"Hurry up, Lachie!" Apollo shouted.
Lachlan unfroze and hurried down the ladder. It shook again. The bolts holding it to the wall loosened, and he began to fall back.
"Just drop, Lachlan! Trust me! Let go!" Valentine shouted.
Lachlan shut his eyes and let go. He dropped like a stone. Something warm wrapped around him, and he hit the bottom of the tunnel with a bounce. He opened his eyes and saw Apollo's pale face as he pulled him to his feet.
"What the fuck was that, Val?" Lachlan asked, shaking a little as he took Apollo's hand.
"Something I've been working on, like a slow descent spell. A hand cloud? I don't know how to explain it. Good to know it works. This was the first time I tested it on something living," Valentine said, and Lachlan's knees wobbled.
Apollo squeezed his hand, and he knew he couldn't have a meltdown just yet.
"Why do you even need a spell like that?" Lachlan said, trying to take some deep breaths.
"I don't know. Maybe because my father and brothers are turning slowly into dragons, but we don't know how tobedragons, so we could accidentally shift mid-air when we are trying to learn to fly, and I don't want them to fall to their deaths?" Valentine replied angrily.
Lachlan couldn't see his face properly in the darkness but could hear the genuine worry in his voice. Valentine always pretended he didn't care, but the more Lachlan hung around him, the more he saw how much he used that callousness as a mask. He pulled Valentine into a quick hug.
"Thank you, Valentine. It was terrifying, but it saved me, so thank you," Lachlan replied. They couldn't afford to stand about bitching at each other.
Valentine patted him once on the back before pushing him off. "You're welcome."
"They have bombed the apartment. Dad is going to be so pissed," Apollo said in a small voice. "Where do we go now?"
"Hunter hotel. We can check in under some of the Ironwood aliases, and the Sanguis Vitae will have a harder time tracking us down," Lachlan said, taking out his phone. "Layla put a digital catacomb map on here so I could find Apollo. Let's use it and stay underground as much as possible. I think the mages have a way into the city's CCTV."
"My wards should have picked them up, but I didn't make the perimeter wide enough," Valentine muttered.
Apollo patted his brother on the back. "It's not your fault, Val. The apartment was probably registered under the Greatdrakes' name for decades. It wouldn't have taken long for them to find that information. They probably knew it would be where we would go if we stayed in France."
"We can't assume they don't know the hotel is friendly for hunters, but hopefully, they won't risk attacking it because it would create too many other enemies," Lachlan said, adjustinghis duffle and sword. "Let's get moving. We need to be far from here when they search the rubble and find the hole."
Lachlan took the lead, and Apollo refused to let go of his hand as they headed further into the darkness.
26
Apollo's feet hurt, and he was hungry and thirsty. Mostly, he couldn't stop living the attack over and over in his mind. The way Lachlan had pounced on him and used his body to shield him. He could have died protecting him, and it had shaken Apollo to his core.
He could brew any potion or make a bomb, but his fighting skills were only defensive at best. He belonged in a lab, not in the middle of a brawl with blood mages. He had never felt so fucking useless, andgods, did that make him angry.
They had been wandering about the catacombs for most of the day, following the twisting tunnels to get as close as possible to the hotel. Maybe they should have just stayed there instead of going to the apartment.
He felt sick just thinking about how that conversation with Cosimo was going to go. He loved that apartment, and they had so many family memories there with their mother.
All gone because of me, Apollo thought, his stomach clenching.
"We are about as close as we can get," Lachlan said, pulling Apollo out of his spiraling guilt. "We need to find a way up."
"Thank fuck. I am done with these tunnels," Valentine grumbled.
Minutes later, they found a ladder, and with considerable effort, including a spell of Valentine's, they emerged from a pile of dirt in a park where a garden had been built over the exit.
Thankfully, it was raining and late afternoon, so only curious pigeons were there to witness them climbing out of the hole, tired and filthy with ash, and who knew what else.
Valentine cast another glamor over them so they wouldn't be picked up on CCTV, and they walked the three blocks to the hotel.
The receptionist took one look at them dripping and filthy and stared down his nose at them.
