I spun to glare at him as Fin took a menacing step toward Helix.
I waved him off. “No, he’s right. I shouldn’t have stayed in the room if I couldn’t control myself. It was a stupid move.”
Guilt clawed into my gut with a fresh slice. If I ruined our chances of getting Esteban, I would never forgive myself.
A loud crash came from overhead. We all glanced up and Helix bolted for the door. Fin and I strapped weapons to our bodies as Helix charged out of the room. Just as we finished loading up, Melinda rushed into the room followed closely by Helix.
“I’ve closed the doors on the upper levels. They are steel and the magic is built in, but they won’t hold out for long.”
I waved at Melinda. “Can you fight?”
She nodded, but the look on her face said she preferred not to. Helix stripped out of his suit and tie, and rolled up his shirt sleeves, revealing row after row of tattoos up his forearm. I wanted to ask about them, but now wasn’t the time.
After he strapped on his own weapons, he pulled Melinda to the side and slung a sword over her back. “Stay by my side at all times, got it?”
She nodded, fear bracketing the lines in her eyes. I turned to Fin who watched them both warily, no doubt trying to figure out their relationship the same way I was.
I cupped his cheeks bringing his attention to me. “Are you all right?”
He framed my hands on his face. “Fine. I’m fine.”
We nodded at each other, all the words we needed to say but didn’t have the time for in those small movements.
I turned to Helix and Melinda. “Is there an exit out of here?”
Helix waved toward the door. “Down the hall, there’s a hatch that leads to a tunnel to get out, but it takes time to open since it’s as locked as the front doorway.”
“Any way we can see where the attack is coming from? Where the attackers are?”
He shook his head. “We didn’t want to install cameras because someone could hack them, and it might create a greater security risk.”
I sighed and put my hands on my hips, running through scenarios. “What are the odds Esteban is out there? And do we think magical goons or the normal flavor?”
“He’s not out there,” Melinda said. “I can feel him, and I would know if he stepped foot over my threshold.”
/> That was handy, and also probably the result of serious trauma. “Okay, that helps since none of us can rely on our magic right now.”
A crash came from outside the door, down the hall.
“I think that was the basement door,” Helix said. “We need to get out of here before we are trapped away from the exit.”
We hurried toward the door. Fin took the lead, with me behind him, Melinda behind me, and Helix at the end of our weird little conga line.
The lights flickered in the hallway as we exited.
“To the left,” Helix said.
We crept down the hall as another crash echoed down the hallway. The sound of boots rushed down the stairs. Fin broke into a run, the rest of us right on his heels until he reached the hatch in the floor. Helix had said it was bolted up tight, and we didn’t have the time to unlock it with goons bearing down on us.
Helix took the first goon with a knife to the gut, throwing him into the four more that came down with him. I shoved Melinda behind me for Fin to guard as I launched forward at the next two. It took seconds to bring them down. Melinda’s weapons were perfectly weighted and sharp as hell.
Helix dispatched the last one.
“So non-magical goons then,” I said, kicking one of the said goons as I headed back to the door. “But I don’t think this is all of them. Seems silly to send so few and the noise we heard at the doors couldn’t just be these guys.”
As if right on cue, more goons poured down the stairs.
“We can’t stay here,” Melinda said, from between the wall and Fin.