The beam of the guard’s torch spotlights the wall and starts sweeping towards us. ‘Who’s there?’ calls a gruff voice.

  A second ahead of the beam, we silently slip into the building and quickly close the service door behind us. My heart in my mouth, I lean against the door and let out a relieved breath. This time I’m the one sporting a smug grin. ‘Guess my breaking-and-entering days aren’t over!’ I whisper, now deeply grateful for my Glimmer as Lihua.

  Just then Tarek’s voice sounds in our earpieces. ‘I’ve found another option –’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ interrupts Jude. ‘We’re already in.’

  Looking around, we find ourselves in a gloomy corridor, a whiff of disinfectant tainting the air. There’s a heavy, unsettling quiet, broken only by the occasional muted cry or moan of a patient coming from behind the rows of locked doors. I almost leap out of my skin when I spot a ghoulish face in one of the wire-meshed windows – a bone-pale young woman is staring wide-eyed and wordless at us. I put a finger to my lips, willing her to remain silent. She copies my actions and giggles nervously from behind the glass. Her eyes strike me as very dark, although that may just be the lack of light. Much to our relief, she doesn’t raise the alarm.

  ‘I’ve got you on camera,’ says Tarek. ‘I’ll track your movements.’

  We creep along, following his directions. The nurses’ station is, thankfully, empty. ‘The next corridor’s all clear too,’ Tarek informs us. ‘Turn left at the end; Phoenix’s room is the fifth door on the right.’

  As we make our way along the east wing, a security guard suddenly emerges from a staff toilet. He’s still buckling his belt when he looks up. ‘Hey! What the –’

  But he doesn’t get to finish the sentence. Jude draws her Taser and fires. The guard convulses and collapses to the floor in a jibbering heap. Before he can recover, Jude pulls a pair of plastic ties from her pocket and together we secure his wrists behind his back and shackle his ankles. Then Jude takes a handkerchief from the guard’s pocket and stuffs it into his mouth.

  ‘Help me drag him back into the toilet,’ she says, grunting with the effort to lift him.

  As I grip the man’s arms, I recognize his heavy jowls and stubbled chin. He’s the one who restrained Phoenix. Once inside, I drop him on the tiled floor, a little too heavily, and he groans from behind his gag. We’re back out into the corridor in seconds, shutting the door on the guard’s pained protests.

  ‘We’d better hurry,’ says Jude. ‘It won’t be long before someone notices he’s disappeared.’

  My nerves now on a razor’s edge, we run to room B12. Phoenix’s door is locked.

  ‘Tarek, can you open it?’ I ask urgently. But there’s no response. ‘Tarek? Can you hear me?’

  Jude tries too and gets no answer either. Just the hiss of static. ‘Dammit. We’ve lost reception,’ she mutters.

  I examine the lock but to my dismay Lihua’s lockpicking skills will be no help here. The door can only be opened with an electronic key card. ‘Jude, what are we going to do?’ A touch of desperation enters my voice at this last hurdle.

  She clicks her fingers. ‘The guard!’ she says, and races back to the toilet. Moments later, she returns with his key card.

  ‘Good thinking!’ I whisper as she swipes it through the slot. The lock whirrs and the deadbolt slides across. Tentatively I push the door open and enter the cell-like room. In the semi-darkness I can just make out the silhouette of a boy lying across the bed. My heart swells on seeing him. ‘Phoenix?’ I hiss, taking off my mask. ‘It’s Genna!’

  As he sits up, the moonlight shimmering faintly through the barred window falls across his pale, lean face. He greets me with a fiendish grin. ‘Good to see you again, Genna,’ says Damien.

  29

  My knees almost give way beneath me and I stumble back against the wall. ‘You! But how did you g-get here?’

  Damien looks faintly amused. ‘British Airways. Business class, in fact.’

  ‘You know that’s not what I meant!’ I reply furiously. ‘What have you done with Phoenix?’

  ‘Nothing …’ he says, casually inspecting a fingernail. ‘At least, not yet.’

  Enraged, I clench both fists and launch myself at him. Attacking more with fury than skill, I throw a wild punch. He deftly evades it, jabs me in the stomach, then pins me against the wall. His forearm presses hard across my throat, and I fight for breath. Damien leans in close, his black pooling eyes peering intently into mine. For the briefest of moments I glimpse a faint blue gleam in their depths, like the glint of a coin at the bottom of a well, my Light reflected in his Darkness. Drawn ever deeper, I begin to feel a strange connection, an entwining of souls, like two vines wrapping round each other … Then Damien looks away, breaking the spell.

  ‘I admire your spirit, Genna, but we don’t have time for this,’ he snarls. ‘Everyone’s waiting for you.’

  As I try to make sense of what just occurred between us, he directs my gaze towards the door where three of his Soul Hunters are clustered in the corridor. Thug, his nose bandaged from our last encounter, restrains a squirming Jude in his powerful grip, his hand clamped across her mouth. Spider holds Jude’s Taser, the weapon reloaded now and aimed at me. Beside her skulks Knuckleduster, her dark eyes narrowed into a livid glare. Damien pushes me towards the door and into her eager clutches. Her nails dig painfully into my skin as she yanks my arms behind my back and fastens a plastic tie round my wrists.

  ‘I see you’ve brought company,’ Damien says, giving Jude a derisive look up and down. ‘A so-called Soul Warrior. Fat lot of good she did guarding you, Genna. No wonder she’s a failed Protector.’

  The muzzled Jude glares back at him with a fierce loathing, her blazing eyes rimmed with tears. She says something in reply, but her words are muffled by Thug’s beefy hand.

  ‘I want to see Phoenix!’ I demand angrily.

  ‘Why, of course,’ Damien replies, the slyest of smiles sliding across his pale lips. ‘After all, you’ve come such a long way.’

  He beckons his Hunters to follow and we’re manhandled along the corridor to a set of double doors. Swiping a key card through the lock, Damien leads us down a stairwell into the bowels of the building and I begin to wonder how he and his Hunters can roam so freely about the facility. Stopping in front of a heavy wooden door marked MAINTENANCE ONLY, Damien swipes the key card again and we enter the basement. The air is dank and cold and reeks of wet rags and mouse droppings. A pile of mops, buckets and disinfectant has been dumped near the doorway. Overhead, the high ceiling is veined with rusting utility pipes that recede into the gloom. Only a feeble strip light near the entrance is working and that flickers and buzzes incessantly like an electrified mosquito.

  What’s most haunting about the place, though, is the gathering that’s taking place in the far depths of the basement. Dressed in white hospital robes, their heads bowed, a mob of patients form a ghostly semicircle round the far end wall. They each hold a black candle, the flames flickering in the semi-darkness, the hot wax dripping over their fingers and on to the bare concrete floor. In unison they’re reciting in a low, unsettling murmur: ‘Ra-Ka, Ra-Ka, Ra-Ka …’

  As we approach, the chanting stops and they part to allow us through. Their dark pooling eyes follow our procession with a hunger and frenzied intensity that makes my skin crawl. Among them I spot the bone-pale young woman from earlier; she puts a finger to her lips and lets out another tremulous giggle. The full horror of our predicament now hits me – this isn’t just a mental health facility. It’s Tanas’s lair!

  Then we reach the centre of their gathering – and my world falls apart.

  ‘Phoenix!’ I gasp. My Soul Protector is laid out on a hospital gurney, his arms and legs restrained by Velcro straps. Set against the wall a large metal trolley has been transformed into a makeshift altar with an array of surgical instruments carefully arranged round a pair of tall black candles and a crudely carved wooden statue with cat-like eyes and pointed fangs. I’ve seen this idol before and I shudder at the memory of the gruesome godhead – a grim reconstruction of the ancient deity honoured by the Tletl tribe some five thousand years ago. On the floor beneath Phoenix’s gurney there’s another chillingly familiar symbol: an upside-down pentagram scrawled in black ink. Within its lines are dark stains of dried blood and for one heartbreaking moment I think we’re too late …

  Then Phoenix stirs. Although heavily sedated he appears to be unharmed. But that’s when I grasp whose blood it really is on the floor. For I recognize the criss-cross of pipes on the ceiling from the soul link I shared with Caleb. This is where Saul and Maddy were killed, ritually slaughtered by Tanas himself.

  ‘Genna?’ groans Phoenix, woozily lifting his head to get a better look. His dull eyes widen in alarm. ‘NO! The Hunters – they caught you!’

  Damien laughs coldly. ‘Not exactly, Phoenix. She came here of her own free will … to rescue you, would you believe!’

  ‘Whaaa?’ he slurs.

  ‘You see, she and this so-called Soul Warrior thought they could break you out of here,’ Damien explains as he circles the gurney, ‘but actually they were walking straight into a trap!’

  Phoenix’s unfocused gaze wavers from me to Jude. There’s a flicker of recognition. ‘Jude, you idiot!’ he cries, his anger cutting through his haze. ‘What were you thinking?’

  ‘Don’t blame Jude,’ say Damien. ‘It’s your connection to Genna that drew her here.’

  Phoenix falls silent, the weight of the Hunter’s words slowly sinking in. His head lolls to one side and he gazes at me. ‘You should never have come for me,’ he murmurs, his blue eyes welling with grief and guilt.

  ‘But I’m soul-linked to you,’ I reply, tears running down my own cheeks. ‘I had to …’

  Savouring our distress, Damien claps his hands together and rubs them in satisfaction. ‘Well, now that we’re all happily reunited, we can begin,’ he says. ‘Hunters, prepare for our first sacrifice!’

  ‘Shouldn’t we wait for –’

  Damien cuts Spider off with a scowl. ‘Do as I say.’

  Ignoring the uncertain looks from the rest of his gang, Damien pulls his hood up over his head, turns to the altar and raises his hands to the godhead in tribute. ‘All praise, Ra-Ka!’

  The congregation of Incarnate patients resume their incantation, swaying from side to side as if in a trance, their vacant stares horrifying in their chilling emptiness. Knuckleduster pulls me over to the altar and forces me to face Phoenix on the gurney.

  ‘I want you to have the best view,’ she hisses in my ear. ‘I want you to watch as his very soul is torn from him and obliterated forever.’

  Feeling both sick and furious, I try to wrench myself free of her grip, but she merely digs her nails in deeper and seizes a handful of my hair, jerking my head back. ‘Watch,’ she snarls.

  Meanwhile Thug drags Jude to the other end of the gurney, ensuring she can witness the ritual too. ‘You’ll be next,’ he gloats, his voice thick through his bandaged nose. Jude glowers at him like a wild cat, subdued only by the Taser trained on her by Spider.

  From the makeshift altar Damien picks up a surgical scalpel, its keen blade glinting in the flickering candlelight. Turning to the gurney, he places its sharpened tip at the base of Phoenix’s throat. Sedated and shackled, Phoenix can only lie there and accept his fate.

  ‘No, no – don’t,’ I beg, a surge of desperation welling up in me. ‘Damien, please don’t.’

  With a vengeful glance in my direction, Damien slices straight down Phoenix’s chest. I screw my eyes shut, unable to watch. But I hear no pained scream from Phoenix. Is he too sedated to feel anything? Tentatively opening my eyes, I let out a sob of relief. Damien has merely cut Phoenix’s T-shirt in half to expose his chest.

  Damien smirks at me. ‘I need a clean strike with the jade knife, you see,’ he explains gleefully.

  Turning back to the altar, he holds his left hand over a metal bowl into which hot black wax drips from the fanged mouth of the godhead. With a quick flick of the scalpel, he cuts his palm and lets his own blood trickle into the mix.

  ‘Ruq haq maar farad ur rouhk ta obesesh!’ he murmurs, reciting the archaic hex learned by rote from his master to seal the spell. Then he sets the scalpel aside, picks up the bowl and returns to the immobile Phoenix. Cradling his lolling head, Damien forces him to drink the pungent potion. I grimace, feeling nauseous myself as I recall the scalding bitter taste of the concoction in my own throat, how it enfeebled me and made me vulnerable to Tanas’s powers. Phoenix screams and arches his back as the toxic mix worms its way through his veins. He writhes in agony against his restraints, then collapses limp and sweating on to the gurney once more.

  ‘Rura, rkumaa, raar ard ruhrd …’ intones Damien.

  As he recites the ancient ritual that will separate Phoenix’s soul from his body and send it into oblivion, the congregation begin to extinguish their candles, one by one. As the basement dims into deeper darkness, I start to weep. I know there’s no coming back once the ceremony is complete. With my hands bound behind my back and Knuckleduster keeping a tight grip on me, I’m powerless to save my Protector.

  The blue gleam of his eyes is fading, turning darker with each passing second.

  ‘Your life with mine, as always,’ I cry, trying to catch Phoenix’s bleary-eyed, desolate stare.

  ‘Yess, as alwayssss,’ he slurs with a sad, lop-sided smile. But we both know this will be our final and forever parting.

  ‘How sweet,’ Damien mutters scathingly. ‘Now we’ve got our goodbyes out of the way, let’s finish this once and for all!’

  Picking up the Guatemalan jade knife, the one stolen from Mei’s home, he approaches the gurney and raises the blade over Phoenix’s bare chest. The chanting of the patients grows louder and more insistent, a thudding heartbeat of ‘Ra-Ka! Ra-Ka! Ra-Ka!’

  There are only a few candles left to snuff out before the darkness will be total. The Incarnates start stamping their bare feet on the floor as the ritual reaches its climax and Damien roars, ‘Uur ra uhrdar bourkad, RA-KA!’

  All of a sudden the basement door bursts open and a flood of light spills back in.

  ‘STOP RIGHT THERE!’

  30

  ‘Put the knife down!’ orders Agent Haze, his gun trained on Damien. As he advances, with Agent Lin covering him from behind, the patients step fearfully aside to allow them through.

  Reluctantly, Damien lowers the jade knife and places it on the gurney. My sense of relief at seeing the two federal agents is only surpassed by my joy that Phoenix’s life has been spared at the very last moment. I shouldn’t have been so distrustful of the FBI after all – their intervention has saved not only Phoenix, but Jude’s and my life as well.

  ‘Thank goodness you’ve come!’ I say breathlessly. ‘They wer–’

  ‘Shut up!’ snaps Agent Haze, turning the glare of his mirrored glasses on me.

  I recoil instantly, his brusqueness stunning me into silence. Still, I suppose he’s got a right to be angry. I did run away the last time we met – and Jude even tasered him – so he’s bound to be peeved. All that matters now though is that the two FBI agents arrest Damien and his gang and get us out of here –

  But my relief turns to shuddering horror as, around me, the congregation begin prostrating themselves on the floor and bowing to the two agents. Even Damien’s gang of Soul Hunters drop to one knee at their approach.

  ‘I trust you weren’t attempting the ritual by yourself, Damien!’ snarls Agent Haze.

  ‘It’s only a Protector,’ Damien replies petulantly. ‘As a most loyal servant, surely I could be granted that small privilege?’

  Agent Haze backhands Damien across the jaw. ‘How dare you presume to usurp the Darkness!’

  My mind reels and I feel sick with bewilderment. It takes a full thirty seconds for the terrible truth to finally sink in: Agent Haze is an Incarnate! Not only that but, judging by the servile reaction of the congregation, he’s their leader.

  This must be Tanas!

  The ground beneath me seems to drop away. Damien wasn’t lying when he said Tanas had incarnated into a new body, as this one is noticeably stronger and more powerful than that of Gabriel, the old balding priest I’d encountered in the deconsecrated church six months ago. Dwarfed by his granite-hard physique, I begin to despair of our chances – our enemy is more formidable than ever!

  ‘I give you my word, I wasn’t being presumptuous,’ Damien assures him, bowing his head obediently as the blood drips from his split lip. ‘I only wish to hasten our cause, to deal swiftly with those who hamper our destruction of the Light.’

  ‘That’s still no reason to start the ritual without us!’ scolds Tanas. ‘For your impatience you must suffer the consequences.’

  Damien looks up imploringly, his black eyes blazing not with anger but fear. ‘But I’ve captured a First Ascendant, a Protector and a Warrior. Surely that deserves –’

  ‘Deserves? You do not decide what you deserve.’

  As Tanas rebukes Damien for his insubordination, Knuckleduster remains on bended knee, her head bowed low in an effort to avoid Tanas’s wrath. Hoping she doesn’t look up, I blindly reach behind me towards the altar. There! My fingers brush against the cool steel handle of the scalpel. Secretly I work the blade into position and start cutting at the plastic tie binding my wrists.

  I glance over, first at Jude, who’s eyeing the Taser in Spider’s hand, then at Phoenix, who stares blankly at the ceiling. Stupefied by both the hospital sedative and the ritual potion, he remains insensible to what’s going on. It occurs to me that the odds of all three of us escaping the basement alive are slim at best.