“She wasn’t even thrilled to have your unconscious bodies kept in Paradise. Now that you’re awake, there’s no telling how she’d respond. After all, your sister did kill her only brother.”
“And yet, he’s the one walking around while I’ve been stuck slumbering for gods only know how long?” called Lynette.
“Lenny is also currently being actively hunted by the Adored’s elite guard, so it’s only a matter of time before theytrace her back to this place,” explained Bastien. “Wilhelm wants to protect her people, and frankly, I can’t fault her for that. So, if you’d like to keep Lynette out of a Reviled prison cell, I suggest we get her out of here immediately.”
A sharp sound pierced our tranquil reunion, and Azrael moved across the room in a blur of motion, holding the communication device to his ear.
“That doesn’t bode well,” I muttered, already looking to Bastien. He hurried across the lab, grabbing the compendium and tucking it under his arm.
“Wilhelm is on her way down,” Azrael said, returning. “Kaine held her off as long as he could, but she knows that you’re down here with them, Bastien.”
The door to the lab pushed open, the entire room reeling towards it, but finding no one standing in the entry. After a second, Kaine’s image shimmered into existence as he moved with determined purpose towards Azrael.
“You two take the Greenes,” I said to the Unseen. “Make it back to Bast’s flat and have Amelia start pitching the biggest fit this side of Paradise has ever seen. We’ll be smuggling the two of you out in her luggage.”
“You should go with them,” Bastien added, his golden gaze on me so filled with concern that I should have been flattered. “I can handle Wilhelm on my own.”
“I figured as the newest acting head of the Church, my first official duty should be to wield the title like a sledgehammer till they yield. Besides, Wilhelm loves me.”
Bastien’s brow furrowed. “Since when?”
“It doesn’t matter. The point is that should she waltz in here and find two very awake Greene twins, she’s going to report it to the Magi Council for leverage. The longer we can keep the two of you a secret, the less complicated our lives have to be for the foreseeable future.”
Azrael turned to Kaine, giving him a nod. The shorter Unseen moved with haste over to Lynette and hoisted her onto his shoulder without so much as a warning.
“Hey, don’t I get a say in—put me down this instant!”
“Better keep it down, Lenny,” I called. “Wilhelm may decide to deal with you herself if she discovers you.”
Grumbling under her breath, Kaine and Lynette shimmered like a mirage before disappearing altogether, the door to the lab swinging a bit wider as they made their escape.
“You’ll take Tobias?” I asked Azrael.
“Of course,” he said, lifting the copper-haired man from the table and cradling him in his arms. “Is that comfortable?”
Tobias beamed up at him, pressing his face into Azrael’s chest.
“I’m perfectly content.”
“Take the long way around to the flat,” Bastien spoke quickly as the sounds of dozens of footsteps echoed from the corridor. “They may already be watching.”
“Be safe,” Azrael replied.
“We’ll be fine,” I assured them both. “Just a quick little chat with Willy and we’ll be on our way.”
“Do not call her that,” Bastien scolded me.
“Noted.”
Azrael and Tobias shimmered and vanished, a sudden panic kicking in as I lost sight of them, but then the door moved again, and I knew that they were taking the safer option. As for Bastien and me, we had one last battle before us that had to be won.
A battle of politics.
“Why are you really staying behind?” Bastien asked, setting the compendium on the countertop, then muttering an incantation over it as he wove a sigil with his hands. The tome shimmered, then blended in with the marbled surface as he lay a veil of magic over it.
“My stars, Bastien. Are you questioning my righteous intentions?”
He rolled his eyes, obviously not satisfied with my frivolous response.
