Page 29 of Claimed By the Wraiths

The room tipped.

Tal was against the wall, breathing hard. The first two operatives were closing on him while the extraction pair caught me before I hit the floor.

I fought anyway.

My body had stopped taking instructions in the right order, but I fought.

The last thing I saw was my shoe under the chair.

The last thing I felt was the bond somewhere beyond the walls, hot and moving toward me.

Then nothing.

SERAK

The trap made sense now.

Tal must already have been under watch. Jessa Corren’s reappearance beside him raised the flag. The authenticated handshake told them what she had come for.

Her last words through the comm had been, “They’re here.”

I was already moving.

Side room 14-B was directly above me. I hit the service stairs and took them three at a time.

I let the dark come.

Not the surface version. Deeper.

My skin went black. Corridor lights dimmed as the shadows pulled toward me, the edges of my body blurring into the spaces between them.

Two of the covert security team held the junction ahead.

They looked directly at me.

Their eyes slid past.

I was through before either one understood there was something to see.

The door to 14-B stood open.

Two operatives in conference-staff uniforms were still inside with Tal.

The room told me the rest.

Table shoved out of position. One chair on its side. A used sedative patch on the floor.

Her left shoe trapped under the chair.

No Jessa.

I came out of the dark between the two operatives.

The first hit the floor before the second finished turning. He got one hand up. It didn’t matter.

Two seconds.

Tal was pressed against the wall, breathing hard.