Page 74 of When Monsters Fight
It looked like we’d be able to give the celestials a little more of a challenge.
The decoy team just got larger.
I flew with Gabriel,my body wrapped around his, my face tucked against his neck so I could feast on his scent. His heart beat a steady rhythm, and mine fell into pace with it.
We were hurtling toward danger. I should have been terrified, but there was something about Gabriel that soothed that part of me.
“We’re almost at the landing point,” Gabriel said.
Shit. Okay, now I was nervous.
We dropped altitude, and my insides twisted into knots. I took a steadying breath. We could do this. Everything would be all right.
It had to be.
Shem’s sacrifice wouldn’t be for nothing.
The churning inside me stilled as Gabriel’s boots met the earth. He hugged me to him for a moment before relaxing his grip.
“We’re here.”
Herewas in a heavily wooded area with a field ahead of us, and beyond that was the hub. Another mile out.
The sewer access was close by and would take us under the building and into it.
The others landed around us, and the hum of engines approached as Storm’s troops joined us. They’d driven the vehicles that Bastian had found.
Kabiel alighted with Bastian a moment later, followed by Bee and Tumiel, Sarq and Zaq, Baraqel and Penemue. Everyone was here.
“Kabiel, wait thirty minutes after we’re in the sewers, then head for the hub,” Gabriel said.
Kabiel nodded.
“I’ll set a timer,” one of Storm’s men said. “You have the radio?”
“I have mine,” Bastian said.
“I have the other.” Sarq held up his radio.
“Good,” the man said. “The radios are set to the same channel. You’ll call in when you’ve disabled the security so the extraction team knows they can go in. The extraction team will radio once they have the cargo and are back in the tunnels. Decoy team will remain active until then.”
Everyone had their instructions. It was time to go. I looked over at Kabiel and gave him a nod. “Be safe.”
He smiled, but it didn’t meet his eyes. “Always.”
The knowledge that I might never see some of these faces again left me hollow, but I pushed away the feeling and straightened my spine.
We had a job to do. “Let’s move out.”
Chapter 39
The pipes leading to the hub hadn’t been used in some time, but the smell was still awful. Thank goodness my olfactory system stopped registering it after a while. We moved fast and silently. Everyone focused on the task ahead.
Bastian and Zaq took the lead—the scout in Zaq having memorized the network of tunnels on the plans we had. Tumiel and Bee were a little behind us, and behind them were Sarq, Asbeel, Kokabel, and two others I didn’t know.
We climbed a flight of metal steps onto a walkway that led to a steel door.
“Through here,” Zaq said. “It’ll take us into a basement that leads up into the hub.”
