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The mage who had spoken earlier stepped forward.“Sir, I can create a sensory ward to mask our approach,” she said in a low voice.

“Do it,” Leon instructed.

She traced a complex pattern in the air, her fingers leaving faint trails of luminescence that quickly faded.A bubble of magic expanded around their group, distorting the air slightly before becoming invisible.

“We’ll be harder to see or hear now,” the mage explained.“But it won’t last long—perhaps five minutes at most.”

“It’ll do,” Viggo said in a hard voice.“Stay close.”

They moved forward with renewed caution.The sounds grew clearer as they approached a section of the corridor that widened into a small antechamber.

Viggo’s heart lurched.He stopped in his tracks, Leon freezing beside him.

Two men stood with their backs to them, deep in conversation while they moved an unconscious figure towards a doorway.

Viggo stilled at the sight of the slender, pale-faced blonde the men were handling with nonchalant care, heedless of the way they kept bumping her head on the floor.He was pretty certain he was looking at Katie Stoker.

Leon’s eyes darkened.

Viggo could understand his fury.The blue robes the men wore were a symbol of the Institute he had once been a student of.The Brute was pretty certain they were not faculty members but dark mages who had acquired the attire to disguise themselves.

“—still unstable,” one of the men was saying.He was tall, with stooped shoulders.“The transference rate is improving, but the mortality rate remains unacceptable.”

“Musgrave doesn’t care about that,” the other replied dismissively.“He’s more concerned with proof of concept than sustainability at this stage.”

“Easy for him to say.He’s not the one who has to dispose of the failures.”

Viggo’s vision narrowed at their casual discussion of human lives.He almost took a step forward in his rage, but Leon’s hand on his arm restrained him.

“Wait,” the Frenchman mouthed silently.

The two dark mages continued their conversation, oblivious to the intruders behind them.

“When is the next extraction scheduled?”the taller one asked.

“Tonight.Musgrave wants to attempt a second full elemental transfer using the thrall we captured today.”

“You mean Lady Hartley’s new servant?”

Ice flooded Viggo’s veins.Solomon!

“Yes.”

“Is he mad?!”the smaller man hissed.“We’ve yet to see a successful full transfer who survived the experiment.Sure, we’ve managed partial transfers, but you saw what happened with the last fellow he attempted to do a complete one on.He burned from the inside out!There was nothing left of him but a husk!”The dark mage gagged.“God, even thinking about how he smelled afterwards makes me want to vomit.I hope the thrall Musgrave is working on right now doesn’t end up the same.”

The taller mage frowned.“Pull yourself together, will you?Besides, that’s not our concern.You heard what he said.His master wants results.”

Viggo couldn’t contain himself any longer.He shook off Leon’s restraining hand and strode forward, his massive frame emerging from the ward’s protective bubble.

Chapter40

“Where is he?”he growled, his voice echoing in the confined space.“Where’s Solomon and the other thralls you’re keeping prisoner, you bastards?!”

The two mages dropped their charge clumsily and whirled around, shock evident on their faces.The shorter one recovered first.Dark magic flared in his hands as he prepared to unleash a spell.

Leon’sNullification Magiccaused his powers to dissipate in the blink of an eye.

Viggo closed the distance to the mage in two powerful strides and drove his fist into his solar plexus.The man doubled over with a wheezing gasp.Viggo knocked him out with a sharp blow to the back of his head.