“Here.” I handed her some rope. “We’ll use this to scale down the building.”
“No need for that,” she replied with a smile.
She slid a vial out of her skirt pocket. As soon as she pulled out the stopper, a whirlwind whispered out of the top, surrounding us both. Encased in magic, we climbed onto the windowsill and jumped. The wind cushioned our fall the whole way down. Bella pushed the stopper back into place, and the spell dissipated.
“Cool,” I said.
She winked at me. “Just wait until you see the new healing potions I can make.”
“I’m afraid that will have to wait for another time,” I told her. “You need to get out of here before someone sees you.”
“Are you sure you’ll be all right?”
“I can take care of myself.”
She hugged me tightly. “I know you can.”
She pulled away, giving me a little wave before turning to walk calmly down the paved path to Building 3, her movements so innocent that no one would possibly imagine that she’d been doing more than enjoying a late night stroll. At least I hoped no one would stop her. The only trouble Bella had ever gotten into in her life was entirely because of me. She didn’t have a drop of wickedness in her.
I could sense people approaching, and from the way they were moving, they definitely weren’t witches out for a late night stroll. Four very large men dressed in black strode out of the building we’d just escaped. I might have thought they were university security—if not for the masks they wore. As one, the masked assailants rushed me.
I sidestepped one of them, giving him an added push as he passed. He slammed into the brick building. The impact wasn’t enough to knock him out, but it was enough to leave him dazed. The other three had surrounded me, hitting me with a coordinated punch. If they’d been vampires or shifters, that would have been game over for me, but despite their muscular appearance, the men weren’t supernaturally strong. They weren’t supernaturally fast either.
And I was both. I caught one man’s arm and pulled him in front of me like a shield. It all happened so fast that his buddies’ fists hammered into him instead of into me. The man dropped to the ground, unconscious. I looked down at him, hardly believing that had worked. The other two guys were gaping like they didn’t believe it either.
Thick arms closed around me from behind, trapping me. It looked like the dazed man I’d pushed into the building had recovered. I stomped down hard on his foot. He grunted, and I kicked his shin. I followed that up by slamming my head back into his face. I hit him so hard that I knocked him out. These moves worked so much better when my opponent wasn’t an angel.
I turned to face the last two guys. Floodlights flared up all across the grounds. I blinked rapidly, trying to clear my vision. Through the purple blotches swirling across my eyes, I saw the real university security rushing toward us. The two masked men still standing turned and ran, abandoning their unconscious comrades. Nice.
I ran too. Ideally, I would have grabbed one of the men off of the ground. Realistically, he looked far too heavy. Sure, I was strong, but I knew my limits, and carrying him was outside of them. I couldn’t move fast enough with that extra weight—at least not fast enough to escape the security closing in on me from all sides. And even without the extra weight, I might not be able to escape. I briefly considered staying but dismissed the idea. To avoid being arrested, I’d have to tell them I was with the Legion, but I wasn’t really supposed to be here, was I? If I got caught, Nero would find out that I’d broken into the university without his permission. I was really not in the mood to argue with him right now.
I detoured into Angel Park to strip down to my sport bra and running shorts. I quickly stuffed my overclothes into the small backpack I’d brought along, then continued running down the sidewalk. Now instead of a ninja, I looked like any other runner out for some late night exercise.
At the Legion, the night security guy at the desk was playing games on his computer. He hardly looked up at me as I passed. The halls were empty. Everyone must have been asleep—or still out partying. Back in our apartment, Ivy and Drake were sitting on the sofa, watching a cheesy martial arts move.
“Hey, are you all right?” Ivy asked, pausing the movie. “I was worried after you rushed out of Three Wishes.”
I plopped down on the sofa next to her. “I’m fine. I just infiltrated the witches’ university, had someone try to kill me with poisonous gas, and fought masked assailants.”
“Cool,” Drake said.
“Cool?” Ivy rolled her eyes at him. “What exactly is cool about that?”
“She got to go on a secret Legion mission. That is cool.”
“Actually, it was a secret Leda mission. The Legion knows nothing about it, and let’s keep it that way.” I dug the memory stick out of my bag. I’d have to come up with a story for how I’d gotten it. A story that didn’t involve breaking into the university without Nero’s permission.
“Colonel Windstriker doesn’t know you went there?” Drake snorted. “That’s going to be a fun conversation when he finds out.”
“Not if he doesn’t find out.”
Drake gave me an indulgent smile. “Ok, Leda. He won’t find out.”
“Shit. He’s going to find out,” I said. Drake was right. Nero always found out about everything.
“Unless he’s distracted,” said Ivy, wiggling her eyebrows.