The stairwell felt colder all of a sudden, like the temperature had dropped ten degrees in the span of a heartbeat.

Jaxon’s hand was already at his sidearm, his body angled between Raven and the source of the noise. He didn’t need to say it, but the look he threw at her was clear: Stay behind me.

Raven didn’t move. “If you tell me to hide one more time, I swear ”

“Not the time,” he muttered, his eyes never leaving the dark stretch of stairs above them.

Another sound, a ...