Harris continued, and Cole could hear caution enter his tone.

“Why?”

“Safety. Seemed the most secure place, and I figured Jamison’s priority would be to keep him protected.”

The cold humor surfaced again. “Yes,” Brogan agreed quietly. “Yes, it would be.”

Something dark slithered beneath the giant’s tone, and at the sound, Cole felt Harris’ grip tighten on his arm. “I’ll just get him up there, then,” the detective said, starting toward the steps.

Brogan’s hand shot out, snagging Cole and bringing them both to a halt. “No. Head back downstairs. I’ll take care of the king’s son.”

Harris hesitated. “You’re probably a lot more needed down there than I am…”

“Are you suggesting one of the Blood should guard a hallway rather than the heir to the throne?” Brogan asked, his gaze sliding to Harris and his voice dangerously low.

The detective tensed. “No, of course not. I–”

He glanced over. Behind his eyes, Cole could see the calculations run, coming up with nothing.

“You know,” Harris amended, “forget it. Sorry. The explosions…”

He gave a chagrined chuckle and then released Cole and stepped back, hands raised. “You’re right. I’ll get to it.”

Brogan ignored him. Without a word, he turned, yanked open the nearest door, and then headed into the hallway. Cole stumbled after him, having no choice but to follow or lose his arm. He saw Harris staring after them both, his pretense of embarrassment melting into something far closer to an unarticulated curse, and then the door slammed closed.

With the intractability of a steamroller, Brogan strode down the hall, and Cole twisted in his grasp, trying to find his feet as the wizard plowed ahead.

“What are you–” he started.

Brogan walked faster.

At a speed barely short of a run, they rounded the corner and headed for the elevator. Cole exhaled sharply, wanting to balk and knowing there was no point. At the moment, he’d have better luck dislodging a pit bull from his arm.

Besides, beyond his magic, Brogan had well over a hundred pounds and damn near a foot of height on him. If the bastard wanted him dead, there were a lot more direct ways of going about it than sticking him in an elevator in the middle of a war zone.

At the wizard’s summons, the door rushed open. Striding inside, Brogan ignored the elevator’s controls, reaching instead for the maintenance panel, and the hinges broke as he ripped open the small door. Dismissively, he tossed the panel away, his attention on a keypad grafted to the multicolored wires. The buttons tripped over one another to beep in response to his jabs, and then a burst of magic left the wizard’s hand, chasing across the wires to disappear into the walls.