[BL] I Didn't Sign Up For This-Chapter 47: In Which Everything Goes Wrong (Right On Schedule)
We didn’t make it four hours.
We made it two hours and thirty-seven minutes before the wards started screaming.
Not literal screaming, magical screaming, which somehow was worse—this high-pitched resonance that made my teeth ache and the sigil on my wrist flare so bright I could see it through my shirt sleeve.
I was in the back office trying to sleep (failing miserably) when it hit. The binding jolted like someone had shocked it with a cattle prod.
Azryth was through the door before I’d even fully sat up.
"They’re here," he said.
"Who’s here?"
"Everyone."
That was not reassuring.
The main floor had transformed into organized chaos. Hunters moving with practiced efficiency, grabbing weapons, checking ammunition, pulling on tactical gear. Mara was at the monitors, Henrik barking orders into a radio.
"Sitrep," Azryth demanded, moving to Mara’s side.
"Three separate groups converging on our location simultaneously." She pointed to different screens showing aerial views of the warehouse district. "Covenant operatives from the north, unknown demon faction from the east, and what looks like a rogue hunter cell from the south."
"Rogue hunters?" I moved closer to see. "I thought you were all on the same team."
"Most of us are." Henrik’s expression was grim. "But there’s always a few cells that think the only good demon is a dead demon,they probably decided you’re too dangerous to live."
"Fantastic. So we’re being attacked by the people who are supposed to be our allies."
"Welcome to supernatural politics," Mara muttered. "It’s all betrayal and bad timing."
"How long until they breach the perimeter?" Azryth was studying the screens, his tactical mind already working through scenarios.
"Three minutes for the Covenant. Five for the others." Henrik checked his weapon, some kind of modified shotgun with glowing rounds. "We can hold them off, but not indefinitely, you two need to get to the extraction point."
"What extraction point?" I asked.
"Utility tunnel in the northwest corner." Mara was already moving, gesturing for us to follow. "It leads to the subway maintenance system, from there we can get you to a secondary vehicle and route you to the safehouse."
"What about your people?"
"We hold here and make enough noise that the attackers focus on the warehouse while you slip out." She stopped at a heavy steel door I hadn’t noticed before. "Standard extraction protocol, we’ve done this before."
"How many times have you done this before?" I had a bad feeling about the answer.
"Twice." She pulled out a keycard. "We had a sixty percent survival rate."
"SIXTY PERCENT?"
"Better than zero percent, which is what you’ll have if you stay here." She swiped the card. The door unlocked with a heavy clunk. "Move. Now."
The first explosion hit before we could argue further.
Not close, but close enough, the whole building shook, dust rained from the ceiling. Somewhere on the main floor, someone shouted a warning.
"Northwest corner, through the maintenance tunnels, vehicle is marked with a blue X." Mara shoved a set of keys into my hand. "Don’t stop, don’t engage, just run."
"What about you?" I asked.
"We’re hunters, Riven. This is literally what we do." She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. "Now stop being heroic and get the hell out of my warehouse."
Another explosion, closer this time. The lights flickered.
Azryth grabbed my arm. "We’re leaving. Now."
He pulled me through the door into a concrete corridor that smelled like mold and old water, the door slammed shut behind us, heavy locks engaging automatically.
"I don’t like this," I said, even as we started running.
"Neither do I." Azryth’s hand was tight on my arm, pulling me forward. "But Mara’s right, we’re the targets, our presence makes them vulnerable."
The corridor branched. Azryth chose left without hesitation, and I felt through the binding that he was tracking something, heat signatures maybe, or magical resonance, some demon sense I didn’t have.
Behind us, the sounds of battle echoed through the concrete. Gunfire, the crackle of magical energy, shouts and screams that made my stomach clench.
"They’re dying for us," I gasped out, trying to keep pace.
"They’re fighting for their own survival, we just happen to be the catalyst." His voice was flat, controlled. "Don’t let guilt slow you down."
We hit another branch, this time Azryth paused, head tilted.
"What?" I asked.
"Someone’s in the tunnels ahead of us."
"The extraction vehicle?"
"Wrong direction." His eyes flickered with flame. "Ambush, they predicted the escape route."
Of course they did. Because nothing was ever simple.
"Can we portal out?" I asked.
"Not from here. Too many conflicting wards, too much ambient magical interference from the battle above." He was already backing us toward the previous branch. "We need to—"
The wall exploded.
Not metaphorically, it actually exploded, concrete and rebar blasting inward in a shower of debris and dust.
Through the hole stepped something that definitely wasn’t human.
Tall, maybe seven feet, skin like charred leather, eyes that burned with actual fire. Not the ember-glow of Azryth’s eyes. Actual flames. It wore what looked like tactical gear modified for a non-human frame, and it carried a weapon that hummed with power I could feel from here.
"Azryth Valek," it said, voice like grinding stone. "The Covenant sends its regards."
"How original." Azryth moved in front of me, putting himself between me and the demon. "Tell the Covenant I’m not interested in their regards."
"You don’t have a choice." The demon’s burning eyes shifted to me. "The warden comes with us, alive, preferably, dead if necessary."
"We used the third option last time," Azryth said. "And we’re using it again. You leave in pieces."
The demon laughed. Then it moved.
Fast. Way too fast for something that size.
It closed the distance in a blink, weapon swinging toward Azryth’s head. Azryth blocked with a barrier of flame that erupted from his palm, the impact sent both of them sliding backward.
"Run!" Azryth shouted at me.
"I’m not leaving you!"
"I’m not asking!" He was already engaging again, fire meeting fire, the corridor filling with heat and smoke. "Northwest corner! Go!"
The building shook with another explosion, closer, much closer.
More demons were coming through the hole in the wall. Three, four, five. All of them armed, all of them focused on us.
Azryth couldn’t fight them all alone. He was strong, but he wasn’t invincible, and he’d already been diminished when he gave up part of his throne essence in the arbiter trial.
I felt his strain through the binding, the effort of maintaining both offensive and defensive power simultaneously.
He needed help.
I pulled energy from the binding, felt it respond immediately, and channeled it into the spectral blade that had become second nature over weeks of training.
The blade manifested in my hand, glowing amber-white.
"I said run!" Azryth snapped.
"I don’t take orders well!" I moved beside him instead of behind him. "Remember? Stubborn human who knocks you into walls?"
"This is not the time for—"
A demon lunged at me. I brought the blade up instinctively, cutting through its weapon and into its torso in one smooth motion, it shrieked and dissolved into ash.
"—insubordination," Azryth finished. Then, almost fond: "You’re impossible."
"You like that about me."
"I tolerate it under protest." But through the binding, I felt his relief, his approval, his absolute terror at me being in danger mixed with fierce pride that I could hold my own.
We fought back-to-back, the way we’d trained. His fire, my blade, moving in perfect synchronization that the Covenant demons clearly weren’t prepared for.
They’d expected Azryth weakened and alone.
They hadn’t expected us merged, coordinated, fighting as a single unit.
We took down three more before the corridor filled with choking smoke from all the fire and burnt demon.
"We need to move," Azryth said, grabbing my hand. "More are coming."
He was right. I could feel them through the binding now, additional signatures moving through the tunnels, converging on our position.
We ran.
The corridors blurred together. Left, right, down a ladder into deeper maintenance tunnels. The sounds of battle above grew distant but not gone, the binding pulled taut between us, guiding us toward each other even when the smoke and darkness made it hard to see.
"There!" I pointed ahead to a door marked with a faded blue X.
We burst through it into an underground parking area. A single vehicle sat in the shadows, a nondescript van that looked like it had seen better days.
Azryth immediately moved to check it. "It’s warded. Clean."
I used the keys Mara had given me, the van unlocked with a click that sounded impossibly loud in the silence.
We got in. Azryth drove because I was shaking too hard from adrenaline dump.
The van’s engine turned over on the first try, a small miracle.
Azryth navigated through the underground parking structure toward an exit ramp. We were almost there when my phone buzzed.
Mara’s number.
I answered on speaker.
"Are you clear?" Her voice was tight. Background noise suggested active combat.
"We’re in the vehicle, heading to the exit now."
"Good. Don’t take Highway 9. Covenant has a checkpoint, use the industrial route, backroads only." A pause filled with gunfire. "And Riven?"
"Yeah?"
"We’re pulling out, too many hostiles, too much firepower, we’ll rendezvous at the safehouse when we can."
"When you can? That doesn’t sound—"
"We’re professionals, we’ll make it." She didn’t sound convinced. "Get moving, don’t stop for anything."
The line went dead.
Azryth accelerated up the ramp into the night. The city stretched out around us, lights and shadows, completely unaware that supernatural warfare was happening in its maintenance tunnels and abandoned warehouses.
"You think they’ll make it?" I asked quietly.
"Mara Voss survived the Prague incident that allegedly killed Henrik, she’s harder to kill than she looks." But his voice was uncertain. "We’ll know when we reach the safehouse."
If we reached the safehouse.
The van had GPS coordinates pre-programmed. Twenty miles outside the city, deep into areas that maps labeled "undeveloped" which usually meant "avoid this place after dark."
Perfect location for a hidden warden stronghold.
I watched the city disappear in the side mirror, feeling the binding hum with residual combat adrenaline.
We’d escaped barely.
But Mara and her hunters were still back there, fighting our battles, dying maybe.
"This is my fault," I said.
"No." Azryth’s voice was firm. "This is the Covenant’s fault, and centuries of bad blood between demons and wardens. You’re not the cause."
"That’s a fine distinction when people are dying."
"It’s the only distinction that matters." His hand found mine across the console. "We didn’t start this war, Riven. We’re just trying to survive it."
The binding pulsed in agreement.
But survival felt hollow when it came at the cost of people who’d offered us shelter.
The GPS chimed. "In five miles, turn right onto unmarked road."
Five miles to the safehouse.
Five miles to whatever came next.
