Perhaps it was just as well the place was deserted.
“Where’s the gate?” Lucas asked.
Why was he still with them? Aria didn’t understand her fascination with Nikolai or her own determination to stick with him, but she understood Lucas’s motivation even less. He’d spent most of the day trying to convince her to walk away. Finally she’d erupted and ordered him to silence, and they’d remained at opposite ends of the barn until Nikolai strode from the woods.
Nikolai pointed to a door. “It’s down there. Below us.”
“Basement. Swell.” But Lucas opened the door—again, unlocked—and tackled the stairs beyond.
Her instincts screamed “trap”, but she didn’t see any alternatives to following the Morph down the steps. Nikolai brought up the rear.
“You sure there isn’t anyone in the building?” she whispered over her shoulder.
“The building is empty,” Nikolai confirmed. “But that does not mean that no one is here.”
Aria stopped and twisted on the narrow steps to stare at him. “What?”
He shrugged. “This place is saturated with Watcher energy.”
“Will you two stop chattering?” Lucas demanded from the bottom of the steps. “If we are going for a dip in some far-off ocean, I want to get it over with.”
“You could shift into a whale,” Nikolai said reasonably.
“Yeah. A hundred-and fifty-pound whale isn’t going to be carrying you far,” Lucas snapped back.
Aria rolled her eyes. “Can wepleasefocus.”
“My point exactly,” Lucas growled and disappeared into the shadows at the base of the stairs.
She followed him down a short hall. A door stood open at the end, and a familiar glow lit the room beyond. The gate had been constructed within a stone archway against the far wall. It crackled and glowed with powerful blue energy.
Aria froze. “It’s open to somewhere.” She had a sinking feeling about all this.
“They want him back in their realm.” Lucas’s voice shook. “I’m betting that is where the gate will take us.”
Sharding hell. Why hadn’t she thought of this? Nikolai sensed the Watchers all over this place because they were controlling the gate itself.
Nikolai stared at the glowing archway. “The Watcher energy is strong,” he confirmed.
Aria’s instinct was to fight, but there was nothing here she could sink her tail spike into. This enemy was beyond her. Her heart raced in panic. “We can’t let them take you there,” she snarled. “They’ll have a cage ready for you.”
“How do you propose we stop them?” Lucas’s voice rose. “We don’t have a choice, Aria.”
She rounded on him. “You knew they’d try this. You led us right here.”
Lucas’s eyes had gone pure emerald. “I didn’t know they could control the gates remotely like this.”
Nikolai’s voice cut across their argument. “Can all Liberis control the gates?”
He sounded much calmer than she would under the circumstances. “I have no idea,” she confessed.
“You think you can redirect the gate?” Lucas’s brows had risen. “You can manipulate energy... but you don’t know what you’re doing. Even if you succeed, how do we know it will transport us safely?”
“The permanent gates are well anchored.” Hope blossomed within Aria. “He could do it if he had something tying him to the realm.”
“Like what?” Lucas stared at her.
“Like a crystal.” She matched Lucas’s stare.
