“Onyx, is that your name? Kitchen’s over there; go help yourself, and I’ll be right there,” Dale tells him as he shuts the door behind us.
Onyx looks at me, raises his eyebrows. I grin back as he goes to the kitchen. Dale sits on the edge of the sofa next to me. “What do you want, my darling angel?”
“Um, I need you to take me somewhere,” I begin, feeling my mates watching my every word. Onyx is no doubt listening from the kitchen.
Dale nods. “Sure, which transport?”
“Sky this time,” I answer. Finnegan grumbles a swear under his breath. Hollis and Aleksander have drained of colour. I guess I should have asked if they don’t mind heights. Well, too late now.
“Oh good, hopefully that thing works. I haven’t taken it up in about ten years.” He crazily laughs. “It should be interesting.”
“In ten years?” Hollis coughs.
“Good to get the rusty old girl into the sky.” Dale pats my shoulder.
“Thank you, I appreciate that,” I offer. “Really, thank you.”
“You can come to me anytime, Gwenieve. It’s what your father would have wanted. Did I ever tell you how we met?” I shake my head. “He was a ranger, well, training to be one, and he came to my town. Vian had taken the junkyard over, trapped my mate and me in here to feed on us. Torture us really. They were nasty pieces of work. I was glad my wife and I were never blessed with children on that day, even as I saw it as a curse before. Icouldn’t fight or save her, but he did. He came in, killed ten Vian with his bare hands, and helped me. Your father moved in for two weeks to help with cleanup and getting us back on our feet. My wife left me in the end for reasons I won’t discuss now, but your father gave us our lives.” He clears his throat as I look at him. “Where are we going, then?”
“Above Morriganis City. I remember you and my father talking about how the big cities have a weak point above. Is that still true?” I question. My plan relies on it.
“As far as I know, all wards were made the same. Your father should know, he was very good at creating them himself.” He grunts. “Still risky, Gwenieve.”
“I’d be taking a chance, but going in any other way would be bad,” I admit.
“How about landing? Have you thought of that?” he asks next, and I shake my head. “It’s okay. I have just the thing.” He winks at me. “Your mates might not like it.”
“We are sitting right here as you discuss this mad plan!” Finnegan mutters. “Please tell me we are landing in Morriganis City?”
I lie. “Sure.” I mean, it’s not all a lie. Our feet will land on the ground, but we have to jump first. The next hour is spent with Dale, fixing the coke machine for us to still have flat coke, and it tastes awful, but I drink it anyway, just to make him smile. Before following him to the back, we all walk past a massive dog statue that’s only got fur on its head, oddly enough. Still, it makes me think of Nibbles, and I miss her.
We come into the warehouse and see the giant rusty plane. All four of them look at me, and they, for once, have exactly the same look on their faces. “Do you want us to die?” Finn asks.
“No, but we’re going to go in the plane. He’s going to fly us there.” I smile confidently.
“I’d rather drive; it’s much easier with wheels on the ground.” Hollis rubs his face. “How old is this plane?”
“You’re insane,” Onyx simply states.
“Absolutely,” I agree. I’ve never said I wasn’t. “You’re only just realising this?” I pat his arm as I walk past. “You need to catch up, mate.”
“Gwen,” he says in warning as Dale brings down the steps to the plane while he hums a song under his breath.
A piece of the steps falls off, clanging on the ground. He kicks it under the plane and shrugs. “Nothing to worry about. We don’t need that part.” I almost laugh at the way all four of them actually pale to look like ghosts this time. I climb into the rust bucket, which is quite literally its name, painted in red paint across the side of it. The seats are gone, and it’s an empty tin with some ropes hanging from the ceiling. I sit down on the edge of the ground where there’s a tiny bit of a hole near me. I cover it with my hand before one of the guys sees it, because they’re definitely going to freak out about that. They’re so touchy.
“Here you go, what we talked about.” Dale hands me a silver ball as he passes.
“Sure it works?” I tap it.
“No, but you’ll figure it out.” He shrugs. “It needs a blast of magic. Let your Nexus throw it.” Got it.
He gets to the front of the plane. “Everyone sit down. I would say put your seat belts on, but I threw those things out years ago. They’re completely useless.”
“No, they’re not!” Hollis mutters. “Seat belts are very useful to make sure we don’t?—”
“Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.” Dale puts on headphones, covering his ears, and begins to flick switches on. The plane vibrates to life.
There are broken headphones clipped to the wall, and we each put them on. It silences the noise of the plane as Dale leadsit out of the warehouse and onto the runway. Honestly, I’m quite surprised that it manages to go straight down the runway and off into the sky without a hitch. It occasionally shakes and shudders, and even I feel a bit worried about it for a second. But it’s fine.
