The Savage Grace: A Dark Divine Novel(84)

Chapter Thirty


FORCED HAND


OUT THE FRONT DOOR

We followed Slade to the car, and I was glad for his maniacal driving skills as we flew down the empty streets of Rose Crest and into the parish’s front parking lot. The building seemed quiet and peaceful. No lights shone through the windows, and I started to wonder if I’d imagined hearing an Akh. I started to hope we were acting on a false alarm—but then I noticed that the front door of the building stood wide open, making any thoughts of reassurance fleeting as we dashed into the building.

I detected the smell of Akh and Gelal, not to mention Urbat, as soon as we entered the foyer. But there was another unexpected smell, like rotten eggs, that filled my nostrils. I wrinkled my nose, coughing. “What is that?”

“I know,” Brent said, and he took off in the direction of the social hall. Slade and the other boys followed.

Daniel started to go after them. “No. Let them handle it. Come with me. I need to check on Jude. If someone called, it was probably him.”

We darted down the stairwell leading to the basement. The air was clearer, and the rotten-egg smell faded the farther down we went. I reached for the light switch in the pitch-black basement, but nothing happened when I tried to flip it. “Power is out.”

“It’s okay,” Daniel said. “I can see.”

I concentrated my powers into my eyes until my night vision sharpened.

We rounded the corner and went straight for the gate of Jude’s cage. Only it wasn’t there—the gate, I mean. It had been ripped from its hinges and cast aside like the lid of a tin can. Jude’s cot was overturned, his blanket splayed across the ground, with the TV set tipped over on top of it.

Jude was gone.

“What happened here? A struggle? Has Jude been kidnapped?” I asked.

“Or is someone trying to make it look like that’s what happened?” Daniel crouched, inspecting the mangled hinges of the gate.

“What are you saying?”

“I don’t know … But this gate was torn off from the inside of the cage.”

“You guys!” Slade shouted down the stairs. “You need to get up here!”

Daniel let go of the gate frame and picked something up. He handed it to me. The moonstone pendant, tied to a broken string.

“You guys!”

I shoved the stone in my pocket without saying a word, and we bounded back up the stairs.

Slade stood at the top, holding what looked a like burned-up soda can in his hand.

“What is that?” I asked.

“Homemade flash bomb. We found gas bombs, too. They’re all unconscious—everyone in the social hall.”

“Are they okay? Are you sure they’re not … ?”

“It’s just knockout gas. They’ll be fine but pretty nauseated in a couple of minutes. But Grace,” he held up the soda-can bomb. “This is one of Brent’s designs.”

“What? I don’t get what you mean. Brent’s been with us this whole time.”

“I mean, this wasn’t just any old Akh attack. This was the doing of the Shadow Kings. They were here. They knocked everybody out.”

I looked at Daniel. “But why would they just knock out all of Sirhan’s men … ?”

“Sirhan!” Daniel shouted. He was out the door and around the building in matter of seconds, with Slade and me on his heels. We went down the alley between the parish and the school and almost ran right into Gabriel.

“I came as fast as I could,” he said.

“No time to talk,” Daniel said. “Follow me.”

We ran toward the caretaker’s apartment. I could see the door standing open as we approached. Something large and furry lay in front of it. Daniel and Gabriel didn’t stop to see what it was and leaped over it in order to get through the door. But something caught my eye—the shredded fabric of a blue robe and the shaft of a broken spear, lying in a pool of blood under the furry thing. It was a wolf—one of Sirhan’s guards, I realized. A dead guard.

I went through the doorway and almost tripped over another dead wolf.

“No,” Gabriel cried. “No!”

My head snapped in the direction of the bed that took up most of the room. A withered, leathery, gray body lay on the bed. A silver spear protruded from his sunken chest. Blood darkened the fur all around the blade.

“They killed Sirhan?” Slade asked from behind me.

“No,” Daniel said, leaning over the body, his fingers pressed to Sirhan’s shriveled neck. “He still has a pulse. At least one of his hearts is still beating. He’s not dead yet.”

“What?” Gabriel felt his friend’s wrist. “Yes, he’s still with us. But not for long.”

“Quick!” I said. “We have to move him. We have to get him out of here.” I couldn’t imagine holding the Challenging Ceremony in the parish. The Shadow Kings had desecrated it enough with their attack. “He can’t die here!”

“Keys,” Slade said. “I left the keys to your car in the parish.”

“Take these!” Daniel picked up a set of keys on the small desk and threw them to Slade.

“You want me to drive the Aston Martin?” he asked, wide-eyed. I could tell he was trying not to sound too excited, considering the circumstances.