“Get ahold of yourself, Naya,” she growled. “You’ll blow our cover for sure!”
I snarled, spinning around to confront her, but the velocity of the stampeding crowd forced me to either follow her or get trampled. People pushed and elbowed each other as the crowd clogged outside the stairwell, and I glanced back once more at the shifters stuck in their cages. They were already being moved out of the room by the few staff members who weren’t corralling the spectators into an orderly evacuation, through a panel that had been slid open at the corner of the far wall when we weren’t looking.
Guess we weren’t allowed to use it as an emergency exit.
I wanted to turn around and investigate the secret entrance so badly it was a physical ache in my chest, but I knew Annia was right. If I did anything more now it would only blow our cover and possibly get us, and the shifters, killed. No, it was better to get an actual team of Enforcers, ones who weren’t being bribed, to come in here and arrest everyone. Until then, we had to pretend we were normal humans just like everyone else.
Once we made it to the upper floor of the warehouse, things calmed down a bit. Members of the event staff worked to direct the flow of traffic to the various exits, and they managed to gather everyone into the lot outside of the front of the building.
“Ladies and gentlemen!” The announcer called, standing up on the hood of a steamcar to make himself visible. “We apologize profusely for that rude interruption of tonight’s Royale. Our staff has managed to put the fire out, so there is no need to call the fire department. If anyone is injured, please head over to the front – we have professionals who will render you first aid. For the rest of you, we are giving out free tickets to our next Royale as compensation for the abrupt end to this evening’s entertainment. For those of you who are interested, please go and see Solin Endeman over there.” The announcer pointed to his right, where Solin, the man who’d sold us the tickets, stood waiting.
About half of the crowd surged toward Solin, eager to claim tickets, but quite a few of the humans shook their heads and turned to leave, muttering amongst themselves. From the snippets of conversation I overheard, it didn’t sound like they were planning on coming back to the Royale, and weary satisfaction briefly swept through me. Maybe I hadn’t been able to rescue those shifters tonight, but I’d put a dent in the Royale’s operation, and that would have to be enough to tide me over until I could crush them completely.
A handful of the attendees had been injured in the evacuation, trampled or smashed into walls, and those were led over to where Brin and Nila stood with a few other humans, a table with medical supplies set up. Brin looked like he’d been hurt, maybe by one of the shifters – Nila was binding his right forearm up with a length of gauze. My hands clenched into fists again, and I took a step toward them.
“Wait.” Annia placed a hand on my shoulder. “Let me go and talk to them. I can help out with the first aid and see if I can get anything from those two. You, on the other hand, don’t look like you’ve changed a bandage in your life, so you should wait for me here with Lakin.”
“Fine.” I wrinkled my nose at the accusation – I’d changed plenty of bandages, thank you very much – but I was playing the part of wimpy female tonight, so I hung back and watched as Annia made her way toward Brin and Nila. She introduced herself as an Enforcer from a neighboring town, and after answering a couple of pointed questions Brin and Nila seemed to accept her.
“That was incredible, what you did back there with the fire,” Lakin murmured in my ear from behind me. I shivered a little at the sensation of his warm breath on my neck, and turned my body at a three quarter angle so that I could see both him and Annia and also put some distance between us. “It was an illusion, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.” I looked up into Lakin’s eyes, and felt a pang in my chest at the admiration I saw there. I wanted to lean into that gaze, to soak up the affinity and the admiration my soul craved, but I knew I couldn’t trust that look. “I wasn’t going to start a real fire, especially not in such a small space.”
“Well you saved that tigress’s life.” Lakin squeezed my shoulder as he smiled down at me. “We may not have been able to free those shifters tonight, but you made sure that none of them died.”
“I was just doing my job.”
“No. You were just being you.”
Warmth flooded through me, and I turned away before Lakin could catch the blush on my cheeks. Annia was crouched down in front of a human, bandaging up his ankle as she talked to Nila, and I tuned in on their conversation, hoping they were talking about something useful.