“I don’t understand,” Raven said. Charlie reached for the shiny dragon from the carrier on her chest and Raven redirected her hand away from the sculpture. “This is exactly what Medea described in her message, but thiscan’tbe it, can it?”
Leena traced the metal with her fingers. “Elves are geniuses at metalwork. Let me just…” There was a ridge under the dragon’s jaw. A latch. She squeezed it.
A metal-on-metal groan preceded the rattle of a chain somewhere inside. The clockwork dragon vibrated, the copper mouth yawning open to expose a network of bronze and platinum gears around an indentation. The crypt lock.
Clarissa gasped. “Holy shit, that is badass!” She ran her fingers over the gears.
“Let’s try the key.” Raven dug in her saddlebag for the collection of gears they’d retrieved from the orbs.
“Gives me the creeps.” Avery shivered. “Be careful, Raven. Anyone talented enough to make this thing is smart enough to booby-trap it.”
“Aye. Seems an odd contraption to me as well,” Xavier said. “Are ye sure it’s safe? Perhaps one of us should do it.” He looked worriedly at Avery, and a pang of jealousy cut through Leena at what passed between them. Her eyes slipped to Colin, who was scanning the surrounding area for threats, his eyes everywhere but on her.
Raven shook her head. “Medea left this to us. We have to do it.” She navigated Charlie’s grabby fingers to fit the key into the dragon’s mouth. “Leena, I need your help. What’s the key word? The symbols are all in high fae.”
“I don’t remember one. Did Medea even leave us a key word?” Leena pulled the scroll from her satchel and unrolled it for the witch. She stood beside it as they both read it again. “It could be the baby’s name, Phineas…”
“The only word I can leave you with is goodbye,” Raven read. “How do you spell goodbye in high fae?”
Leena reached into the dragon’s mouth and turned the gears, matching the symbols to spell out the valediction. Then she backed away with the others as the clockwork dragon started to tick and grind.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The dragon, Raven noted, wasn’t a sculpture but a machine. As soon as they turned the key in the lock, it started to tick. Inner gears turned, and the mouth grew bigger and bigger until it was possible to walk into the gaping maw.
“This is dangerous, Colin,” Gabriel said. “A few of us need to guard the perimeter, especially the main road into the gardens. I don’t need to tell you what will happen if anyone sees this, and I do meananyone.”
The men exchanged worried glances.
Colin gestured to Xavier and Nathaniel. “Station yourselves to the north and east. Gabriel and I will take south and west. Make yourselves invisible, but don’t be afraid to use force if you have to.”
Gabriel kissed Raven lightly on the lips. “Are you going to be okay?” His eyes flicked to the dark entrance to the crypt.
“I’m with my sisters. Medea left this for us. I think I’m in more danger from something out there”—she gestured toward the road—“than in here.”
Gabriel nodded. “Leave out there to me.” He kissed Charlie’s head, and then he and his brothers blinked out of sight, his scent fading with the next breeze.
She turned back to the dragon’s mouth, but Clarissa’s hand landed on her arm before she could move inside.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Her blue gaze traced around the jagged teeth above and below them. “This thing is hundreds of years old. I don’t trust it.”
Avery, too, balked at the cavernous entrance.
“You and Avery can stay here.” Raven removed the carrier and handed her daughter to Avery. “Watch Charlie. I’ll get the book. If something happens, you two can get me out.”
Avery strapped on the carrier while Charlie patted her cheek affectionately. “Come to your favorite aunt.”
“Hey!” Clarissa looked positively offended.
“Clarissa’s right, Raven. I don’t think it’s safe either,” Avery said.
But Leena held up a hand. “Elf metalwork is extremely reliable. I highly doubt you have anything to worry about.”
Raven drew her wand, the tip casting a purple glow down the throat of the machine. “The book is down there, and there’s only one way to get it.” With one last glance toward the other women, she stepped into the mouth of the dragon and was surprised when Leena followed her.
“Where do you think you’re going?” she asked the scribe.
“I go where the scroll goes.” The woman’s strange violet eyes glanced at the scroll Raven was holding from when they’d worked out the key.
