Page 132 of Moonlight Hearts

Ambrose’s voice.We all went after him.

In front of the building’s door—metal and with a sign that said this was an event and shared office space—the Brit stared Ambrose in the eye, transfixed.

I didn’t connect the dots immediately, but then Ambrose asked, “How do we get inside?”

He had…what, compelled the lawyer?Or charmed him?I wasn’t entirely sure what the right word was, but it didn’t matter.What mattered was that the lawyer reached into his pocket and pulled out a keycard like the type you’d be given at a hotel.

“You swipe this and go up to the second floor.”

Ambrose took the card.“How many there?”

The lawyer’s mouth was hanging open.“Caecilius and his attendants.The great sorceress.A few guards.”

“How many?Give me a head count.”

The lawyer swallowed, looking tense.“I’m not too sure.His attendants are like butterflies, and the guards try to remain unseen.”

“Right.You’re going to stay down here.Right where you are is good.Don’t move.Wait.Tell the Lords Hawthorne where Caecilius is, and tell them he has a witch up there.”

“Yes,” the lawyer said.

Ambrose walked up to the door, but hesitated.“Anything I should know before we do this?”

“It’s difficult to see,” Echo said.“Probably the witch’s power interacting with my sight.But this feels like the right thing.”

“Right thing, my ass.”Ambrose swiped the card, and the door mechanism clicked, letting him open it.He turned to look at me and Elias.“You two especially, do not get in trouble.Or in the way.You are going to be quiet and in the background, behind me.”He pointed at Thaeros.“Failing that, hide behind the pretty one.”

Thaeros’s eyes went wide.“Hey, that’s a little—”

“It’s fine,” I said.“I think everyone here agrees that you’re the only one who’s, you know, martial.Witches need to be decapitated, you know that, right?”

Elias blinked up at me, his green eyes bright in the cold night air.“How doyouknow that?”

“I’m aware,” Ambrose said.“Most things react really poorly to having their heads cut off.My point stands.You two just keep quiet and out of the way.You’re basically bait at this point, so help me fuck.”

“Almost better than lava.Almost,” Elias mumbled.

Ambrose opened the door, and we followed him.Thaeros did go ahead of us, but he was nowhere near as confident as I’d seen him on that first day in the Moonlight.

The building was concrete—clean, but boring.Signage opposite the door pointed out the meeting rooms, the event space, and the offices.There was a metal trash can next to the sign, and right next to it, someone had dropped a candy wrapper.No one cared for this building or cared to keep it clean.It really was just rooms for rent.

The lights flickered on automatically.Ambrose ignored the elevator and made for the emergency staircase.

“Echo, issues with the stairs?”he asked.

“None, although this is more of a workout than I normally do in a month.”

“Your own damn fault,” Ambrose grumbled.

He opened the heavy door, and we filed into the stairwell, one after another except for Elias, who wouldn’t let go of me.

The stairs were empty, and lights came on here as well.“Shit,” Ambrose said.“Let’s move fast and hope no one sees this.I fucking hate motion sensors.”

As he took the first step, he pulled on a pair of gloves that didn’t look like regular gloves.They were too heavy and bulky.To me, it looked like they had knuckledusters sewn right to the fabric, and I found myself wondering who’d make something like that and sell it, and what they would tell customers they were.Hammers for your fists?

On the landing, my eye was drawn to a window, the glass frosted to let in light but no sight.Dead insects had collected on the sill, flies and bigger bugs with their little legs coiled in, a bee even, though how a bee had made it in here in this weather, I didn’t know.The odd thing was, they were lined up one after the other, like a silent and still procession of chitinous corpses.

The sight of this oddity combined with that heavy, dark feeling that was sneaking under my skin, as if we were the friend group in a slasher movie, bound to die while exploring the basement.I didn’t think anyone else had noticed the bugs though, and anyway, I couldn’t be sure I wasn’t just reading into things.