An Oath In Blood (Book #3)

Chapter 35: Eman Hashim

CORVINA HAWKE

"Ahvi?" I called her name, spinning in a slow circle, mapping out my surroundings. Where'd she go? My heart stopped for a full second before it started beating again, the minimal light that the moon provided me with doing nothing to help me find my companion.

"Cor, we've lost Ahvi." Lily's urgent voice filled my earpiece, startling me. I snuck toward the wall, pressing my back to it as I searched the junkyard for a sign of the woman.

"She just...disappeared," I said, breathless. My stomach coiled tightly, threatening to send the little food I had had today out through my mouth. I quashed down on the nausea, swallowing the bile in my throat as I called for Ahvi once again. I switched to a different channel. "Trish." I spoke, my voice shaking.

I slowly stepped toward the direction Lily had told us to follow when we reached the wall as my friend answered. "Hawke."

"We've lost Ahvi. Someone is in the junkyard, following us." I informed him. A little part of me had hoped that the reason we couldn't see Trent's GPS move was because he was asleep, unaware of what was about to go down tonight. But who was I kidding? The man was anything but a fool.

"What?" Trish's voice was laced with concern.

"Keep an eye out for her. She should be in the yard." I added, hoping that I was right and wasn't just fooling myself. I crept through the darkened path, looking out for any movement. But nothing happened. Even the rodents that had been playing hopscotch had disappeared, dousing the junkyard in a tense silence.

"Cor, you're now parallel to where the Hades' signal is coming from. Begin walking to your right," Lily said and I stopped in my tracks. "No news of Ahvi yet. I am trying to locate her GPS." She added.

"Find her." I hissed into the earpiece as I began walking toward my right. I had put one of Warren's friends in danger. I refused to lose another. I remembered how reluctant Ren and Jace had been to let her come with me. But I had insisted. God, why had I insisted? Why was I trying to make a team out of these people when I had already fucked up and didn't even know them?

My heart rate slowed to a crawl as I passed by a broken washing machine and what seemed like a pile of clothes that seemed to be ripe with a termite infestation. I shuddered as I walked past it, glancing around to find a sign that I was on the right track.

I was about to ask Lily if I had strayed from the path when I heard it—a soft whimper. A woman's whimper. I straightened, my legs flying as I stumbled toward the sound. But it faded a moment later, forcing me to pause.

I strained my ears to listen for another sound, anything that would indicate where the sound was coming from. The pile of clothes I had left behind rustled but then settled. Probably a mouse again. I had only walked a few feet forward, trying to locate the sound again when the junk behind me exploded in flames.

Heat scorched my back as I threw myself on the ground, burying my head in my arms. Time slowed, a ringing beginning in my ear, my back burning from the impact of the blast. Pain laced up my right leg, telling me I had hurt myself. My hair fell into my face, undone from the neat ponytail I'd put it in under my hood as I turned around sharply to find the fire kissing the sky. My throat dried.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck..." I repeated the word under my breath as I clicked on my earpiece, trying to get Trish or Lily. But the ringing continued and a throbbing began in my head. I opened my mouth to speak but no words came out, my voice catching in my throat.

The Hades was here.

As if in response to my thought, another explosion went off somewhere else in the yard. The heat from the flames behind me had me scattering to my feet, leg screaming in pain. I glanced down at myself to find a small, white shard-like thing sticking out of my thigh, blood pooling around the edges. I glanced behind me one last time, watching as the fire spread through the yard and shook my head. Not dying tonight. I was not dying tonight. Not until I found Eman Hashim.