Chapter 3
924 Words
Chapter Three
Sage
The transport was waiting by the time I stepped out of the armory—black, reinforced, enchanted to hell and back. Runes etched into the doors glowed faintly, magic humming like a heartbeat. No markings. No license plate. Just quiet power and purpose.
Kade was already in the passenger seat, speaking low into comms. Draven took the driver’s side. Ash stood by the rear door, tossing a sealed tech case into the back.
He looked up as I approached, eyes narrowing slightly as he took in my blades. “You favor steel?”
“Over bullets? Every time.”
He didn’t smile, but he didn’t argue either. He pulled the back door open, stepped in without another word.
I followed.
The interior was dim, lined with matte-black panels and enchanted shielding. Tactical packs were strapped to the floor. A faint hum in the air told me there were layers of magical protection I couldn’t even see yet.
No one spoke. There was no chatter, no banter. This wasn’t the kind of team that filled silence with noise. Every one of them was focused. Calculated. Sharp-edged and ready.
I could feel it tightening around me like wire.
The vehicle moved. Smooth. Silent. Not a single bump.
Ash pulled up a floating schematic between us—a fresh overlay of the building’s magical field. The distortion over the top floor shimmered like oil slicking over water.
“Something’s cycling in the upper levels,” he said quietly. “Residual pulse. Not mechanical. Magical.”
Kade’s voice cut through. “Time-stamped?”
Ash nodded. “Every twelve minutes. Almost rhythmic.”
A ritual. Probably active. Which meant we weren’t early. We were already late.
Kade turned slightly in his seat, finally looking at me. “You sense anything off, you speak. Immediate. Don’t wait to confirm. Don’t second-guess.”
His tone was even, but there was steel behind it.
I met his eyes. “Understood.”
Draven pulled us into a shadowed alley off the main road. The facility loomed above us—four stories of crumbling brick, broken glass, and magic-stained concrete. The kind of building that felt like it had been holding its breath for years.
The moment the engine shut off, the silence was absolute.
Kade slid out first. Ash followed, checking the scanner in his palm, fingers twitching as he muttered to his gloves. Draven flanked the rear. I brought up the middle.
No orders. No chatter.
Just a silent descent into something ugly.
The side entrance on sublevel two was rusted, shielded, sealed with a magical lock disguised as an old security panel. Draven approached it like it was alive. He pressed his palm to the stone just left of the doorframe, eyes narrowing as he whispered something I couldn’t catch.
The lock pulsed red—then green.
We moved in.
The hallway was tight, lined with peeling paint and wires that hung like veins from the ceiling. The air was thick with dust and something colder. Older. The kind of magic that seeped into your skin if you weren’t careful.
Kade signaled with two fingers. Ash went left. Draven covered the rear.
Me? I moved forward.
Aura scan. That was my job.
I opened my senses.
The world changed.
It wasn’t dramatic. It wasn’t showy. Just... different. A shift beneath my skin. Like static crawling along my nerves, winding through the air around me.
Magic residue glowed faintly against the walls—thin threads of old enchantments, frayed but still clinging to the stone.
But deeper than that—beneath the rot and ruin—there was something else.
Pressure.
Like standing in a room that remembered screaming.
Then it hit me.
Hard.
A sudden flare—raw and violent—slammed into my chest. My knees hit the ground. Cold concrete bit through my combat pants. My vision split—one half the hallway, the other a pulsing red echo of what was happening somewhere deeper in the building.
My throat burned. Blood might’ve trickled from my nose. I didn’t care.
The pain wasn’t just physical—it was psychic. Their fear soaked through me like oil, thick and choking. Whoever they were, they weren’t ready to die. But someone inside this place had already decided they didn’t care.
Chains. A body convulsing on the floor. Magic carved into their skin like burning ink. Alive. Hurting. Being drained.
My lungs seized. Blood roared in my ears. I forced the vision down, grinding my teeth until I could think through the noise.
Kade spun around at the sound of my sharp breath. “What is it?” His voice cut across the comms. “Voss—report.”
I dragged myself upright, palm against the wall.
“They’re here,” I said. My voice was low. Rough. “Alive. Being drained. Ritual’s still in progress.”
Kade moved instantly. “Ash—get me visuals. Draven—prep a breach spell. Voss, on me.”
He looked at me as he spoke—just for a second. His eyes flicked over the blood on my lip, the tension in my jaw, the way my fingers still trembled from the overload.
Something shifted behind his eyes. Not concern. But not nothing.
The air changed. Tension sharpened into steel. They didn’t question me.
They believed me.
And now it was time to show them what I could really do.
And if we were too late?
We’d be dealing with something a hell of a lot worse than a drain spell.
- Writer
