Page 119 of Deadly Knight

Shouts come from afar and Vanessa curses, meeting the guard’s eye behind me. They seem to have a silent conversation before she guides us into the open space, gun raised, while scanning for anyone on the balconies. No one shoots back, and we reach the wide metal staircase on the other side of the room.

Vanessa streaks up them and I follow, my steps slowed because despite taking self-defence classes, it turns out I’m nowhere near fit enough to tackle these stairs. I pity the soldier behind me, but he doesn’t appear bothered by my slow speed.

She gestures in the direction of the next set of stairs that go to the third floor. “Check up there,” she orders him. “Signal if you find him. We’ll check this floor.”

He nods and takes off and Vanessa tugs me along the wall, scanning downstairs for anyone who might attack, while my eyes pass over every open cell to our right and also across to the other side, the building design at least helpful in that manner.

“I don’t see him.” Helplessness seeps into my tone. “Vanessa, he isn’t here!”

“He’s here. Somewhere.” She leans across the balcony, whistling to gain the attention of the soldier she sent upstairs, but he only shakes his head before pointing towards the stairs.

Vanessa runs back that way and I follow. There’s a sudden slap against the cement behind me, one not in the same pattern as Vanessa’s steps, and I’m partway turned around when I notice the figure following. The soldier comes out of nowhere, presumably hidden in one of the other cells, his arm linking around my waist.

I yell for Vanessa while recalling everything Bailey’s ever taught me, my actions driven by panic and instinct. Knife in hand, I stab downwards intending to hit any part of him. He howls when I score his arm, loosening just enough I’m able to position an elbow into his chest and a knee into his groin, kicking at the same time as shoving away.

There’s a small distant bang, and then he’s falling with a thud, a bullet hole cleanly through his forehead, dark eyes dead and vacant.

“Badass.” Vanessa grabs my wrist, pulling me away from the dead man. “He must have been hiding, sorry. You okay?”

Panting, I nod, and Vanessa's man appears at the top of the staircase taking everything in. “Everything alright, Pakhan?”

“As fine as it can be.”

He scans me up and down, more clinically than anything, before nodding. “Upstairs is empty. Think Lev had it wrong?”

“Doubt it.” Vanessa rubs a hand down her face. “We’ll go back down and find the others. There must be more to this place that didn’t show up on blueprints. Text Lev if you’re able to and see if anything else can be dug up.”

She leads us downstairs, and though my legs are burning, I push on and don’t say anything, not even willing to relive the near-attack upstairs that had my heart racing both in fear and adrenaline. Dimitri wouldn’t give up looking for me, even if he had to walk the continent to do it, so I’ll have to fall dead before I do.

“Is there a reason there’s so few guards?”

“They wanted us to find him. You saw the note. They’re banking on a trade.”

Ivan being freed into the world is terrifying. To have the source behind my attack walking around isn’t what I want, but if I had to choose, I would do it. For Dimitri.

“Will you?”

“Fuck no. Knife up.”

Vanessa turns a corner, almost colliding with a figure. Anastasia lowers her gun, the other soldiers coming up behind her, each gripping the arm of a man, his body limp with blood trailing from his nose and ears.

“We got rid of everyone they had. Killed Andrei, but not before he squealed there’s a basement. That’s where they have him locked up.” She holds up a key on a thin chain. “Kept this one alive in case you want to chat with him.”

“Lock him in one of the cells upstairs,” Vanessa commands her men. “Then stay with him. I’ll be there shortly.”

They drag the limp man away whose head lolls, no fight given.

“You doing okay?” Anastasia touches my arm. “You look like you’re about to pass out.”

“Feel like it too, but I’ll manage.”

“Someone was hiding upstairs and grabbed her. She got out of his hold by the time I managed to lodge a bullet between his eyes.”

She whistles before turning to jog the way she came. “Mikhail, with some encouragement, pointed out the basement door before I knocked him out.” She taps on the door she stops in front of, its broken window blackened with dust and age.

She descends the stairs first, then me, and Vanessa brings up the rear. It’s nearly pitch-black, but Anastasia finds a switch, bathing the hall in a dull, yellow light.

It’s a hallway of six metal doors. The stone wall is cracking, the lights flickering every few steps we take. It’s eery, a chill of death settling on the space making me shiver, bumps sprouting on my arms.