Page 138 of Twist of Fate

Connal closed his eyes briefly, his breath warm against Luke’s cheek.

Then he pulled away.

Battle focus settled over his expression again, but he kept one hand around Luke’s arm until Luke stood steadily on his own.

Asterius moved to the doorway and looked into the corridor. “They’ve cleared the corridor.”

“That is never good,” Zer said.

Keir crouched beside one of the fallen attackers and removed a black device from his belt. The screen was cracked, but a map of the building remained visible beneath one pulsing symbol.

Tyson took the device and compared it to the plans he carried.

A glowing route climbed from the sublevels toward a marked point at the top of the building.

“That’s not an exit,” Tyson said.

Luke moved closer. “It’s the roof.”

Connal looked at him.

“The receiver is up there,” Luke explained to the others. “The system said its core has to be removed manually.”

“And now the strike team is heading toward it,” Keir said.

Luke touched the pocket holding Hale’s keycard. It had gotten him into the basement controls. With any luck, it would open the secured route to the roof as well.

“They knew the local system had been destroyed before they withdrew,” Luke said. “We have to assume they know the receiver is still active.”

“Do they intend to destroy it?” Asterius asked. “Or take it?”

“I don’t know.”

That was the problem. The strike team had attacked Hale and the buyer, verified the destruction of the basement system, and moved immediately toward the only functioning piece that remained.

They weren’t merely fleeing. Whatever waited on the roof was the next phase of their plan.

Connal tightened his grip on his sword. “Then we go up.”

Luke wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand and stepped beside him.

“Good,” he said. “I’m really starting to hate this building.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Connal raised his hand to open a portal.

Luke caught his arm. “Not directly onto the roof.”

“I had not intended to. I do not know what is waiting there.” Connal looked down at the hand gripping him. The torn nail had left blood across Luke’s fingers, and bruises were already forming around his wrist. “I am taking us to Hale’s office. We know the terrain, and it will place us close enough to approach the roof without emerging inside an ambush.”

Luke considered that, then released him. “That works.”

Connal opened the portal.

This time, when Connal entered Hale’s office, Luke stepped through beside him. The ruined room had changed since Connal and his brothers first entered it. Smoke had thickened beneath the ceiling. The shriek of the alarm had stopped, but flashing lights still pulsed silently along the walls. Wind rushed through the broken windows, scattering papers across the bloodstained carpet.

Keir and Zer emerged behind them, followed by Asterius and Tyson. Avaneel remained tucked into Zer’s hair, only her eyes and the top of her head visible between the strands as she studied the room.