Page 1 of Shadow Warrior
One
Harmon was back?
I stared at Thomas, framed in the doorway to Brady’s recovery room. Had I heard him correctly?
“Indie, Harmon is back,” Thomas repeated. His voice sounded odd, choked up.
My pulse kicked into gear. My best friend was back? How had he gotten away from the fomorians? It didn’t matter. All that mattered was that he was safe, and he was home.
“Where is he?” I glanced over Thomas’s shoulder like a fool, because of course he wouldn’t be behind him.
I checked myself and focused on the nightblood. He looked way too distraught for someone whose lover had returned from being presumed dead.
Icy dread gripped the back of my neck. “Thomas … What’s wrong? Where’s Harmon?”
His throat bobbed. “I saw the knights bring him in. They took him down to the basement level. They wouldn’t let me anywhere near him.” He tugged at his hair in agitation. “What are they doing? Why have they taken him to the basement?” His attention flew to the guys behind me—the second years who might know more than I did. “What’s down there?”
“It’s not a basement,” Lloyd said. “It’s a dungeon.”
A dungeon? “Why would they take Harmon to the dungeon?”
“Security protocol,” Brady said hoarsely from his bed.
“Ah, the dreaded protocol,” Carlo drawled. “Cavity checks, no doubt, make sure they didn’t smuggle any fomorians through the mist.”
“Not funny, Hartwood,” Lloyd snapped.
Carlo sighed. “Sorry. Still recovering from getting my ass handed to me by a supernatural virus and then being siphoned by a weaver.”
Lloyd’s shoulders relaxed. “I guess that’s a valid excuse.”
We were all recovering from the events of the last few days. The supernatural virus, Rage, had almost wiped out the knights, and if not for Kash’s siphoning ability and Joti’s magnify rune, we’d all be dead. Instead, the troop was alive—weakened but together.
“Protocol for any possible fomorian contamination is a period in the dungeon,” Lloyd said. “That relates to any knight who spends time on the other side of the mist.”
I frowned. “And how often has that happened?”
Lloyd gave me half a shrug. “I have no idea. It’s just one of the protocols in the handbook you get when you graduate to second year. This is the first time I’ve seen it in action.”
“I need to see him,” Thomas said softly.
His eyes glittered. Shit, he was going to cry.
I bridged the distance between us and pulled him into my arms, hugging him tight.
“Can we do something?” I looked to Lloyd. “There has to be someone we can speak to. Just to get an update.”
Damn, I wanted to see Harmon too, but this place was literally a fortress, and if the knights wanted an area to stay off-limits, then it stayed off-limits.
Devon and Aidan exchanged glances, and an unspoken communication seemed to pass between them.
“I’ll have a word with my uncle,” Devon said gruffly. “He’s responsible for any prisoners we take.”
I gently released Thomas, who sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve. “Thank you.”
But the wordprisonershad alarm bells going off in my head. “Harmon isn’t a prisoner.”
It was Brady who replied from his sickbed. “No, but he’s been gone for weeks. He could be compromised.” His voice was gruff from lack of use, but it still sent a pleasant shiver across the nape of my neck. “The knights will have to vet him before allowing him back on duty. Protocol.”
