Just because his lights went out didn’t mean he’d closed his eyes. The earl might lie awake all night, his heart pounding, alert for every creak in the floorboards. If that was the case, he may already know we were coming.
He still wouldn’t survive it, as I doubted he’d planned for my lightning. One or more of his servants coming to kill him, yes. But me? Never.
The hallway, with its numerous closed doors, stretched endlessly on before ending in another closed door. Luna pointed at the door. She didn’t have to speak to tell us the earl was within.
When Luna rested her hand on the knob, Scarlet and I stared at it as she moved to twist it. The knob didn’t turn under her hand.
Something else had changed since she lived within these walls. Luna frowned at the door and looked ready to kick it as she shifted her feet.
Before she could alert anyone within to our presence here, I brushed her hand away and rested my palm against the knob. Luna scowled at me but stepped back as I sent enough lightning into the lock to shatter it.
When Luna tried the knob again, it turned, but the door refused to move. Placing her palm against the wood, she pushed it, but it remained unmoving.
We exchanged glances before I stepped closer and lifted my hand to illuminate the area. My lightning didn’t reveal whatever blocked the door.
I edged away and waved at them before retreating down the hall. Scarlet and Luna followed me until we were about twenty feet away from the door.
“He must have bolts on the inside of the door now,” I whispered.
This answered my question as to how he slept at night. He believed he’d safely secured himself inside.
“What do we do?” Scarlet whispered.
I studied the locked door while I pondered this. I could blow a hole through it with my lightning, but that was far from the most discreet choice.
“Let me try something,” I muttered.
I returned to the door and stood before it as I raised my hands. With slow, calculating movements, I twisted them until a small current of wind spun before me.
Behind me, Scarlet and Luna hovered while I steadily created a silent current behind the door. I drew on more air and wind until I gathered enough to move the bolts—I suspected there was more than one.
Biting my bottom lip, I intensified the wind behind the door while also trying to keep it as close to the door as possible. I couldn’t alert the earl to our presence here. I might fail to gather enough wind to open the bolts, and I’d have to blow the door open anyway, but this was worth a try.
On the other side of the door, something clicked. Metal scraped wood as another bolt slid free, and Luna sucked in her breath.
I waited a few more seconds, but when no other sounds came from the other side, I retracted my wind. Luna reached around me, turned the knob, and pushed. This time, it swung open.
Luna’s hand went to the dagger at her waist, and she pulled it free.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Ryker
Whoever was out there had helped me break out of our cells, but I didn’t trust them. This could all still be part of some game Veni was playing.
When I glanced back at the others, Tucker handed the crier over to Lawrence. His rain ability wouldn’t do us much good down here, but his wind could be beneficial.
He was also the one with the most battle experience, and he’d survived Doomed Valley with me. After me, Tucker was the strongest fighter we had, and I was glad to have him at my back.
Lightning encircled my wrists as I stepped into the hallway, prepared to unleash it on anyone who tried to fuck with us.
No one stood directly in front of me, so I spun to the right, my lightning crackling. I’d prepared to face an army, but only one man was there.
Leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest and one leg lifted to prop his foot against the wall, Samael studied me with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. When my lightning flashed higher, his smirk didn’t falter, but uneasiness flashed through his yellow-brown eyes.
“It took you long enough,” he remarked. “I expected the great Scourge of the Ghouls to be at the door ten minutes ago.”
His words stifled my impulse to unleash my lightning. “You put the keys in my gruel.”
