Page 100 of Twist of Fate

Luke shook his head, but he crossed to the bed and squeezed Gomez’s shoulder. “I told you I wouldn’t disappear.”

Some of the humor left Gomez’s expression. “And you didn’t.”

“I’ll see you when we get back.”

“Be careful.”

Luke nodded and returned to Connal. Together, they entered the hallway. Light brightened along the walls ahead, guiding them deeper into the castle. Luke barely seemed to notice. He walked with the controlled urgency of someone already preparing for the dangers outside the Unseelie.

They found Tyson waiting farther down the corridor, precisely where Connal expected him to be. Asterius stood beside the attaché, looking offensively cheerful for first light.

Luke glanced at Connal. “He’s coming too?”

“I expected at least one of my brothers.”

Asterius pulled Connal into a boisterous hug and clapped him on the back. “And naturally, you hoped it would be me.”

“I did not.”

“Brother! We are off on another adventure.”

Tyson’s gaze flicked briefly between them. “You’re ready?”

Luke nodded. “Yes.”

A faint smile touched Tyson’s mouth, gone almost as soon as it appeared.

“Of course,” he said smoothly. “Then let’s not keep Koios waiting.”

Asterius opened a portal in the adjoining passageway and held it while Connal drew his sword and crossed first.

One step carried him from the quiet of the castle into a narrow concrete passage smelling faintly of oil and stale air. Machinery hummed somewhere beyond the walls. Connal searched the shadows and the two visible entrances before signaling for Luke to follow.

Luke crossed immediately. Tyson came behind him, and Asterius brought up the rear before allowing the portal to close.

Magic felt different in the human realm—muted and distant beneath layers of concrete, metal, and machinery. Connal disliked how little he could sense here.

Luke surveyed the unfamiliar space, locating the exits and every possible approach.

This was his world.

Tyson waited until Luke finished his assessment, then led them through an unmarked door and down a narrow flight of stairs. A corridor waited below, lined with identical doors beneath dim, functional lighting.

At the end of the corridor, Tyson stopped before the final door. “Koios keeps his circle limited.”

Luke’s mouth twitched. “I can relate.”

Tyson inclined his head and stepped aside.

Connal moved toward the door with Luke beside him.

It opened before either of them touched it.

The room beyond held several workstations, their screens casting a low glow across the concrete floor. Machinery hummed around them, threaded with a current of fae magic familiar to Connal even if he could not tell how Koios had bound it to human technology.

Koios stood at the central workstation with his black wings partially spread behind him. When Connal first met him, those wings had been slowly breaking the human body forced to carry them. Now they rested easily behind him, healed and strong.

His hands moved between the screens and controls with casual certainty. The purpose of the machines eluded Connal, but Koios’s skill required no explanation. He handled them as naturally as Connal handled a blade.