"Have you met this mysterious person?" Apollo raised a brow.
Valentine generally hated everyone who wasn't family, and it took someone unique to get any kind of interest out of him.
Valentine shook his head. "No, but I trust Uncle Taranis. He thought we could learn from each other. I was contemplating going for a trip into Faerie when you decided to get yourself kidnapped."
Apollo rolled his eyes. "It's not my fault they all seem to think I'm going to turn into a majestic golden dragon that's the key to the Philosopher Stoneandthe Elixir of Life. Did I tell you that one of them wanted to kidnap you instead but was talked out of it?"
"Because I wasn't going to be dumb enough to get caught?"
"No, because I'm going to be a prettier dragon than you and the better alchemist."
"Guys, I'm in," Lachlan interrupted in a low voice. "You can argue about who the better dragon is later."
Valentine and Apollo followed him into a dull, gray concrete hallway. Apollo's skin crawled.
"These must be a fire escape as well," Valentine commented. He rested a hand on it momentarily before pulling it back again. "There are spells in the walls. Don't touch them, Apollo. I don't have time to figure out what they do."
Lachlan took the lead, with Layla directing them through the maze of back corridors. Apollo had grown up in a house with old servant passages, and it gave him the same feeling. This was a way to get around the large building without being seen.
The air grew colder, and after a bit more door hacking, they found a server room that was icy cold from the overworked air conditioners.
"Do you understand anything that he's doing?" Apollo asked, watching as Lachlan busied himself with his phone and cables behind tall towers of lights.
"No fucking clue. Layla's skills have grown beyond my basic computer knowledge in the past few years. Better her than me. Technology seems so boring compared to magic," Valentine replied.
"Everything is boring compared to magic with you."
"True."
Apollo fidgeted, already sick of waiting and eager to find his samples in the labs and get the fuck out of the building. He was feeling like a mouse in a maze.
"So you find anything good at the auction?" he asked.
"A few manuscripts I thought Dad might like. One of them is Catherine Medici's copy of the Complete Works of Zosimos of Panopolys."
Apollo hummed. "Ohhh, very nice… If it's legit."
"It's legit. It's even got the Medici-Valois coat of arms on it to mark that it was from her personal library," Valentine said with a grin. "I wasn't going to steal anything counterfeit."
Lachlan signaled to them. "Layla is in their closed system. Let's get out of here and find the labs."
"Let's hope nothing has made it into their creepy blood vault yet," Apollo said with a shiver.
They had all agreed that the vault's storage room was too dangerous to risk entering. Apollo had described the sigils to Valentine as best he could, and he had clued in enough to know that Bellerose's personal workroom would have magical security that was too advanced for them to sneak in and out of.
"Do you have enough elixir to corrupt the samples?" Valentine asked as they went back out into the twisting concrete halls.
"I hope so. I fucking hate this, Val. We need to do what we can and get the fuck out of here. Maybe we can work on a ward for me so that if we miss any samples, they can't do blood magic on me."
"We will do everything we need to. Right now, I need you to keep your shit together." Valentine pointed at Lachlan in front of them. "Focus on the view."
Apollo laughed. "Fuck you."
"Whatever works for you. How's your dragon?"
"Quiet for once. And so is my brain for the most part."
Valentine leaned over and whispered, "Must be that magical Ironwood dick you got."
