Page 20 of Wicked Enemy

My heart thrummed in my chest as I left Kevin and set course for the constable force’s building.

Chapter10

Nervous apprehension flitted through my soul as I reached the final corner. Once I rounded it, there would be nothing to hide behind anymore. Only a long straight road that led to the Court of Metal. Gemma’s place was located on the other side, so I would have to walk past Levi’s blood-red front doors and then down to the building after it.

My heart hammered in my chest as I peeked around the corner.

Not only was I disobeying a direct order from Chief Eric Anderson himself by being here, I was also about to walk up to the home of a dark mage who had told me that he would try to kill me the next time he saw me. But I wasn’t doing this for Levi. I was doing it for Gemma.

The street before me was empty. Usually, there were guards standing outside the doors. But now, the bright sunlight revealed a deserted road and buildings with all the doors and windows firmly closed. Though, given that we had most of Levi’s people locked up in the prison below our headquarters, it wasn’t too much of a surprise.

After drawing in a bracing breath, I slunk around the corner and started down the street with quick steps. I stayed on the opposite side of the road, as far as I could get from the building that housed Levi’s Court, and kept my gaze flicking back and forth in search of threats.

Hopefully, Levi wouldn’t shoot to kill on sight. If he gave me a chance to explain before he tried to end me, he would understand that I was here to help him right now.

My pulse thrummed in my ears as I drew closer to the front doors.

If he had spotted me, he would attack any second now.

I kept moving.

Confusion rippled through me as I glanced at the massive doors while I hurried past. They were no longer blood red. Or rather, only parts of them were. Along the outside of both doors, they looked like they usually did. But in the middle was a large circle of plain gray metal. It almost looked as if someone had burned a massive hole through it, and then Levi had used parts of the wall to seal it up again.

The confusion was replaced by worry. Had this happened when one of the other dark mage Houses attacked earlier? Or was this the worldwalker’s doing?

I picked up the pace until I was almost running.

It couldn’t be the worldwalker’s doing. He would’ve just appeared inside the throne room instead of trying to burn the doors down. So I wasn’t too late. Gemma was still here and everything was fine.

I kept repeating those words over and over again as I closed the final distance to Gemma’s house.

Everything looked untouched, but I didn’t dare to let any relief wash over me. Not yet.

Pulling open the door, I stepped into the reception room that I knew Gemma used while healing people. The room she had used when she was healingmeafter the House of the Thousand Eagles had tried to kill me in that warehouse. The night that Levi had come for me and sprinted across half of the city with me bleeding in his arms so that he could save me. Pain stabbed at my heart. And I had repaid them all by—

No. Shaking my head, I forced myself to cut off that thought before I could finish it. Levi was a dark mage and I was a constable. I had already repaid him for that night by letting him walk during the ambush. And he had repaid me by letting me live last week. We were nothing to each other now. I owed him nothing and he owed me nothing. He was now going to try to kill me and I was now going to try to capture him. Just like it should be. The only reason I was here was because of Gemma. She was a civilian, just like my father had been, and she didn’t deserve to get caught up in power struggles between dark mages.

Yes. That was it. That was the only reason I was here.

With my infuriating thoughts finally back under control, I swept my gaze over the deserted room while moving farther into the building.

It looked exactly like it had the last time I was there. The floor and walls were made of metal, but as opposed to Levi’s building, Gemma’s place was full of wooden furniture. Bookshelves lined the walls, and there were chairs and a table in that same material. In the windows was an army of potted plants that gave the whole place life. And there were even a couple of armchairs and a couch in soft green colors in one corner. It was all so very different from Levi’s harsh Court of Metal.

And thankfully, all of it looked completely undisturbed. No signs of a struggle.

A seed of worry sprouted in my chest.

We were dealing with a worldwalker. Just because there were no signs of a struggle didn’t mean that he hadn’t been here. My heart rate kicked up.

“Gemma?” I called.

No answer.

Weaving through the room, I set course for the door at the back, which I assumed led to her private quarters.

The corridor beyond was lined with beautiful paintings of forests and other nature scenes. I followed it to a kitchen that was decorated in much the same way as the reception room. Wooden furniture and vibrant green plants on the windowsill. There was nothing to indicate that someone had left in a hurry, but the anxiousness in my chest still kept growing like a thorny weed.

The whole building was unnaturally silent.