“Where is she?” Zara asked, her hands wringing.
“Sally?”Jacque tried her next.
The response was instant.“Are you back? Are you okay? What happened? I can’t reach Costin. You need to get here now.”
“Bloody hell.” Jacque breathed out, her worry rising at the sound of Sally’s anxious tone, not to mention the rapid-fire questions.“Where is here?”
“Jen and Dec’s room. Hurry, Jacque.”
Jacque grabbed onto Cyn’s arm. “Take me to Jen’s room?”
Cyn flashed. Jacque didn’t knock. She threw the door to the suite open and rushed inside. Her stomach dropped at what she saw—Jen curled up in a ball, her head resting in Sally’s lap. Jacque fell to her knees next to them. “No!” She shook her head and repeated the word over and over again.
Chapter 14
“I vow here and now never to say goodbye again. I will tell you upon parting, ‘See you soon.. I will say, ‘See you in a little while,’ or even ‘Be back in a bit.’ But never goodbye.” ~Fane
The mountain shook again.When the rumbling stopped, Fane heard the sound of pounding feet. He stretched his wolf’s hearing and realized the sound wasn’t coming from just a pair of feet. Whoever was running through the tunnels, it wasa lotof someones.
“Do I even want to know what that is?” Peri looked at the opening where Clarion stood. He no longer faced the room but, instead, stared back down into the darkness of the tunnel. Fane could see the djinn’s glowing hands held up in front of him.
“Don’t shoot!” Adam’s voice reverberated off the mountain walls. “We’re coming in hot.”
“Clarion, don’t let them pass without seeing us,” Lucian said. “But obviously don’t hurt them to stop them.”
“Except Adam,” Peri quipped. “You can give him a little zap … or a lot of zap. Whatever tickles your fancy.”
“What are you guarding, djinny?” Fane saw Adam’s head pop up over the elder’s shoulder. Adam’s brow rose. “Please tell me whatever is happening in there is Peri’s fault.” He grinned, and Fane nearly laughed. He had to appreciate Adam’s constant playful attitude, even when things were falling apart.
“Not me,” Peri said. “As always, when trapped under a mountain, it’s the elves who don’t know how to handle themselves. Blame Thalion.”
The elf in question just rolled his eyes.
“There’s a nulling spell on the room,” Clarion explained. “Anyone who goes in can’t move their legs.”
“He didn’t think to make their mouths stop working?” Wadim’s head appeared around Clarion’s other shoulder.
Adam held up his hand. “Good one.” Wadim high-fived it.
“Are you two just going to stand there yapping, or are we going to figure out how to get them out of there?” Lilly’s voice came from farther back.
“Who is with you?” Fane asked.
“We’ve got Gwen, the lovely high fae, the fierce warlock queen, the handsome historian wolf, and of course, this bad boy.” Adam pointed to himself.
“Did you get bored wandering around the tunnels and start smoking something?” Elle squinted at him as if she could see something that would cause Adam to act like, well, Adam.
“Just trying to keep a positive attitude, Ellie.” Adam winked. “Especially since there are vampires running around in the mountain.”
“Okay, you should have led with that,” Peri snapped. “Instead of standing there yapping like a tiny dog with a canine Napoleon complex.”
The mountain shuddered again.
“Well, in that case,” Wadim said, “we should probably mention there area lotof vampires in the tunnels.”
Peri’s eyes grew wide. “How many isa lot?”
Wadim glanced behind him. “It looks like someone has kicked over an anthill, and now they’ve all come pouring out.”
