"The facility is massive,” he explained. “Three sublevels, all underground. Heavy magical shielding—I can barely penetrateit. I'm reading at least twenty heat signatures inside." The four of us were going to be outnumbered.
Nana laughed from the back seat. "Well, at least the odds are better than last time."
Tarja's voice cut through my mind. "Be careful. Something feels off about this place. Even from here, I can sense the death magic saturating it. The earth there is sick with it."
"We're walking into a trap. We know that, but we will be cautious," I sent back.
"Knowing and surviving are different things. Your magical core is damaged. Aidon's barely functioning. Stella and Nana are exhausted. This is exactly what Taverner wants—you desperate and depleted."
"What choice do we have?"
Silence stretched between us before she answered. "None. But that doesn't make this less of a trap."
Stella took an exit onto a smaller highway, then a county road that was barely maintained. Trees pressed closer here. Their branches created a tunnel of darkness that the headlights could barely penetrate.
"I'm seeing increased magical activity at the facility. They know you're coming," Jean-Marc said.
Aidon's hand found mine in the darkness, his grip solid and steady. Through our bond, I felt his determination burning bright despite his exhaustion. We were doing this together, whatever came.
Stella pulled off onto a dirt road that was more suggestion than actual path. "According to Jean-Marc's coordinates, the facility is two miles northeast of here. We'll have to go in on foot."
We parked in a small clearing and loaded up. Nana checked her shotgun one final time. She had a bag full of magazine clips. Stella distributed protective charms Mom had made.
"Ready?" Stella asked.
No. Not even close. "Let's go kill a bitch," I said instead.
CHAPTER 19
We ditched the car half a mile out and covered the rest on foot through predawn darkness. My thighs screamed in protest as we crouched low to approach the ruins of Taverner's original lab like we were sneaking up on a sleeping dragon. The structure rose from the forest like broken teeth. The burned-out skeleton had been condemned and forgotten for nearly fifty years.
Charred beams jutted from crumbling brick at violent angles. Windows gaped empty like dark mouths that had swallowed their glass decades ago. Nature had made a half-hearted attempt at reclamation. Vines crawled up the scorched facade, but even the vegetation was sparse and sickly.
Jean-Marc had been right. Underneath the decay, rot, and ruin was power. It thrummed through the earth like a second heartbeat, pulsing beneath my feet with a rhythm that made my bones ache.
"The entrance is in the basement level," Jean-Marc's voice crackled through my earbud, tinny but clear. "There's a door hidden behind the collapsed west wall. Cast a reveal spell to find it."
We picked our way through the ruins, boots crunching on the debris. Aidon's power probed ahead for traps. His shadows tasted the air like serpents. Nana moved with her shotgun ready, finger resting just above the trigger guard.
The collapsed west wall was exactly where Jean-Marc said it would be. I stopped in front of what looked like a pile of rubble. When I opened my magical senses more, my skin prickled with awareness.
Lifting my hand, I called on my magic, letting the Latin flow from my lips like a prayer. "Revelare quod absconditum est."
Power rippled outward from my palm, washing over the rubble like water. The illusion shuddered, wavered, and then shattered. The broken bricks and scorched wood dissolved like smoke, revealing smooth reinforced steel beneath. A modern door materialized where ruin had been seconds before. Its surface gleamed dully in the pre-dawn light. Completely at odds with the forgotten wreckage surrounding it.
"That's not creepy or ominous," Stella muttered. “Time to work your magic, Jean-Marc.” The security panel beside the door glowed with a soft blue light. It was a biometric scanner and keypad.
Jean-Marc's voice crackled again. "I'm shutting down their main grid now."
Stella pressed her modified device against the panel. "I will need fifty seconds for the magical locks," she said before she cast a spell to unravel the wards.
Tarja's presence strengthened as she focused her attention on what I was seeing. "I smell blood." Her mental voice was tight with tension. "So much death happened there."
The locks disengaged with a series of mechanical clicks that sounded like gunshots in the silent ruins. The door swung open on well-oiled hinges. Of course, Taverner would maintainhis secret entrance better than most people maintained their homes.
"Only forty-two seconds," Stella said with grim satisfaction, pocketing her device. "I'm getting better at this."
"Or she wanted us to get in," Nana observed, peering through the doorway. "We need to be ready for her to spring this trap."
