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Rufus sucked in air.Shaw frowned heavily.

Viggo’s face darkened.“Like puppets operated from a distance.”

“Precisely.”Evander’s heart drummed wildly against his ribs.“That would explain how they managed to track and capture specific thralls without being detected themselves.And maybe even how they kidnapped Whitley and Chevalier.For all we know, the creatures hidden within the shadows could observe their targets for days, learning their routines, and?—”

“Waiting for the perfect moment to strike,” Viggo finished in a voice raw with anger.

Shaw shuddered.“So they could be watching us right now?”

They scanned the shadows around them.The overcast day seemed more ominous all of a sudden, each patch of darkness in the alley potentially harbouring unseen enemies.

“Anyone else getting a sudden case of the willies?”Shaw mumbled.

“I suspect they’ve retreated for now,” Evander said uneasily.“They have what they came for.”

The stark reality of Solomon’s fate hung heavily between them.If the pattern held true, he would be used as a vessel for stolen magic—a process that had already killed at least one man that they knew of.

Viggo gnashed his teeth.“We need to find that facility!”

“Scotland Yard.”Evander met his eyes steadily.“Let’s reconvene there and pool everything we’ve learned.”He touched the Brute’s shoulder.“We’ll investigate every avenue at our disposal to find Solomon, even if we have to turn the entire city upside down.You have my word.”

A measure of relief lightened Viggo’s expression.

The journey back to the Met’s headquarters passed in tense silence.Evander could feel his lover’s growing fear with every passing minute as daylight bled from the sky.He wasn’t sure if it was the dismal weather or the impending nightfall that was making him experience a sense of deep foreboding.

Leon was waiting for them in Evander’s office.To their surprise, he wasn’t alone.Elias McAndrew stood beside him, deep in conversation with a slender woman with auburn hair whom Evander recognised as Vivian Richfield, the Met’s cryptology expert.

They were bent over something on his desk, their expressions grim.

“Ah, your Grace,” Richfield greeted Evander briskly when he entered his office with the others.“Perfect timing.”Her gaze landed on Viggo.

Evander quickly made the introductions.

The cryptologist acknowledged Viggo with a frank stare.“The Ironfist Brute.It’s an honour.”To his surprise, she offered him her hand.

“I’m sorry about your friend,” Leon told Viggo solemnly while he shook Richfield’s hand.

Viggo accepted the commiseration with a stiff nod.

“Any clues from the scene?”Leon asked Evander.

“Yes.”Evander showed them the ring they’d found.

Richfield and McAndrew examined it curiously.

“A runic seal,” the artificer murmured thoughtfully as he held the ring up to the light.“How interesting.I wonder why a dark mage would feel the need to carry one of these around?”

Evander spotted the open volume on his desk.Hope quickened his pulse.

“You’ve found something in Chevalier’s journal?”he asked Richfield.

Chapter36

“Indeed I have.We were just discussing my findings.”The cryptologist gestured to the sheets of notepaper covered in complex calculations and translations spread around the leather-bound tome.“The professor encoded much of his work, particularly in the later sections.But once I identified the cipher—a rather clever adaptation of a Vigenère square using alchemical symbols—the text became quite clear.”

“And?”Rufus prompted impatiently.

A hard smile curved Richfield’s mouth.“There’s a map hidden within the journal’s endpapers.When exposed to the right magical frequency, it revealed architectural plans for an extensive underground facility.”