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He was about to kick it down when two officers rushed towards them, metal jingling in their hands.

“Sir, we found the keys!”

It took but a moment to open the cell door.

Viggo engulfed Solomon in a bear hug when he stepped out.

Leon began working on the next lock.The Met officers and mages joined him, splitting up to work on the remaining cells.The doors opened one by one, revealing thralls in various states of distress.Some could barely stand, while others seemed physically unharmed but mentally distant, their eyes dull and vacant.

Viggo counted twenty people in total.Eight of them wore clothes more befitting of nobles than thralls.

“Sir, some of these prisoners are mages,” one of the Met’s officers confirmed as he listened to a woman whisper something to him from parched lips.

Viggo searched the faces of the thralls.“Did you find Tom Simmons?”he asked Solomon.

“He’s in the main chamber, along with the missing professors,” Solomon replied darkly.

Viggo frowned.“Main chamber?”

Solomon’s eyes grew haunted.“It’s where they’re conducting their experiments.It’s a massive laboratory with these—tanks.There are people floating in them, kept alive somehow while they have their magic extracted.”He shuddered.“I saw it when they brought me in.They were attempting to inject the magic they’d stolen into a thrall.”

Viggo and Leon exchanged a grim look.The description matched what they had most feared.

“We need to hurry,” Solomon urged.“When they took Simmons, I heard one of them say he was ready for the ‘final stage.’I haven’t seen him since.”

Dread settled in Viggo’s gut.The final stage was no doubt the full elemental transfer the two mages they’d knocked out had alluded to.

“Please, help them.”

Viggo and Leon turned to the female mage they’d rescued.She was staring at them, her eyes wide and her hand clutching the arm of the officer who was helping her stay upright.

“I’m a scientist myself.What they’re attempting to do isn’t stable,” she mumbled with a German accent.“Most of the thralls won’t survive.”

Viggo’s throat tightened.“How many have died already?”

The woman exchanged a harrowed glance with one of the other prisoner mages.“Four that we know of since we were brought here a month ago.They—they screamed for hours before the end.”Her face crumpled, a low sob escaping her.

Rage and horror warred within Viggo’s chest.

Leon placed a hand on his shoulder.“Focus,” the Frenchman said in a hard voice.“You can indulge your anger later.”

Viggo took a shallow breath and nodded stiffly, not trusting himself to speak.

“Let’s go,” Solomon said in a resolute voice.“I’ll show you where they are.”

“You’re in no condition to fight,” Viggo protested.

Solomon lowered his brows.“You’re not stopping me, Viggo.”

Frustration burned through the Brute.“Alright,” he reluctantly agreed.“Just make sure you stay behind me.”

Leon studied the captives with a frown.“We should send these people back the way we came.A couple of the officers can guide them to the sewer entrance while the rest of us continue.The men Winterbourne has stationed there can take them to the Met’s infirmary for care.”

“Have them bring Katie too,” Viggo said.“And they should take a pair of mages with them to be on the safe side.”

Leon nodded.

The Frenchman assigned a small team to escort the freed thralls and mages to the room where they’d entered the secret facility while they continued on.