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The two of us made a mad dash following the path of destruction the demon had left in its wake. The walls were scratched up, the lights were flickering, many were broken. Furniture had been upturned, some of it had splintered, and there were people lying on the ground, cradling injuries.
At the very end of the hallway was an open door that led into what looked like an office, and there was the demon, standing behind a familiar looking box. If demons had tails, this one would definitely be wagging it—like a puppy that had mastered a trick and was waiting for its reward.
Lucien and I made a grab for it, realizing now that there were more men running down the hall toward us, including the Recondite I had thrown through the wall. He looked madder than ever, and we were cornered.
“There’s no way out,” I said. “What are we going to do?”
“There is a way out,” Lucien said, as he picked the box up. He turned his red eyes up at the demon and whispered new demonic instructions. The demon rushed through us, leaving a cloud of cold air in its wake as it surged toward the group of people racing toward us.
“What is it doing?” I asked.
“Holding them off. Don’t worry, they’ll destroy it before it kills anyone,” he said, and he grabbed my hand and pulled me toward a window.
“What are we supposed to do?”
“Take us through it.”
“Through it?! We’re a billion floors up! We’re going to fall!”
“See that green chord on your backpack?”
I had seen it, and I had known exactly what it was for the moment I put the backpack on, but I’d chosen to stay quiet about it. “No,” I said.
“It’s the only way.”
“Lucien!”
“Bee, do it before they put up another magical shield. Trust me.”
I shook my head. “Remember when I said earlier that I hated all of this? I hate you way more right now.”
“Go!”
I grabbed Lucien’s hand, concentrated, and pushed us both through the solid wall between us and the open air. Gravity did its thing instantly, pulling even our ephemeral forms down toward the Earth. As soon as I rematerialized the both of us, I tugged on the green chord on my backpack. A parachute popped out of the back; another one came out of Lucien’s.
My stomach flipped as I felt us pick up speed and saw the ground racing rapidly toward us. We were in a freefall, moving faster, and faster, until we were moving fast enough for the parachutes to open up. I felt mine tug, Lucien’s too. An instant later, I felt our fall begin to slow.
Within moments, we weren’t falling anymore—we were gliding, about ten stories up, soaring past the people underneath us.
“Holy shit!” I yelled, “Holy, shit! Can they see us?!”
“They can’t,” Lucien said.
“They will when we land!”
“We aren’t going to.”
It took a moment for me to realize we weren’t falling but gliding steadily through the air as if carried by a phantom current. We weren’t being chased, we weren’t being shot at, and no one was screaming at us from below. Despite the rush of adrenaline that had come moments before this, I felt calm, and serene, gliding with Lucien down the center of this long, busy stretch of road.
Gliding toward the water.
“It’s beautiful,” I said, watching the moonlight glitter along the surface of the ocean.
“It’s about to get a whole lot closer, too.”
For a second, I forgot about the crown. I forgot about the Recondites, about the demons, about the Diaboli, and about the Shadow War we may well have restarted tonight. For now, there was a moment of peace and quiet… and I was one step closer to getting back to Max.
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