Chapter 344
Adrenaline had already flooded Lucien. The moment he'd seen the smoke it had coursed through his veins and set him into a run, moving quickly, searching for Elain. When he'd felt her response to his tug on the bond, however, it was as if all that adrenaline caught fire. It was as if it were oil in his veins and the flames burning within him caught at it, and it made those flames spread like wildfire. Fire sung in Lucien's blood, and nothing would stop him now.
"Please!"
Elain's plea made Lucien's breath catch in his throat, and fear spiked through him, piercing that burning adrenaline just for a moment. He could hear the desperation in her plea, and he knew that she needed him. She needed him now.
The soldiers who had followed Lucien into the burning building moved with him up the hallways, kicking in doors as they went, searching and swarming through the hallways, looking for anything they might find. So far they had found nothing and nobody. Lucien altered his breathing, trying not to take in so much smoke as he reached for the bond again. He needed more information than the fear he had felt in Elain's cry. He needed help to find her if he was to be of any use to her at all. Running through these hallways blindly wasn't working, and it was taking too long.
They couldn't communicate as clearly down the bond as Lucien knew Feyre and Rhys could. He knew that his friend and her mate could have entire conversations reading one another's minds, but he and Elain couldn't do that yet, if they were ever to attain that ability. They had only managed images and feelings or emotions. Elain had seen a little more when the bond had seen fit to show her some of his memories, but that was different and a part of her ability as a seer. Her plea to him minutes ago had been the clearest message he had received from her down the bond, and much of what had gotten that message across had been the raw desperation behind it. Emotions, they could do.
Knowing that he needed to send a reply to her, asking for more, Lucien paused and closed his eyes. He grasped the bond, following along it to ward his mate and he tried to send her everything he could, questioning where she was and how he was to get to her. How would he find her? All of that, Lucien shoved down the bond, trying to sum all of his questions up into a single word, hoping that it would work. "Where?"
It was taking too long, Lucien knew. His eyes sweeping up and down the hallway, watching as soldiers moved ahead of him, opening doors and rushing further up and around the corner into the next hallway. The smoke was thicker than ever now, and there was an orange glow in many of the rooms they'd entered. The fire was spreading and Lucien could tell that it had been lit in several places. This was not an accidental blaze, but a deliberate act that was intended to let the flames take the entire building. Lucien had put several of the blazes out as he moved, knowing that he would need a path to follow back when he'd found his mate. It wouldn't do to have the building turning to ash behind him only to discover too late that they didn't have a way out again.
"HERE!"
He'd thought the cry had come from Elain for a moment, but it was a female soldier up the hallway. She had turned and was gesturing to Lucien and he moved swiftly toward her. Squinting through the smoke, Lucien saw the soldier had her arm around someone. Someone small and slight; a female. For the briefest of moments, Lucien's heart quickened but then he saw the dirty blonde hair and his heart sank instead. He recognised the Courtier and he had to force himself to bite back a snarl.
"Kera," he demanded, grabbing her wrist and pulling her around to look at him. "Where is Elain?"
"I…I don't know." She said, coughing as she tried to breathe. "We… we were separated…"
"Where?" he demanded again, frustration rising in him at how close he was only to be blocked again. Kera lifted her free hand and pointed down one of the nearby hallways, coughing heavily enough for her slim body to be shaken. He released her, letting the soldier to slip an arm around her once more. "Get her out." He said, and the soldier nodded. "With me!" he called loudly to the others as he hurried down the hallway Kera had indicated.
Reaching for the bond again, Lucien tried to get it to show him the way. He could see the golden thread in his mind, linking him to Elain. Following it as best he could, Lucien tugged at it, wanting Elain to respond to him. He thought about winnowing to her, and that desire was about as powerful as anything he'd ever felt but he knew that the soldiers would be unable to follow and he knew that they would need them. If Elain was desperately calling to him in the way that she had then the soldiers on his heels seemed necessary. He couldn't winnow away from them and leave them to get lost in the smoky and burning hallways where they would be of no used to Elain and his mother.
The smoke was growing thicker, and the heat was building the deeper Lucien ran into the building, but he continued to follow the thread in his mind. He called out to Elain down the bond again and again, growing more and more concerned when he didn't get a reply.
He nearly stumbled when the reply came, as it wasn't so much a reply as a wave of pain and fear, and he thought he could hear her screaming in his head, and then Lucien couldn't fight the urge any more. He winnowed.