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The impact echoed through me: bodies falling to the floor, mental lights dimming. I gasped and focused another pulse of magic at my chains. With a wrenching I felt right through my chest, I shattered them. The mitts covering my hands burst in a spray of foam.
I scrambled to the door with real limbs that worked now. My legs wobbled under me. The spell had worked, but my whole body was aching from the effort, both of the amount of power I’d expended and the strain of doing it so completely mentally. My spark flickered, low and guttering, in my chest.
My magic was almost completely depleted. And I had no idea how long the enforcers would stay unconscious.
I stumbled and fell to my knees. No, I had to keep moving. With a shove against the floor, I propelled myself the last step to the door. My hand fell against the wall by the lock panel.
Just a little more magic. Please, by the Spark, let me have enough to finish what I’d started. At least now I could put my whole body to the task.
I murmured under my breath and jerked my fingers. Pain splintered down my arms—and the lock rasped over. I grabbed the handle and yanked.
The door swung open. I heaved myself out into the hall, my legs still swaying under me, my mind centered around one clear thought.
My guys. I had to find my guys.
Chapter Four
Rose
The long hall was all gray, the only color a red light on the lock controls next to the many doors. A body was sprawled on the floor at the far end: an enforcer, from her clothes. Maybe one who’d been rushing over to see what I was up to when my spell had hit them.
I had to keep moving, had to get all of us out of here before she and the others came to.
I staggered on past the first couple doors to the one where I’d sensed Kyler. My shoes scraped the floor, loud in the silence of the building. My hand trailed along the wall, feeling every tiny dimple in its mostly smooth surface.
One more step. Then another. There. My head was starting to spin, but I set my hands over the lock panel and made a quick twisting gesture, wrenching another flicker of energy from my spark.
The red light blinked green. The lock disengaged. I grasped the handle and hauled the door open.
The effort made me stumble halfway over the threshold. “Rose!” Kyler said, leaping to his feet. He’d been sitting on a bench like the one in my cell, his arms and legs chained like mine had been. The chains clinked as he tried to rush to my side and drew up short at their limit.
“I can get rid of those,” I mumbled. “I can do it. Just let me…”
“Take it easy,” he said as I made my dizzy shuffling way to him. “If you push yourself too hard—”
“If I don’t push myself, we won’t get out of here in time.” I swiped my hands through the air, and links in his chains parted. The shackles were still attached to Kyler’s wrists and ankles, but he didn’t give me the chance to try to remove those too. He caught me in his arms, hugging me to him.
“Rose,” he murmured into my hair. I’d never heard my cheerful computer enthusiast sounding so choked up. I hugged him back for a second, feeling a little relief just at the contact, the feel of his tall lean body against mine. Even after our imprisonment, his usual faintly minty smell still clung to his skin. I breathed it in, and my spark glinted brighter.
“We’ve got to go—find the others, get out of here,” I said. “I knocked out everyone else in the building, but I’m not sure how long the spell will last.”
“Right. Right.” Ky grasped my hand, holding me steady as we hurried out into the hall. “Do you know where the other guys are?”
“Damon’s right here,” I said, motioning to the door next to Ky’s, from which an unmistakable prickly energy was emanating. “And Gabriel’s on the other side of the hall two more down. Seth and Jin are down one floor.”
Kyler’s eyes widened at the sight of the enforcer on the floor. “Let me check her,” he said, squeezing my hand and then letting go. “If she’s got something to open the doors, you won’t need to use up more of your energy.”
He loped down the hall to where the enforcer was sprawled, and I turned to Damon’s cell door. I couldn’t afford to wait. Gritting my teeth, I motioned with my hands over the lock panel again. A thorn of pain jabbed my chest, but the lock slid over. I pulled that door open just as Ky let out a cry of triumph.
In his cell, Damon was pacing restlessly as far as his chains would let him, much like I’d imagined him. He jerked to a stop at the sight of me. “Rose! You got the bastards. Good.”
“I’m getting you all out,” I said. I tried to keep my steps steady, but I swayed a little on my way to him. He cupped his hands around my face as I worked my magic on his chains.
“You really are our angel,” he said gruffly.
He kissed me, hard but quickly enough that I didn’t protest. My fingers curled into his cotton tee. No leather jacket on the real him—it’d been too warm for that, the morning when we’d been arrested—but a lingering waft of that scent carried from his shirt. Then he was slinging his arm around my waist, supporting a little of my weight as we went to rejoin Kyler.
The slimmer twin was just stepping out of the cell he’d opened. He waved a keycard at us. “I can handle the doors now, but the chains are another story. No key that I could find.”
