I wished I could see his face better. I wanted to read his expression. Did he have that sparkle in his eyes when I annoyed him, even though he secretly thought it was cute? Did he smile because hope outweighed his doubt?
I tilted his chin and kissed him. I kept it brief because if I deepened it, the kiss would pull us under, to the point that I would forget where we were. It always did. Every time we came together, I lost everything else.
I could no longer see the door. The room expanded. The colored folders grew in number, their shelves multiplying. We were stuck somewhere in the middle of the madness. I heard the door open. I saw the shreds of light, dim but stretching through the tops of the files like fingers reaching out to us. And I heard the gentle click as it closed.
Phin stiffened.
I locked my arms around him, unwilling to lose him if the worst happened.
I couldn’t hear footsteps. No shoes hit the tile. That told me it was a demon. In the dark, I might not see the shadow when it came. We couldn’t stay in one place. They’d find us soon enough if we did. We had to keep moving.
I kept my arm around Phin’s waist as I guided us down a row. When we reached the end, I peeked around the corner. There, between the stacks, was the shadow of a demon, barely visible yet darker than the surrounding shadows. I didn’t know whether there was more than one in the room. Probably. Those HR demons stuck together. They hunted in packs like wolves. We turned together and headed the other way.
Phin ended up in front of me. I held his hand as he peeked around the corner. He nodded. We moved as quietly as possible around the stacks, getting closer to the door with each turn. So far, our luck had held.
As soon as the thought entered my mind, a demon appeared. Its shadow was thick and menacing, hovering just above the floor in front of us. I turned and ran toward the back of the closet, pulling Phin along. It was the wrong direction from where we wanted to go. The main objective was to get as far away from the demon as possible. We’d worry about leaving the closet once we solved our demon problem.
Another demon came down the row toward us. It felt like they were herding us, pushing us where they wanted us to go, most likely into a corner. It was not good. Not good at all. That would be our demise.
I cut down another row between the shelves, pulling Phin with me. We had to keep moving. That was all we could do. Eventually, we could head in the right direction, but with the room expanding, I wasn’t sure where that was anymore.
At the end of the row, I would have turned left toward the door, but a demon waited. I cursed and turned right. Two morestood in front of us, and one behind. I cut down another row between the shelves, but another demon was waiting for us.
I stopped. Demons surrounded us. With my heartbeat thundering in my ears, I knew we had to reassess the situation.
The light flickered, then turned on. That was when I saw just how many surrounded us—at least six.
Phin clung to me, shaking. “Oh gods, Ossy.”
I kept my arm around him.
The lights cut off again. This time, the darkness was absolute, completely taking over in a way that was unnatural in the Soul Management Bureau building.
Something changed, but what?
My other senses kicked into overdrive. And that was when I felt it. The breeze and the sound of leaves rustling together in the trees. We weren’t in the Bureau building anymore. We were in Tech Duinn.
Chapter Sixteen
Phin
Icouldn’t hear anything except the sounds of the forest, which didn’t make sense unless something had disturbed the papers in the files, a possibility I hoped hadn’t happened. What a nightmare that would be.
The darkness was so complete that I couldn’t see anything in front of my face. It wasn’t as scary as I’d expected. I’d expected more growling, maybe fire pits, people screaming. But there was nothing but darkness. The main problem was that we couldn’t move because we couldn’t see our surroundings. Would we walk straight into a tree and knock ourselves out? We could walk off a cliff for all I knew.
A cool breeze brushed my arms, and I clung to Ossy. The last thing I wanted was to lose him in the darkness. “This is the worst thing that could have happened, right?”
“Pretty much.” Oh, gods. What the hell were we going to do? If the worst had happened, we were in Tech Duinn. Which meant Donn had us right where he wanted us. There was only one good thing about this new nightmare.
At least we were together.
“Which means it can’t get any worse. Right?”
Ossy’s arms tightened around me. “That’s only true if you don’t let go.”
“No worries there.” I was pretty sure I’d never let go of Ossy again.
Trees surrounded us. The breeze was gentle, yet it stirred the leaves. I could smell vegetation. Wherever Donn had put us, it wasn’t the worst the realm had to offer. My instincts told me he didn’t really want to hurt us.
