The footstep from the passage stopped.

Marina stood in the ruins with Cian on her left and Silvain on her right and felt Obsidian at the top of the passage stairs, fifteen feet below the surface, not moving. Reading the situation before entering it. That was how he always operated.

She had approximately thirty seconds before he decided to come up anyway.

"Move," she said to Cian.

"He is right there," Cian said.

"I know where he is. Move."

Cian looked at her for one more second with the specific expression of a man whose anger had been his navigation system for eight months and was being asked to override...