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A cold, blue light spilled under the door she had discovered, along with the smell of corrupt magic.Low voices came from beyond, their tone strangely rhythmical, as if they were chanting.

Tension knotted Evander’s shoulders.He glanced at his companions and signalled with his hand.

“In five,” he mouthed.

They nodded, determination filling their faces as they grasped their weapons and manifested their powers.

Evander gathered his magic protectively around him and was silently counting down when startled cries suddenly erupted on the other side of the door.An explosion boomed an instant later.The blue glow under the door shifted to crimson.

Fear choked his chest when he recognised Leon and Viggo’s voices in the aftermath of the detonation.

He kicked the door open, heedless of losing the element of surprise.A revolting, metallic tang of dark magic mired withBlood Magicwashed over him and caused him to gag.The amulet around his neck flared white.

Evander pressed a hand to his mouth and nose and froze, the sight before him making the air lock in his throat.

Chapter39

The stenchof the sewers was almost unbearable.

Viggo grimaced as he and Leon splashed through ankle-deep filth in their rubber waders and galoshes, the glow of their enchanted lanterns piercing the sulphurous gloom.They could not risk live fire down here, not with how flammable the noxious gases around them could turn out to be.

The damp air clung to the Brute’s skin, carrying with it the putrid scent of decay and God only knew what else.Behind them trailed a contingent of Met officers and mages, their weapons and warded shields at the ready.

“I take it you’ve navigated these tunnels before?”Leon asked, his nose wrinkled in disgust as he held a handkerchief to his face.The prototype device McAndrew and Mrs.Scarborough had made swung lightly against his chest.

“More times than I care to remember,” Viggo muttered.“Sometimes the only way to move undetected through London is beneath it.”

Leon cast him a sidelong glance.“Somehow I find it difficult to imagine someone of your stature moving ‘undetected’ anywhere.”

Viggo shot him a dark look.“You’d be surprised how invisible thralls can be in this city.”

The Frenchman had the grace to look chastened.

“How much farther, sir?”one of the Met officers called out from behind, his voice echoing uncomfortably in the confined space.

“Another quarter mile,” Viggo replied gruffly, ignoring the ‘sir.’“The access point should be directly beneath the south wing of the Institute.”

They had entered the labyrinthine network of tunnels through a maintenance entrance near Russell Square and were following the route Richfield and Inkwell had mapped out for them.Richfield’s calculations had matched Viggo’s knowledge of London’s underground passages.

They reached a junction where four tunnels converged.

Viggo indicated the rightmost passage.“This way.”

“You’re certain this is the right direction?”Leon asked uncertainly as the Brute took the lead and headed into the tunnel.

“We’d make better speed if you stopped second-guessing me,” Viggo muttered.

Leon sighed and seemed to immediately regret the act when he inhaled a particularly foul vapour that made him gag.

Viggo swallowed a grin.

The tunnel gradually narrowed as they continued through the warren of passages, forcing them to proceed in single file.The officer behind Leon muttered a string of colourful curses when a pair of rats slithered past his boot.They soon reached a brick archway that looked considerably newer than the surrounding stonework.

“Almost there,” Viggo said.“This section was rebuilt after the Great Fire.”

He finally halted beneath an iron grating set into the ceiling of the tunnel.Unlike the rusted fixtures they’d passed, this one gleamed dully in the lantern light, its bars untarnished by time or the corrosive effluvia of the sewers.It had been bolted shut with a padlock.

“This looks new,” Leon observed.