Every sound we made echoed throughout the entryway as grand as the one castle I’d been in. Ward kept me close. Very close. Plastered to his side close.
“It gets cleaner as you get further in, but this was the first tip off Brad wasn’t here for our benefit. Presentation is everything,” Fallon said. She always swore her baked goods tasted more delicious on a cute plate.
Maggie stuck her head into one passageway. “Not that one.” She turned back to the group. “It’s still better than our village. Don’t let the cobwebs scare you into some sort of attack.”
I bristled for a second, my mouth glowing of its own accord, but Ward squeezed my shoulder, and I relaxed. The sister Maggie grew up with wasn’t completely gone. This remained terrifying. That hadn’t changed. But my anger toward her had softened. It still pissed me off to the seven hells that she betrayed me, but it mattered less and less when I knew if I ran to Ward, he would catch me.
I made sure my voice didn’t waver. “I’ll make sure you’re in the path of my dragon if I feel an attack coming on.”
Mags blinked twice and smiled at me. Was that a look of pride on her face? For the sass?
Ward sheltered me in the curve of his body. My agitation agitated him. “Can you sense the relic now?” He asked it almost too quietly to hear over the low, constant hum that made my ears itch.
I sensed we were in trouble, but I think we all realized that. “Everything feels the same in here—like lightning.”
“Helpful,” Noth drawled.
I can shake him like a rat,my dragon chuffed.
“You’re supposed to help us here,” I reminded the elf. “Weren’t you trapped here?”
“They didn’t take me in the front door, so I can’t exactly show you which dirty, cobweb-infested hallway leads to the relic. Aren’t you supposed to find them, too?”
“Don’t talk to my sister like that,” Maggie stepped forward and yelled.
Whoa, she had never snapped like that before. She swore criticism toughened my aura. Noth bristled in return and his eyes flared ruby, a spiderweb of darkness spreading around them. Ward picked me up and physically placed himself between me and the two hissing cats.
“Can you bring us to where they held you?” he asked Noth.
“We don’t need him. He can guard the entrance or something, right?” Mags asked.
Noth just huffed and followed Fallon, who was already starting down a random hallway.
“We’ll just take you back to where they had us,” Fallon said.
The sense of dread only increased as the halls all blended into one another. They were uniformly dark and creepy—haunted, even. After a few, or ten, perhaps a hundred turns, Fallon and Maggie led us to a gigantic hall with two enormous fireplaces at either end. Rather than stone, the flames sat in cold metal housing. The furniture squatted low, sparse, and uncomfortable. It was a strange mix of a temple and something completely otherworldly. Soldiers lounged on all of it and turned to us immediately when we entered the room, including the man in front of the fire. His sandy waved and curled short hair complimented his tanned-to-perfection skin, but it amounted to the personality of a balsa wood box. Somehow, it made the menace coming off him more apparent.
I hated him on sight.
Ward crashed into the gaggle of soldiers and I put my friends behind me, much to their surprise. Noth streaked out of nowhere, reaching for Brad, who produced a black stick and shoved it into Noth’s stomach. Lightning arced out and Noth fell to the ground, unconscious. Brad straightened a bunch of ridiculous clothes—a wide-collared sweater and sand-colored pants that puffed out around him.
“I remembered to turn it all the way up,” Brad said as he kicked Noth. When he turned back to us, his eyes grew harder. “There will be no monster violence in my pad. This is a good vibes only zone.” He smiled too wide, and it showed off straight horse teeth in a thin mouth under a arrow nose.
“I don't care what animal you are, you’ll be dead if you're full of holes. Thank God this place never invented firearms.” He turned to the soldiers, waving them down. “All right, they get the idea, guys.”
His casual attitude made my stomach flip. I wanted this quest over. “Give us the relic or we’ll rip this shrine to its foundations to find it,” I said.
Brad turned his attempt at charm on me. “It’s Evie, right? You’ve been quite the troublemaker. I thought you were just a fated mate the dumb bear picked up, but you turned into a real pain. I was hoping we would find some sort of cure for you and your village. But I guess bad genetics breed true. Those elves didn’t do you any favors.”
We all looked at the unconscious Noth sprawled across the floor.
“I mean,Idon’t enjoy dabbling in multigenerational human experiments, but to each their own, I guess.” Brad flicked something from beneath his nail.
Mags took exception to whatever that meant and tried to move past me. I wasn’t fooled by his attempts to bait us. He wanted an excuse to pick us off one by one since he didn’t look like the type that could withstand a group attack.
Brad yawned, not at all bothered by the threat of violence. “It’s getting a little tense in here. I’ll show you the relic. Even let you keep it.”
We all collectively narrowed our eyes at him, but he walked past us, oblivious.
