Page 38 of Kuaket

“No, they didn’t do anything,” I promised. “I’m not sure that would be true if I’d gone to the room they prepared for me though. What about you?”

She shook her head. “Just locked me in a room. The idiots didn’t even search me.”

“What would you have done if they did?”

She shrugged. “Not sure. Turned into a snake and bitten them.”

“You couldn’t do that much damage, you’re only small.” I hated the idea of her tiny snake body up against the warlock who had taken her.

Her lips quirked up in amusement. “I can shift into any kind of snake I want.”

“And you chose a tiny grey snake?”

“Of course. Less noticeable. If it helps, I turned into a python to actually get out of the room they locked me in, I just changed once I was out of it.”

“That does help,” I assured her, thinking of how formidable I’d found Pattie the first time I went to Kua’s flat. If she could shift into a snake like that, then I knew she’d be fine. “We should get moving though. I don’t know how long we’ve actually got until they notice I’m not where I’m supposed to be.”

“How long do you think it’ll be?”

“Half an hour if we’re lucky.”

“So not long enough,” she responded. “How far away from the soul are we?”

“Not far. This way.” I grabbed hold of her arm and tugged her down the corridor, knowing we needed to get going if we were going to manage this.

Neither of us said anything as we made our way down the dull grey corridors that I hated even more than I had used to in the past. It was safe to say that I never wanted to come back here once I was free of the place.

“Here.” I gestured to a turn, only to stop in my tracks at the sight of two guards waiting at the end of the corridor, though thankfully, they had their backs to us.

I should have considered that they’d do something to protect the core while Kua was in the building.

“I can’t use magic without them noticing.” Though if I was honest, I wasn’t even surewhatmagic I’d be able to use to get us past them.

“Then it’s a good job you have me,” Kua responded.

“What...”

Before I could ask, she raised her hand and a small amount of black smoke rose from her fingers into the air. The lights above us flickered before completely extinguishing, plunging the hallway into darkness.

Apparently, no one had ever thought to install emergency lighting.

“Hey, what happened?” one of the men shouted.

“Bulbs must have blown,” another answered. “I’ll send a message down to maintenance and they’ll be here to sort it.”

“We can’t leave the corridor unguarded,” the first man said.

“We’re still here,” his companion responded. Light illuminated his face, presumably as he sent the message.

“Come on,” Kua whispered to me, grabbing my hand and pulling me down the corridor.

My heart pounded, but I didn’t say a word, knowing that this was a huge risk. Hopefully, if it came to it, she’d be able to shift into a snake to avoid detection, though I realised I couldn’t voice that thought to her without alerting the other warlocks to the fact we were here.

The two warlocks were still grumbling to one another about the power outage, giving us the perfect chance to scoot past without them noticing.

I barely breathed until we were around the corner and out of sight.

“What did you do?” I whispered once I realised it was safe.