Gravel shifted beneath their feet in the dark.
The collapse above had completely destroyed the ventilation system of the K-0 underground containment facility.
The few red warning lights still burning overhead flickered, turning the basalt corridor into a bleeding gut.
Dust, rust, char, and the rank scent of animals came in waves.
The Dragonified Wizard stopped and turned his head.
His scale-covered nostrils twitched twice like a cold-blooded reptile's, sifting through the tangled scents in the air.
Beneath them all, he caught a tantalizing trace of Dragon Blood.
It was not the scent of the inferior Fantastic Beasts locked in their cages.
This scent was purer, Dragon Blood and human magic perfectly intertwined—
He had smelled it on that girl.
Up on the surface, the scent had only seeped faintly through her skin and sleeves. Now it hung thick and exposed in the air.
She was hurt.
The Dragonified Wizard grinned, his sharp teeth scraping together with a chilling rasp.
His blood-red slit pupils glimmered in the dark. Following the scent, he slipped silently through a half-collapsed archway and stopped at a fork.
From the shadows at the end of the left passage came a faint breath, carefully suppressed.
The thick scent of Dragon Blood poured steadily from there.
Dark red magic wrapped around his body.
Bang!
A brutally forceful short-range Apparition tore through the corridor's air.
He did not walk over. He crossed space and appeared at the end of the passage in an instant.
Cordelia was pressed tight against the cold basalt wall.
Her left arm, marked with a red dragon, hung limp at her side. Blood dripped from her cuff.
Her face was almost translucent with pallor.
When that oppressive dark red figure appeared without warning and blocked her path, her silver-gray eyes filled with helpless terror.