Fatal Sight (Harbingers Of Death Book 2) by LeAnn Mason (universal ebook reader txt) 📗

Her flesh bubbled before crisping, turning black as the muscle and fat melted away beneath. It was so hot that eventually, even her bones would be reduced to charred ashes.

But then?

Then, her normally feathered bird would emerge from within, sheathed this time in flame.

It was the only time her true phoenix showed itself, and it was invigorating, though it never lasted long enough for Ember’s liking. She wished she could be this unstoppable with every shift.

This time, she would try to draw out that part of her cycle for as long as she could hold it before she collapsed and rose, once again, human. But there would be no luxuriating in the prolonged magnificence. Her flickering form had a mission.

It was Ember’s time to shine — or rather, to be the light that burned away the abomination of the undead who thought she was just some unimpressive shifter — an unimpressive, dead shifter. She would show them all what a phoenix could do.

29

As soon as I’d said, “Ready,” it was as though I’d pulled the trigger, giving the “go” word. My team and I turned almost simultaneously toward the interior of the island.

We’re coming for you, Mom, Ember.

I wasted no time in running up the beach — not an easy feat — and leading my team toward the mental hospital. As I inspected the easiest path through the vegetation at the edge of the sand dunes, I skidded to a stop.

“Ah!” Something plowed into me from behind, and I landed face-first in the sand.

Pushing to my feet with Seke’s help and spitting granules from my mouth, I heard Raven vent, “It’s her own fault. She can’t just stop like that without warning.”

“You should’ve kept your space. Rear-end collisions are the fault of the driver in the back. Didn’t you learn that?” I replied hotly, on edge with the high stakes of our mission. My mother was just yards away — supposedly. And I’d just seen something that made me think we might have a direct route to her.

“I’m a supe with wings. I don’t know how to drive,” Raven snapped, giving an explanation for why it was always Cole who chauffeured the unit’s vehicular movements. “Now, where are you going?” she demanded, exasperated.

“Wings slower than legs?” I jested, pacing my way toward the end of the crescent-shaped cove.

“Aria?”

For Seke, I’d answer. “See that pipe up ahead?” I pointed to the end of a massive circular pipe that horizontally stuck out of the vegetation, disappearing into a cresting hill. “Every time I’ve had visions of my mom, I’ve accessed her makeshift cell through an underground pipe.”

“And you think this might be that same one. Even if it’s not, there may be a connecting network that will lead us to the right one. Excellent thinking.”

I warmed at the praise, sneaking a sly smile toward the Egyptian god striding next to me.

“No. No way am I wandering through raw sewage.” Raven had caught up.

I rolled my eyes as we approached the dark opening, our footsteps slowing. “Really? Because I feel like I spend a lot of my time wading through shit whenever you’re talking. It might just be drainage.”

Cole let out a chuckle and then a pained grunt. “What? That was pretty funny.”

Raven gave a little huff.

Braver than I, Gunhilde stepped around the group cowering behind me and strode over to the trickle of fluid sluicing out of the pipe in a lazy manner and meandering its way down the beach to meet the ocean. It always smelled gods-awful, but I hoped it wasn’t sewage either.

Vamps aren’t even environmentally friendly. Poor fish.

She bent at the waist, and her ever-dutiful partner Torgny stepped up behind her, grabbing one arm to keep her from leaning too far.

“Smells awful,” the valkyrie commented mildly. “But I don’t sense anything. Can only hear water. Should be safe enough.”

“Better than storming the front door,” her partner agreed, pulling her back upright before both turned to me, awaiting my next decision.

I bit my lip. I did now know the basic layout of the facility from the front door, whereas the pipe system below the compound was largely a mystery. Each time I’d visited in spectral form or whatever, I’d already been in the right section, just out of sight of my mom’s holding cell.

Always familiarize yourself with the layout of your location.

Then again, Torgny had a point. Waltzing up to the front door seemed like more of a rookie move — one likely to get us injured if not killed. Even if we didn’t have a blueprint of the sewage system, it would afford us some amount of stealth, and last I’d seen, both Ember and my mom were in that water-logged pit.

“Let’s do it. We’ll go in this way.”

“You heard her,” Seke growled reproachfully when nobody moved.

I gave him a gracious smile then led the way. I may not have had it all mapped out, but I had the most information of anyone on the team.

Raven let out a grumble as the water level began to rise the further into the pipe we traipsed.

“Shh,” I snapped, trying to listen.

It was just like my visions where darkness wiped out my ability to use sight as a guide, except this time, the swishing of several feet made it harder to hear the dripping I’d heard in past visits — and any other auditory clues as to where we were. I kept a palm pressed against the curved concrete wall as before, hoping recognition of all of my unblinded senses would help steer us. Seke could probably slip the shadows out of our sight, but that would also give anyone else an advantage in spotting us.

Thanks for stealing my sight during training, Cole.

“I’m trying not to throw up,” the bird shifter hissed from the dark behind me. “It smells like a rotting corpse.”

“Then you’d better get used to it,” Gunhilde commented mildly. “Isn’t that what we’re hunting?”

“Shh.” This time, it was Seke who silenced the group.

I cocked an