Page 128 of Twist of Fate

Connal inclined his head, accepting both the order and the name.

He opened the portal and went through first, his blade already drawn. Asterius followed, then Keir and Zer, with Tyson carrying the plans behind them. The portal closed before Gomez could reconsider his agreement.

The world on the other side was smoke, shattered glass, and screaming alarms.

Red emergency lights flashed across white walls. Shards glittered over the carpet beneath a bank of windows that had been punched inward. A large wooden desk lay overturned near the center of the office with one heavy leg cracked through. Papers had blown into every corner, some trampled into streaks of spilled coffee and blood.

A damaged wall panel hung crooked nearby, exposing wires that sparked blue-white against the smoke. The air carried the bitter scent of magic.

Connal tightened his grip on his sword. They had known the building was under attack. Knowing had not prepared him for the wreckage—or the possibility that Luke had been caught inside it.

“Luke!”

The alarm answered him.

Asterius emerged behind him with a curse. Keir immediately moved toward the nearest doorway, checking the corridor beyond, while Zer turned slowly in place with his knives drawn. Avaneel peered through his hair, watching the room from the protection of his shoulder.

Tyson came through last. He stopped beside the ruined desk, shock briefly breaking through his composure before he forced his attention back to the building plans.

Connal closed his eyes and reached for the connection that had vanished when he crossed into the Unseelie realm. This time, something answered.

Not Luke’s thoughts. Not his fear or pain. Nothing Connal could use to know what had happened to him.

Only an unmistakable living presence pulling him downward.

Luke was alive.

Connal turned toward the floor beneath his feet.

“Down.”

Asterius moved closer, his usual ease gone. “You can sense him?”

“He is alive,” Connal said. “Below us.”

Relief flashed across Asterius’s face before discipline buried it.

Zer crouched near one of the scorched marks left on the floor. “More than one kind of magic was used here.”

“They fought each other,” Keir said.

Once Keir named it, Connal could see the conflicting patterns in the damage. A force had driven inward through the windows, then redirected from somewhere near the office door.

Two magical enemies had met here.

He did not care which one had won.

“Find the way down.”

His brothers spread through the office. Keir checked the corridor while Zer followed the path of destruction around the overturned desk.

Tyson stepped carefully through the glass, comparing the room to the plans he carried. He stopped beside a pair of smooth metal doors set into the far wall.

“Hale’s private elevator.” He examined the dead panel beside it. “It connects this office to the building’s secured service levels and sub-basement.”

The bond pulled harder.

Luke was somewhere beneath the ruined office because the system was there. He had gone deeper into danger rather than escape and leave it intact.