“Fuck,” I hissed aloud, wishing I could go faster. Unfortunately, this spell wasn’t meant for that sort of thing, so I gritted my teeth and waited the extra twenty seconds until I touched down atop the elevator box. Using one of my crescent knives, I pried open the hatch and cut an opening through the ceiling tile, then dropped down. Elnos floated in behind me as I forced open the doors, just in time to see one of the guards grab Noria from behind, and press a gun to the side of her head.

“Don’t move!” he cried, eyes darting between Rylan and me. There were four guards still standing, and two more lying dead on the floor, blood seeping from the gunshot wounds in their head. Rylan had his gun pressed to the head of the guard he held, but his eyes were glued to the guard who had Noria. Noria was still in her nightgown, which was now torn and stained with blood, and Rylan looked a little worse for wear too. A knife lay on the grey tile a few feet from Noria, and I guessed that was her weapon. Rylan wouldn’t be so foolish as to take her down here without giving her any way to defend herself, but of course she was no match for trained guards, knife or no.

“Or what?” I taunted, calling on my magic through instinct rather than Words. I focused on the gun in the guard’s hand, and the metal went white hot, warping the barrel. He yelped, instinctively letting go, and Noria burst from his grasp, lunging for the knife on the ground. I flung a chakram at the guard who’d threatened her life, then rushed to intercept the two who were closing in on Noria, swords drawn. Rylan shot the guard in his grasp point-blank, and Elnos magically thrust another guard back against the wall with enough force to crush his skull.

I caught the remaining guard’s downswing with one of my knives, then grabbed his sword arm and twisted until the elbow joint snapped. He screamed, sword clattering to the ground, and I drove him face-first into the wall.

“Where is Annia Melcott?” I snarled in his ear, pressing his arm into his back as I leaned against him.

“Sh-she’s in the cell at the end of the hall,” the guard babbled. I could smell the tears and snot running down his face, and urine too—the bastard had wet himself.

“And the shifter children?”

“I-i-in the other rooms, sp-split up,” he sobbed.

“They’ll each have their own cell,” Noria said, her voice remarkably subdued. I turned to see her standing next to Rylan, with Elnos’s arms wrapped around her from behind. The knife was still clutched firmly in her right hand. “The scientists won’t have wanted to risk skewing their data by cross-contamination.”