“There are rumours she’s in the Southside slums. But we are still looking,” Tom said, “please Leo, knock me out or something.” His skin rippled as his body tried to shift. I could see the change under his skin. Hair began to sprout in grey tufts. He moaned in agony as he fought the change.
Slade hit him hard in the side of his head with the hilt of his sword, dropping him cold.
I looked at my fallen brother, feeling sick. Slade quickly trussed him up and dragged him into an alleyway.
Fucking Ashton and his magic.
“We knew this wouldn’t be easy,” Slade murmured to me. I forced a nod. It was still hard to see.
Phoenix met us at the edge of the ruins. “Movement east. Two patrols. We’ve got maybe two minutes.”
We moved fast, ducking through the alleys like ghosts. The air was thick with tension—every shadow a threat, every boot fall behind us a trigger. The Shades were close. We could feel it. That sick, crawling awareness—the kind you only get when your own kind is hunting you.
Slade found the grate first, half-buried under rubble. “This leads under the Pit,” he said grimly.
“The Pit?” I asked, already dreading the answer.
He nodded once. “Mother Ashford’s personal playground.” The bitterness in his voice stopped me cold.
“Who the fuck is Mother Ashford?”
Slade’s face darkened, his jaw tightening. “The one who marked Elira’s back.”
Fury spiked, hot and lethal, flooding me like poison. I didn’t raise my voice—I didn’t need to.
“Well,” I said, almost casually, “she’s fucking dead then.”
Slade flashed me a vicious smile. “Hell yes she is. And we’ll make it hurt.”
The sound of boots on stone snapped our attention to the streets above—Shades and sentinels running, hunting. We ducked into cover, pressed tight to the shadows, hearts pounding like war drums.
When we get out of this place,I thought, I’m taking Elle somewhere quiet. Somewhere with clean air. Maybe the mountains. Anywhere but this gods-damned pit of a city.
We dropped into the tunnels one by one, the air instantly thick and sour. Faint roars filtered from above—the sound of teeth meeting bone. We moved beneath the arena floor, ducking low behind crates as light filtered through rusted bars.
“We wait,” Phoenix said. “Let them pass.”
The soldiers were loud and jeering. They weren’t sentinels, they were grunts. I could hear them talking. Worse, I could hear them laughing.
“She didn’t flinch,” one said. “Shadows everywhere. You should’ve seen Kree’s face. I think he fucking pissed himself!”
“Mother got a good one with her! Already made me a couple of hundred quid!”
“I heard she keeps her in the dungeons. Could be anywhere, but she won’t leave that little friend of hers. Fucking women, haw haw!”
“Mother’s smart to keep her close,” another replied, low and smug. “Says she’s worth more than the whole damn city.”
My blood turned to ice.
“Elira,” I breathed.She was here!
Phoenix’s hand clamped around my wrist. “Leo, don’t—”
Too late. I moved.
The first guard barely had time to gasp before I drove him into the wall. The second turned—and caught my fist in his jaw. They hit the ground hard.
Slade and Phoenix caught up seconds later as I dragged them into a storage room, slamming the door behind us.
