Luccan walked behind the leprechaun, and we followed. I didn’t spot anyone watching us, and yet when we passedthrough a door leading into a dark tunnel that led downward, I sighed.
“Few people have that response to the back part of a coinary. Most find it stifling.” Balvor eyed me with interest as he pulled a torch from the wall and lit it with magic. “Are you part leprechaun?”
“Uh, not that I know of,” I said, unable to lie. But who knew? Maybe long, long ago, I’d had a leprechaun ancestor.
“Hmm, too bad. Watch your step. And stay away from the walls.” Balvor descended the staircase.
Despite the light from the torch, inky blackness enveloped us on the way down. The staircase was wide enough for four to walk side-by-side, though after Balvor’s warning, we went in single file. I took such care to focus on the steep steps that when a growl came from my right, I tripped onto Vale, who walked ahead of me. Thankfully, my mate proved more surefooted and caught me.
“What was that?” I asked.
“Theft deterrents,” Balvor chirped as though he’d been waiting for someone to fear the creature I still could not see. “Monsters, caged along the staircase. All kinds, at random intervals.”
“Stars,” I breathed. I’d been told that we’d encounter captive creatures of tooth and claw down below, but on the steps too?
Did Luccan know what they were? Vale? As we ventured to a part of the coinary where the wealthiest and the oldest noble families in the city kept their prizes, I had to imaginethat both had gone this way before. Questioningly, I looked at Vale.
“They’re fairly new, and I don’t know what’s inside,” he whispered. “But I’m sure they remain caged unless a leprechaun releases them.”
And with Bac’s powers of persuasion, that wouldn’t happen. I swallowed but kept going.
Down, down, down we went. It felt like we’d descended at least four stories into the ground, and we weren’t at the bottom.
Occasionally, another growl or snarl filled my ears, and while I did not fall again, I couldn’t help but wonder what might be lurking a few paces to either side, caged and unseen down a narrow hallway that branched off the steps.
I wondered, but I prayed we wouldn’t find out.
Chapter 34
NEVE
The moment we reached the bottom of the steps, I exhaled, as if we’d already completed the heist when we’d only just begun.
Balvor walked the perimeter of a room, snapping his fingers every few paces. Faelights ignited, revealing hallways jutting off a circular room like spokes extending from a wheel.
My jaw set into a hard line. “Why not have faelights on the steps? It’s dangerous.”
“Are your servants always so outspoken, Lord Riis?”
Luccan arched an eyebrow. “Some. Answer her question.”
“We prefer people to take care with the stairs rather than run up and down needlessly,” Balvor replied smoothly.
I read between the lines. The steps were one of the last line of defense from thieves.
The leprechaun waved his hands and the faelights he had ignited floated over to hover in a circle around his baldhead. “These faelights will follow us to your vault, Lord Riis. Come.” Balvor took the far right spoke, and once he turned away, I looked at Vale.
“What if mine is down one of the other spokes?” I whispered.
“It won’t be,” he assured me in an equally low tone only I—and probably Freyia, with her sharp vampire senses—could hear. “The Aaberg vault is this way too. It’s the best protected branch.”
I reminded myself that while the protections might be intimidating, they were also a safeguard that had prevented Magnus Aaberg from entering the Falk vault, despite being half Falk himself.
The sounds of our footsteps on stone echoed through the long, cavernous corridor. When we came across the first door, I took it in, hoping for hints as to what I might come across later.
There was no name, but a tower carved into the stone. The other doors were much the same, most with insignias I did not recognize. I suspected these were the vaults belonging to lesser noble houses. Or just wealthy fae in Avaldenn.
Occasionally, a hallway would branch off the main one. From those depths, I caught the sound of growls. Were there vaults that way? Or just more monsters?
