She stopped short, shock coursing sharp and bitter through her body.

She shouldn't have been surprised. Tevan had been drawn by the pulse of magick on this floor, no doubt. Thomas, Adam, and Theo had to be expelling a lot of power to keep these humans behind doors for so long. In the melee, that possibility had escaped her.

Thomas and the others hadn't known what they were walking into, of course. They hadn't known their magick would draw the daaeman. They'd simply been focused on getting her out.

Thomas stared at Claire for a half a second, then yelled, "Go! Go, Adam! Get her out of here!"

CHAPTER FIVE

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Chaos exploded.

Thomas whirled toward Tevan in combat position even as Adam yanked Claire back hard against him.

Apparently, the tearful reunion would have to wait.

Claire stumbled back and around, watching Adam reach to the nape of his neck and pull a copper blade from the sheath apparently concealed under his long coat. Thomas and Theo had done the same.

Tevan would have his hands full, whether or not he'd ingested the caplium that would make him partially immune to the bite of copper. Claire had taught Thomas how to wield his magick to get it past an Atrika's shields.

"Come on, honey, we've got to go," Adam ground out as he pulled her down the corridor. "Thomas will have my ass on a platter if I don't keep you safe and a fucking Atrika demon just fixed his beady red eyes on you with murderous intent."

Claire glanced back at Thomas and the other witch, Theo. They'd engaged with the daaeman right there by the reception desk. By all Four Houses, she wanted to use her magick! She hated that she was vulnerable and powerless as any common human right now.

Just like the ones who would soon be spilling out into the corridors as a result of the earth magick no longer being focused on keeping them behind doors. "But what about—"

Adam yanked her down the corridor with a strength she couldn't fight, cutting off her sentence. Clearly, she wouldn't be around to see the looks on the human's faces if this fire witch had anything to do with it.

Together they ran to the end of the corridor, turned right, and bolted out a pair of double doors with a flashing red sign above it that read emergency exit. Yes, this was an emergency.

They pounded their way down flight after flight of stairs, their footsteps echoing through the stairwell. Adam kept her hand tight in his and gripped the sword handle in his opposite hand.

"What about the humans?" she panted at Adam. "They're going to start coming out of the rooms, into the corridors."

"Yeah, I know. We don't ordinarily open cans of magickical whoop ass where the normals can see. In this case, I don't know. Thomas and Theo will do their best, but it depends more on that Atrika than anything else. I doubt the demon cares much if he's seen."