So why couldn’t I breathe? Why was panic ratcheting through me with each step he took?

“Wait!” The word burst from me. Unbuckling my seat belt, I flung my door open. “Ezra, wait!”

Halfway to the raised tracks and the slowly passing train, he looked back.

“What’s wrong?” Andrew asked.

I didn’t know. I couldn’t answer. Clambering out of the vehicle, I waited with my heart hammering as Ezra jogged back to me, his eyebrows drawn with concern.

“What—” His gaze swept over my face, and his tone shifted to quietly questioning. “What is it, Tori?”

I sucked in a deep breath. Dread pulsed in the back of my throat, making me lightheaded. Something was wrong, something I couldn’t put my finger on, but what …

A memory flashed behind my eyelids—Zak, his eyes burning with shadowy rage as he followed Darius out the guild door.

I gasped in realization. “I need to go with you.”

Surprise flickered over his features.

“What?” Ramsey demanded from the back seat, his voice carrying through my open door. “I know you’ve been training, but you’re still an amateur.”

Andrew leaned across the driver’s seat. “Tori, their job is too important for—”

“Zak isn’t on board with our plan.” I directed my words at Ezra. “Varvara destroyed everything that matters to him. The moment he’s done with the golems, he’s going for her throat, and I might be the only one who can talk him down.”

Ezra absorbed that. “Change of plans, Andrew. She’s coming with me.”

“Wait.” Bryce stuck his head over the console to peer out the door at me and Ezra. “Is it bad if he goes for Varvara? As long as she’s defeated …”

“Did you see the footage of the LA precinct being destroyed?” I asked impatiently.

“Yeah, of course.”

“That’s why I need to make sure Zak keeps his head.”

His eyes widened.

“That was him?” Ramsey whispered disbelievingly.

“One hundred and ten percent a pissed-off druid who doesn’t care much about friendly fire.” I looked at Andrew. “I’m going.”

He unbuckled his seat belt. “You’ll need to be extra cautious, then. You can’t be detected before the golems are disabled.”

“We’ll get it done,” Ezra said, his steadiness calming my jitters. “And we’ll handle Zak.”

He took my hand. As Andrew opened his door to switch to the driver’s seat, Ezra pulled me across the lot, and I craned my neck back to watch the last tanker in the long train clatter past on the raised tracks.

I knew Zak was in a bad place, but with his steely composure, I’d assumed he could handle it. Now, I wasn’t so sure. Had I underestimated the depth of his grief … and his need for revenge? Either way, I needed to be beside him before he laid eyes on his enemy—and got himself, or anyone else, killed.

Chapter Twenty-Five

“I should’ve talked to him,” I berated myself as Ezra and I slid down the dirt bank on the far side of the train tracks. “Really talked to him.”

Still holding my hand, Ezra led me into the deep shadows beside a long warehouse. The narrow road lacked streetlamps, but breaking from winter’s usual pattern of nonstop cloud cover, the night sky was clear. The moon, nearly full, shone down.

“He’s smart,” Ezra murmured as we trekked along the grass that bordered the building. “He doesn’t strike me as the type to fall victim to a sudden case of recklessness.”

“I suppose,” I muttered, a cold wind smelling of salt water and rotting seaweed blowing across my face. Zak was too wily to do something outrageously stupid.

We reached an intersection and Ezra slowed to a halt, his back against the wall. He scanned the street, then closed his eyes, stretching his senses for any hint of movement.

“Let’s go,” he breathed.

We darted into the shadows of the next building. Aside from overhead doors, the surrounding walls were blank, and everything was quiet. Farther west, light hazed the sky and the distant clatter of machinery reached my ears, almost too faint to hear.

Moving cautiously, we crept another half a block, then Ezra stopped in a shadowed nook. Across the street was a small parking lot that ended in a tall security fence covered in big warning signs. Beyond it were behemoth-sized cylindrical reservoirs, three stories high, with pipes and catwalks running around them.

Hesitating, he looked around. “I don’t see him.”

“Who?” I asked dumbly.

“Zak. This is the rendezvous point.”

My stomach dropped. “He’s late?”

“He should’ve beat us here, unless he had trouble with the other guard station.”

Other guard station? I leaned out enough to look again at the parking lot and its tall fence. A security gate spanned the center, and tucked beside it was a small booth, lit up inside. Security for the facility.

“The other station was too exposed, so it was better he handle it with his shadow magic.” Ezra puffed out a breath. “If he’s been delayed—”

“Ezra.” I squinted at the booth. “I don’t see any guards.”

“What?” He leaned out for a better look. “I can’t see well enough to tell.”

The bright windows were unobstructed by human shapes. Either the guards were napping on the floor, or nobody was home. “The booth is empty.”

He hesitated. “Let’s get closer.”

Slinking into the open, he paused, then sprinted across the street. We cut along the fence line in a swift, half-crouching jog. Ezra stopped again, head canted as though listening, then he scooted under the window of the booth and peeked inside.

He swore under his breath. With no caution at all, he rose to his feet.

“What?” I demanded in a hiss. “What is it?”

He waved at the booth. Standing, I looked through the window.

I’d been partially right. The uniformed guards were on the floor—but they weren’t napping. A shimmering silver potion splattered their unconscious faces. At least they weren’t dead. Or … probably not dead? I wasn’t sure.

“Zak did beat us here,” Ezra said. “And he decided not to wait.”

I groaned. Selfish, overly independent dickhead of a druid. He probably figured he could handle the golems himself. Why wait for his partner/backup/babysitter?

Ezra pressed his earpiece. “Andrew, do you copy? I’m at the rendezvous point. Zak was here, but it looks like he went ahead. Tori and I will try to catch up before he reaches the golems.”

He listened for a moment. “Copy that.” Lowering his hand, he said to me, “Andrew doesn’t want us to rush. Zak can disable the golems without us. We just need to reach him before he finishes.”

I clenched my jaw. Zak wanted to get the golems done fast—so he’d be free to go after Varvara. Growling under my breath, I faced the security fence, but my angry determination faltered at the sight of the barbed wire on top.

“Watch me first,” Ezra suggested as he grabbed the thick metal post where two sections of fence joined. Pulling himself up, he used the top of the post as a hand and foot hold. He carefully swung one leg, then the other, over the barbed wire and dropped to the other side.

Gulping, I took hold of the fence and started to climb. It took me three times as long, but I made it over the barbed wire without tearing any skin or clothes. Ezra caught me, then we were moving again, this time at a quick jog.

Running alongside a set of train tracks, we crossed the facility. Scaling the fence at the far end went a lot faster, and we hopped yet another line of tracks. A steel yard stretched ahead. Ezra led me past stacks of I-beams and pipes, some shining and new, others rusting in the salty breeze. We jogged past two storage buildings with flimsy-looking roofs and open fronts.

Fifty yards away was the biggest warehouse yet—at least three stories with a single huge overhead door, dead center in the middle of its face. Train tracks ran across the back for easy loading of cargo directly onto the cars.

That was it. The set of warehouses where Varvara was storing her collection of golems.

A man-sized door, tucked at the edge of the building and miniscule compared to the overhead door, was a dark rectangle—but as we watched, a tiny orange light flared. A cigarette, its faint glow illuminating the shape of a man leaning in the open doorway. He was short, heavyset, and definitely not Zak.

Dread plunged through my center. “Is that one of Varvara’s men?”

“Where’s Zak?” Ezra muttered. “No way he didn’t beat us here. No way.”

But if he were here, he wouldn’t have left that guard standing at the warehouse door.

“Did he run into trouble?” My hands clenched. “Was he captured or …”

“If he’d been spotted, I don’t think that rogue would be casually smoking with the door open.” Ezra raked his fingers through his hair, then touched his earpiece. “Andrew, do you copy? Andrew? … Anyone?”

He slid his phone from his pocket and tapped across the screen, then shook his head. “No signal. We’re in a dead spot, and Bryce is too far.”

I drew in a steadying breath, fighting back panic. Somewhere nearby, the combat teams were creeping into position: Kai and Makiko’s team infiltrating the building where the rogues were staying; Aaron’s and Tabitha’s teams, as well as the Odin’s Eye guild, encircling the building from the outside; and Darius’s team positioning themselves halfway between our location and the dock where Varvara would arrive on her yacht.

Where was Zak? He’d been through here. Who else would’ve taken out the human security guards with a potion? But why, then, wasn’t he here?

“He knows how important this is,” I whispered hoarsely. “He knows we have to disable the golems before Varvara arrives. Where could he have wandered off to?”