But I couldn’t feel her at all. She was gone. I shook my head. “Maybe she went up those stairs.”

  Looking around, the path from the door to the stairs was the clearest. There was only a little rubble in the way, and very few wrappers, cans, and pieces of broken glass to walk over. I headed in that direction with Draven by my side, my dagger ready in my hand, and my light shining to keep the dark at bay. That was when I heard a hard, loud sound coming from somewhere upstairs.

  Either there was someone up there, or this building was about to come apart around us.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “Was that a door shutting?” I asked.

  Draven started moving a little more quickly, his steps more confident than mine. I could see in this light, almost, but his night vision was incredibly advanced. It was also very sensitive to light. This was one of the reasons he wouldn’t go out during the day.

  Luckily the stairs were firm under my feet, and as I made it to the second floor, I could safely say the ground wasn’t going to give way as I walked over it. Still, I kept my pace as silent and as soft as I could.

  The hallway we were in was dark and silent, and there was no sign of the girl. There was only one door on the entire floor that was intact, though, so I headed over in that direction and waited. Draven stepped up to the door and cocked an eyebrow at me. I could hear movement in the room. Someone was ruffling around in there.

  I counted to three with my fingers, and on three, Draven shoved his boot into the door and busted the lock. The door splintered, opening to reveal a dark room that was mostly empty, cold, and dull. A single mattress lay on the floor, with a flimsy sheet thrown over it. Next to it, a collection of tattered books.

  I felt her power before I saw her. She was hiding behind a broken old crib where once a baby may have slept. Her eyes were sharp under her hair, brimming with intelligence and amber light, but also with fear and distrust. She must have started hiding her power after she saw us because I hadn’t been able to sense it again until now.

  “Hey,” I said, “Look, I’m not gonna hurt you. I just wanna talk.”

  She backed up, slipping further into the darkness. We hadn’t won any brownie points by busting her door open like that.

  Eyes up, Felice said into my brain, you’re gonna have company in a few seconds.

  I turned my head away and whispered. “Is it a single guest or a party?”

  Just one, but he’s moving fast. And he’s big. Not Valoel.

  I gave Draven my attention. “Another one is coming…”

  “We need to leave,” Draven said.

  “We can’t just leave her here.”

  I looked at the girl again. “What’s your name?” I asked.

  Still, no reply.

  “Seline, we didn’t come here to save people,” Draven said, “We came here to find Valoel.”

  “Then go and find him—I’m not leaving her alone. It looks like someone tried to chain her up!” I turned to look at her again. “Were you someone’s prisoner?” I asked.

  She scurried deeper into the darkness, suddenly turning and heading for the boarded window. I intercepted her, beating her to the window. Draven made sure to stand between her and the only door leading out of the room. She wasn’t going to escape; at least, she wouldn’t escape unless she decided to turn that powerful magic on us.

  “We’re not enemies,” I said, “We’re here to help. My name is Seline, this is Draven. What’s your name?”

  “They call me Six,” the girl ventured, her voice soft and low.

  I swallowed hard.

  “Could you tell me where you’ve come from? Who tied you up?”

  “I escaped…”

  “Escaped? From where?”

  “From the temple… I’m not worthy of freedom, so they locked me up.”

  “Who’s they?” Draven asked.

  “The others…”

  I couldn’t tell if she was being deliberately vague, or if she’d just fallen through a rift. Maybe her mind was still struggling with the amnesia that hits us all when we fall to Earth, maybe she couldn’t make sense of what was going on. Of course, that only worked on the assumption she was from the other side. I could only tell she had powerful magic within her, not what kind of magic she had.

  I don’t know what you’re doing, Felice said, but you need to get out of there, right now.

  I ignored Felice’s voice in my head. “This place isn’t safe,” I said, “If the others are fiends, then there’s one coming right now, and we need to get you out of here and as far away from this place as possible.”

  “I can’t,” Six said, “They won’t let me.”

  “Seline, we’re running out of time,” Draven snapped.

  “Just take my hand,” I said to Six, “We won’t hurt you. No one will. I promise.”

  Six stared at me, then at my hand. I waited, even as I knew someone was coming; someone big, and dangerous. This girl looked downright feral, the human version of an alley dog that had seen a great deal of pain and stress. I didn’t think she’d ever trust me, but slowly, she reached for my hand.

  I took it, and for an instant I felt her power, felt it moving through me like an electric current. I shuddered, but that was all. Draven, nodding, turned around and headed for the door, but the building suddenly trembled like it had just been hit with a wrecking ball. Bits of masonry fell from the ceiling, the wallpaper flaked away and turned to dust in the air, and downstairs, some huge animal roared.

  “It’s him!” Six yelled, “The one who kept me prisoner!”

  “Wait here,” Draven said, raising his sword, “I’ll deal with this.”

  “Like hell you will,” I said. “We’re a team, remember?”

  “I don’t have time to argue with you, Seline.”

  “Then don’t argue. Maybe the door upstairs isn’t as jammed as Felice thought.”

  It’s pretty jammed, Felice said into my brain. I’d almost forgotten she could hear all of this, and the sound of her voice made me jump. But you could try it.

  “Or we could go through it,” Draven suggested.

  I looked at Six. “Do you know who that is?”

  She nodded. “His name is Scythe, he’s the speaker, the one who talks for all of us.”

  “Is Scythe like an ironic pet name? Like maybe he’s not all that bad?”

  Six stared at me, blankly.

  “No? Okay. Worth a shot.”

  Downstairs, Scythe sounded like he was charging through the lobby. His footfalls were huge, like his feet were made of concrete. Every step he took made the walls shake. I hurried Six down the hall and made it to the stairs. In a second, Scythe would be charging up them.

  “Felice, where are you?” I asked.

  Upstairs, trying to get this damn thing open.

  “Don’t suppose you have a teleportation orb on you, Draven?”

  “I do, but I need more space to use it. This whole structure could come down at any second, the orb will only speed that process up.”

  “Alright, let’s go.”

  I pulled Six up the stairs just as Scythe came into view at the next landing beneath us. He was massive, his shoulders and arms like hams, his skin glowing red with marks that looked like they’d been carved into his body with a knife.

  He roared at us, spittle flying from his lips, and then shouldered his way up the stairs. Draven readied himself to buy us some time. With one hand he prepared his longsword to strike. The other he held in front of himself as if to guard his face.

  “Duras,” he said, and just as Scythe came charging at him, a magic shield of shimmering purple light erupted in front of Draven.

  Scythe impacted the shield with enough force to send Draven a few steps back, but the shield had a much more powerful effect on Scythe. He staggered, lost his footing, and went crashing down the flight of stairs he’d just come from.

  “Go!” Draven yelled.

  I didn’t need to be told twice. With Six’s hand firmly in mine, I ran up the stairs, my magic orb of light leading the way. The stairs were treacherous and uneven, some of them were gone entirely, only a hole in their place. Downstairs I could hear Scythe charging again, his massive body lumbering up the stairs.

  Draven hadn’t waited for him. Instead he’d moved up to the next landing, so he was right behind us. Six then jumped ahead of me and pulled me aside just as my foot was about to go through a hole. My heart lurched into my throat, then, as I saw the fiend directly below me. He was looking right at me, and by the way he was crouching, readying himself to pounce, I had an idea he was done using the stairs.

  “Draven, don’t!” I yelled, but he’d already started moving.

  The fiend’s upper body burst through the ground, sending pieces of concrete and wood flying. He had his hand out, his fingers splayed and searching. I had to shield my face to stop from getting debris in my eyes, but I also had to move away. The floor beneath my feet had started to crack, and in a couple of seconds, it would come down with me on it.

  “Up the stairs,” Six said.

  But I was watching for Draven. Between the darkness and the dust, I couldn’t see him. Had he been hurt? Was he laying unconscious somewhere? “Draven!” I yelled, coughing from the dust fighting its way into my lungs. He didn’t reply, and I didn’t wait.

  I moved with her up the crumbling stairs, going as fast as I could, taking the risers two at a time. The walls were crumbling now, the stairwell itself about to give way and collapse, but I’d reached the top and the closed door.

  As I ran up the final flight of stairs, I saw the reason why it wouldn’t open. The door had been wedged shut with a crowbar. I aimed my knife at the crowbar, and as I reached the last step, I yelled “Devio!”

  A blast of magic hit the metal rod and sent it spinning into the air. Felice then kicked the door open, allowing Six and me to get through to the roof. The cool air felt wonderful against my skin, it smelled like freedom, but we weren’t out of the woods yet.

  “Draven’s still down there,” I said to Felice, who stood on the roof with her wings stretched and the wind sweeping her plum hair.

  “I’m going in,” she said, drawing a pistol.

  “I’m not sure that’s gonna stop the thing down there.”

  “And your toothpick is?”

  “My dagger is not a toothpick.”

  “If you ladies could argue less, we would be out of here a lot faster.” Draven’s voice cut through the night, surprising us both. He was in the air, his black wings holding him aloft, his sword drinking in the moonlight and sending it shining off its metallic surface.

  “Draven! I thought you’d been crushed.”

  “Out of the way.” He reached into his pocket and produced a blue orb that pulsed with light and power.

  I moved away from the door, keeping Six as near to me as I could. Draven then wound back his arm and tossed the orb at the roof of the building. It stopped about two feet before it hit the floor, then exploded to become a crackling vortex of arching blue lightning. The explosion, though, had damaged the floor beneath our feet. Already cracks were spreading across the concrete.

  “Six, go with Felice,” I said, but Six was reluctant. The light from the portal reflected in her eyes, and now that I could see her face more clearly, I saw the bruises, too. My gut wrenched. Someone had hurt her; maybe it had even been the huge fiend fighting his way to the roof.

  “I… can’t…” she said.

  “Yes, you can. Just trust us. No one is going to hurt you, I promise.”

  “There’s no time for this!” Draven yelled.

  “And you aren’t helping!” I called out. “Please, Six… go with her.”

  Felice stretched her hand, and reluctantly, Six took it. A moment later they were both moving through the portal and out of sight. Draven came to land beside me. His face was a little cut up and he was covered in dust, but he was okay. The relief washing through me in that moment was palpable.

  “It’s time to go,” he said.

  I shook my head. “No… I need to take that asshole down.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  “Seline, we don’t know what kind of power he has, and I don’t want you getting hurt.”

  A warm feeling moved through me, then. I don’t want you getting hurt. It made sense he’d say that because we were pairs, I was his apprentice. But it also felt like a little bit more. Maybe I was making it up, but the way he’d said it…

  The floor rumbled again as more cracks spread. “You really wanna fight this thing?” Draven asked.

  “I do,” I said, turning to face the door, my dagger ready in my hand.

  Draven stretched his palm out toward the blue orb and the portal immediately collapsed. The vortex shrank to the size of a marble again, and it floated into Draven’s hand. He pocketed the orb and took to the air, his wings beating hard to pull him off the ground, his longsword at the ready.

  I stepped away from the door and waited. I could hear crashing sounds coming from inside as the fiend trundled up the stairs, his large form barely being supported by the structure beneath him. The roof access then exploded, and Scythe came charging through, shoulder first. Bits of brick and concrete scattered all over the place. Several sections of the roof crumbled and fell inwards, making me step even further away.

  Scythe stared up at Draven, his eyes brimming with hate, the magic radiating from him like an inferno. He was huge, easily seven-foot, and his leathery wings made him look even larger. There was no hair on his head, only markings carved into his scalp that glowed with unnatural red light. Metal bracers covered his arms, and he wore pants made of tattered leather, but besides that, he wore nothing else.

  “Where is the girl!” the fiend roared.

  “With us,” I said, “If you want her, you’ll have to kill us.”

  “Little Aevian bitch; killing you will be a pleasure. First, I will carve out your eyes, then I will rip off your tongue, and then—” Draven’s sword shot through the air and impaled itself into Scythe’s shoulder. The fiend staggered back a few paces and collapsed against what was left of the roof access.

  I looked up at him. “He was just getting to the good part!” I said.

  Draven shrugged. “I was getting bored.”

  The fiend groaned, grabbed Draven’s sword, and snapped it in half. He then tossed the broken pommel aside and stood, the piece of metal embedded into his shoulder not fazing him one bit. He beat his chest with one clenched fist, roared, and charged.

  I stepped away from him, using my superior speed to keep him far enough in front of me that he couldn’t hit me. Only problem with that was, I also couldn’t attack him, not without magic. I could’ve thrown a blast of energy at him, but if I missed and hit the floor, I could send the whole place crashing down around us. Unlike Draven and Scythe, I didn’t have wings, so that wasn’t an option.

  I needed a new plan.

  “Alright, asshole,” I said, “Let’s go for a run.”

  I turned around and sprinted toward the edge of the building. When I reached it, I took to the gap with a bounding leap between buildings, landing in a roll on the one across from me. The fiend gave chase, his massive feet stomping across the roof. When he reached the gap, he launched himself into the air and let his wings carry him across, only he didn’t land—he stayed up, following me through the sky like some kind of overgrown bat.

  I had his attention, though, so I kept running. I took another jump when I reached the next gap, this one was a little tougher to land properly, but I managed. I didn’t need to look back to know the fiend was still chasing me. His wings were so massive, the thwump, thwump, thwump, sound they made as they carried him through the air was impossible to miss.

  Now that I was on firmer ground, a little surer that it wouldn’t fall out from under me, I decided to stop at the next ledge and spin around. There was the fiend, his almost demonic form silhouetted against the clouds. I aimed my dagger at him, took a deep breath, and released my magic.

  “Veshrim!” I yelled, and a pulse of golden light erupted from the tip of my knife like it was a magic wand. The fiend ducked to the right to avoid it, but he was so slow, the magic struck one of his wings. He came down hard on the roof, the building rocked like it had been hit by cannon fire.

  I jumped away from the fiend as it rolled along the rooftop, its wings flapping around limply. It stopped at my feet, and I took my chance and stabbed it in the neck with my knife, but the knife didn’t go all the way through. The fiend grabbed my arm and pulled me towards him, then he sank his teeth into my bicep. The pain was white hot. I groaned as his fangs pierced not only the duster I was wearing, but also my flesh.

  I took another stab with my knife, then another, and another, but the fiend was like a dog with a bone. It wouldn’t give up. Draven finally landed beside me, and with a run-up, he kicked the fiend in head. His steel-capped boot connected with a loud crack, and the beast let go of my arm.

  I pulled back, and Draven kicked the fiend again, this time uttering a word of power under his breath. “Bellar,” the Aevian word for strength.

  Magic filled the air, and when Draven’s foot met the side of the fiend’s face this time, it was like a thunderclap had struck. The fiend’s eyes rolled into the back of his skull from the impact and he rolled again, this time away from us. I watched him struggle to stand, his mighty muscles pulsing under his skin.

  Scythe turned his head to look at us, and I saw then just how badly he hated us. I’d never known anything like it. The way these people hated us was unnerving, and not only because they were big, nasty, vicious bastards. It was unnerving because these people knew in their blood to hate us. Every fiend instinctively understood, anyone who wasn’t like them was a threat to be eliminated.

  If we all fell through the rifts, not knowing who we were or what we’d left behind, how did fiends know to feel that way about us? Did they know something we didn’t? Were fiends more likely to remember the other side? Or was their hatred hard-wired into their DNA?