Bright Blaze of Magic (Black Blade, #3)(55)

“That’s weird,” Felix muttered. “Why would it be open already?”

“I don’t know,” I whispered back. “But this is the only way we can get up to the roof, so let’s go.”

I drew my sword, opened the door, and stepped inside, with Felix behind me. There were no windows on this side of the warehouse, so he held his phone out, using it as a flashlight, but my sight magic let me see everything clearly.

Including the metal hooks hanging down from the ceiling.

They were spaced equidistant apart, and each one of them was located above a drain in the concrete floor. An eerie sense of déjà vu swept over me, one that only increased when the light from Felix’s phone fell across a chair with thick, heavy ropes dangling off it.

“What happened in here?” he whispered. “Do you think the Draconis are using this warehouse too?”

“Nope.”

“Why not?”

I looked up at the hooks dangling down from the ceiling. Several weeks ago, I had been tied to one of those hooks, strung up like a slab of meat about to be butchered. And I almost had been. I shivered, suddenly cold, despite the hot, humid air.

“Lila?” Felix asked again. “Why not?”

“Because this is the warehouse where Grant brought me and Devon the night he kidnapped us and tried to take our magic.”

He winced. “This has to be a bad sign, right?”

I shrugged. I didn’t know what to make of the creepy coincidence any more than he did.

We moved on and eventually found a set of stairs that led up to the roof. The door at the top was locked and I had to pick it open, but that was easy enough. A minute later, we were out on the roof, keeping low and racing over to an old air-conditioning unit that was near the edge. Felix and I both crouched down and looked around the metal box, staring at the Draconi warehouse on the other side of the alley.

The roof was empty. No guards had been posted up here, which was both good and bad. Good because we could get onto the Draconi warehouse roof unseen, but bad because that meant all of the guards were most likely downstairs, guarding the prisoners.

I stood up and sheathed my sword, judging the distance from this roof over to the next one. About five feet, just as I’d thought from down on the ground. Felix peered over the edge of the roof at the thirty-foot drop below, his face pinched tight, his bronze skin suddenly pale.

“Um, Lila, are you sure this is such a good idea?” he asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, backing up several feet. “All you have to do is take a good running start, get over to the edge, and then jump as hard as you can. Your momentum will do the rest. Easy peasy.”

“Easy. Right,” Felix said in a faint voice.

His face took on a greenish tinge, but he sheathed his sword and backed up so that he was standing right beside me.

I looked at him. “On three. One . . . two . . . three!”

We both started running toward the edge of the roof. I reached it a second before Felix did and I dug my sneakers into the ground, pushing off as hard as I could. For a moment, it felt as though I were flying, my legs churning through the air as though I could propel myself even farther and faster with them. A soft, happy laugh bubbled up in my throat, but I swallowed it down.

Three seconds later, my sneakers hit the roof of the Draconi warehouse. A second later, Felix landed beside me, his feet barely on the edge of the roof, windmilling his arms for balance and trying not to fall backward. I reached out, snatched his black cloak, and pulled him toward me. He stumbled forward several steps before finally managing to right himself.

Felix doubled over, his hands on his knees, his face even greener than before, his breath coming in harsh, panicked rasps. “I never . . . want to . . . do that . . . again!”

I clapped him on the shoulder. “You did great. Now, let’s go find your dad and the others.”

At the mention of Angelo, Felix straightened up, wiped the sweat off his face, and drew the sword belted to his waist. He nodded at me, and we headed over to an access door that led down into the warehouse. Felix stayed by the door while I crept over to the far side of the roof, staring down at the street below. I watched the guards for a minute, then moved back over to the door.

“How does it look?” Felix asked.

“The same as before. The guards are still patrolling all around the warehouse. It doesn’t seem like anyone saw or heard us leap over here. So let’s get inside and get everyone out.”

I reached out and tried the access door, but it was locked. Nothing I couldn’t fix. I reached up, grabbed the chopstick lock picks out of my hair, and went to work. It was a simple lock and it took me less than a minute to pick it. Still, I winced at the snick of the door swinging open. I didn’t know where the guards might be posted inside, but at least some of the Draconis had enhanced senses, so we needed to be as quiet as possible from here on out.

I looked at Felix, who nodded back at me and clutched his sword a little tighter. I drew my own weapon, feeling the star carved into the hilt pressing into my skin, just like the one on the library table had.

Thinking of my mom, I entered the warehouse with Felix right behind me.





CHAPTER NINETEEN


The access door led to a set of metal stairs that spiraled down, down, down into the warehouse. I crept down the stairs, stopping every few feet to look and listen, but I didn’t hear anything, so I felt safe enough to keep going. Felix’s harsh, raspy breaths tickled the back of my neck, but for once, he didn’t start talking to fill in the silence. He knew how dangerous this was.