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The corner of his lip twitches.I have no doubt.

The elevator dings without ever moving, and the doors reopen, revealing floor B1, a.k.a., the parking garage.

From our bond, I feel Memnon’s amusement.Incredible plan.

If you have a better one, I’m all ears.I pull out my phone as the doors close, checking the time.

11:44 p.m.

Six minutes until I’m to show up at the lobby. Sixteen minutes until midnight. My legs begin to tremble as I put the phone away and the elevator descends to B2.

Steady, my queen. We’ll get them.

Do you think there will be any more wards? We haven’t come across?—

Darkness steals the last of my thoughts and my consciousness along with it. I don’t feel it when I hit the floor.

CHAPTER 48

“I’ll be damned.We got them both.”

I make a noise as I blink my eyes open. My cheek is pressed to cold marble, and the room is sideways, but I can see several sets of suit-clad legs.

Before I can rise onto my knees, I feel someone’s boot connect with the back of my head. I grunt as pain explodes behind my eyes, dulling my vision, and I fall back to the floor.

Behind me, I hear a scream.

“Stay down,” a masculine voice growls at me, “or we’ll make you.”

Somewhere beyond my back, I can hear soft sobbing.

The man who kicked me now moves away, his boots squeaking against the floor. “I assumed you’d be happy you wouldn’t have to die tonight,” he taunts the crying woman.

Sybil.

I lift my head and turn it, uncaring that I might receive another hit to the head for the action.

The hit doesn’t come, and the first thing I see is my friend, flanked by several burly men who are currently talking quietly to one another. At least Ithinkthat’s Sybil.

Horror drips down my spine as I take her in. Both of her eyes are bruised and swollen nearly shut, and her body is bloody. She’s still sobbing, her entire body quaking.

“Sybil…” I whisper, reaching for her.

Sybil glances up at me, then shakes her head frantically, her gaze moving briefly to one of the men standing guard. The man glances her way, and she shrinks back, her shoulders curling in on herself.

Was he the one who gave her those bruises? He’s a dead man.

Ignoring her warning, my power leaves my palm, aimed at the guard in question. It’s only moved about a foot from me when it fans out across an invisible wall.

What the?—?

I sit up a little more, and that’s when I notice the hastily made chalk circle drawn around me, clearly made to contain me and my power inside.

I reach out a finger to the edge of the chalk, but instead of touching the powdery substance, I feel the bottom of the circle’s transparent wall.

I’m trapped.

My attention moves past the invisible barrier to the rest of the room. Everything in me goes still when I see a massive, slumped form just beyond my feet, trapped in his own chalk circle.