I reached for her and drew her against my side in a hug. “Of course I remember. Which is why I’m counting on you to keep yourself safe.”
She nodded. “Hado will help me.”
“I know he will.” I released her.
Lula nodded. “Be careful, Abbi.”
She nodded. “I’ll race you,” she said. Then she and Hado jogged ahead, closing in on the side door Hatcher had told us would be unlocked.
“Worst plan we’ve ever come up with?” Lula whispered, taking my hand so that the effects of the bracelet would cloak me too.
“Top three,” I agreed.
It didn’t take us long to reach the door Abbi had already slipped through.
It opened into what I assumed was a mud room, but it was set up like a lounge, with a bar on one side, a wall of closets on the other side, thick, expensive carpeting covering the floor, and an open archway into a second space straight ahead filled with lush, comfortable, heavy wood furniture.
Everything was done up in what I thought of as Texas chic: lots of animal skulls, a few human skulls sprinkled strategically among them, animal skins, leather, sticks and stone. All of it in shades of brown and white, with deep blue and deep red as accents.
Abbi was disappearing around the corner into the larger room, quick as a bunny.
The house felt empty, silent, as we crossed the mud room. The faint sound of country music played through speakers mounted in strategic places in the ceiling.
Waylan and Willie were telling mamas not to let their babies grow up to be cowboys. They had it half right—mamas shouldn’t want babies getting turned into vampires, either.
Lu pointed left, and we crossed the lounging space to a smaller door at the end.
Into a wide hallway.
Abbi was nowhere to be seen.
We moved quickly down the hall, me keeping to Lula’s pace with help from the ring.
According to Variance and Hatcher, Dominick’s throne room was at the end of this hall.
It felt like this corridor went on forever, and that it would take hours to get to the end, no matter how fast we jogged.
I had a surreal moment trying to do the math for how many miles of carpet it took to cover this place.
I was sweating hard and working to keep my breathing under control.
Lu wasn’t even breathing fast. She was focused, fluid, intent on the goal, on the task ahead of us. A killer waiting for her chance to strike.
Magic from the witches and magic from the bracelet cloaked our movements. We had as much of the element of surprise onour side as we could expect, but we still had to open the door to the throne room.
No matter how quick and quiet we were, there was a strong chance whoever was in there would see it open.
Lula mouthed, “One, two, three,” and pushed the door.
It swung silently. Lu slipped through the opening, me on her heels, closing the door behind us just as silently. We dashed to one side.
The light was low, but the first sense I got was that the room was huge, the size of two ballrooms, with way too many animal-antler (and human-bone) chandeliers hanging three stories down from the sky-lighted ceiling.
Pew-like seating spaces were built along the walls, interspersed with chains along the floor, shackles, leather straps and bindings.
It looked like a place where people would be judged and sentenced. It looked like a place where people were punished.
The space was huge, but it did not dwarf the throne on the raised platform in the center of the room.
