The Lone Knight (Under The Cowl Book #1)

CHAPTER 40

     Stephanie watched Daria lean against the elevator railing, her hands clutched tightly around the square hunk of steel. Her face slowly grew gaunt and pale. The veins around Daira's neck bulged and turned green like an infection seeking to spread to the brain. Stephanie thought the worst of it was over when she pulled Daria out of that hallway.

Perhaps I got too comfortable.

"At least we can say it's likely we're going the right way." Stephanie tried to get Daria to see the brighter side. "What better way to keep a kryptonian away from what they don't want damaged, right?"

Daria grunted and dug her finger into the railing as a response. Not sure how much longer Daria will last with the state she's in.

"Quick question, when you first dove into a breach did you get a nauseating head spinning feeling, almost like you were standing on your head?"

Daria cringed. "That's the universe identifying you, telling you that you don't belong in this opposite universe."

"That's it?"

"No, it was trying to pull you back where you belong."

"Will it keep doing that if I keep going into a breach?"

"Yes, but it could rip your body to pieces trying to get you were your suppose to be, but we would never let that happen."

"Meaning?"

"There would be a disturbance in the main breach we Collectors use to travel through, you would be detected and we'd quickly filter you out before their is any damage done within the breach tunnel."

"Hmm. How did Leslie evade detection from the Collectors of the Fifty-Two?"

"We don't know." Daria lowered her head, keeling over in pain she tried to fight against.

Looks like I'm on my own.

The elevator finally came to a stop. 

Deciding to table the rest of her conversation with Daria, Stephanie checked and double checked everything she'll need in her utility belt before the elevator door opens to the other side.

Stephanie felt her breath shorten and heart race in her chest.

This was it.

The door opened.

Face to face from one end of the hall all the way to the other, Stephanie stood locked in a stare down with Lori, her face covered by the Mask of Ruin.

"Shit." Stephanie said under her breath.

Lori raised her hand where all it took was a second for a buzz saw forged from the shadows and slice through the center of the hallway.

Quickly Stephanie jumped aside and kicked Daria against the wall as the hammered echo of exploding steel rang against her ears the second she dropped her feet to the floor.

With her heels pressed against the wall Stephanie froze after she braced for impact. The heavy brush of wind that rushed across her body held her in place. She opened her eyes and gazed down at the widely carved divide between her and Daria.

A little too close for comfort, she found a skin scrapping scar across Daria's arm from the saw.

Sparks of live wire spun and spat its sprinkled charge of voltage rain like a burst water pipe inside the elevator. The floor and wall in the center of the elevator, even out in the hall, sat ripped apart at her feet and craved open like an exploded caned food.