Julian stared at the space where the man had been lying. His heart thundered in his throat.
So quickly. It had happened so quickly.
*Where did he go?*A second massive dog-head swung to face Julian, while the third searched the room. *Is there another layer to this shadow world?*
“No.” Julian’s voice shook. “He’s dead.”
*What?*One of the dog’s three heads jerked back. The other two didn’t show the same shock.
*Bloody hell,*the rat said. *I knew we needed the things to get past the doors, but…*It froze, as though only then becoming aware of how important the scale strapped to its furry back was. *Fucking hell.*He upgraded his previous curse.
“You don’t even know what they are? Why did you take it off him if you didn’t know what it would do?”
The rat chittered, and his human voice hedged at the edges of Julian’s mind.*No use being invisible if everyone can see you, right? Thought if we took the shields away—*
“Everything down here is in the shadows!Everything!If you let go of them, you’ll die!”
Nikolaidis sounded hopeful. *You say dead, but…*
“The only thing that lies outside the shadows here is stone and ice. You just turned him into an exciting discovery for some future ice-borer.” And sent the key to the collar around Julian’s neck with him. Julian clenched his fists. “Well? What are you waiting for? You killed him. You’re after me next.”
*We are not here for the dragons. Not any more than we’ve already stolen from you.*The great three-headed dog’s shoulders rippled, and Julian wondered where his stolen scale was and how securely it was held in place.
“You came here with the rest of them, Mr. Nikolaidis,” Julian reminded him.
Three monstrous heads gave doggy smiles. *To discover if these mysterious ancient dragons held any secrets as to my own nature, yes. Not to fight for Eloise Fairchild’s scraps with the rest of her admirers.*
“You won’t find anything.”
*You sound very certain.*He bared long fangs. *Now run away before the next of sweet Elly’s lackeys trips over you.*
If I die down here, so do you.The words were on the tip of his tongue. But he couldn’t give anyone any reason to prevent him from doing what needed to be done. “Make it quick,” he said instead. “This whole place is about to come down around us, scales or not.”
One of the dog-heads gave a huge yawn. *Nothing’s simple, is it?*
The rat squeaked. *The archives should be on this level somewhere.*
*I’m surprised Harper didn’t have them torched.*
The snarl in Nikolaidis’s voice was almost enough to make up for the nausea that welled through Julian at the mention of that man’s name.
But he had a job to do.
And precious little time to do it in.
“Do what you need to and leave,” he barked.
*How much time will you be able to give us?*Six dark eyes met his, and Julian wondered how much more Nikolaidis knew about the shadow dragons than he was letting on.
“Ten minutes. Make the most of them.”
He skidded to the bottom of the spiraling staircase. The blue light of the prison loomed ahead, with more shadows in it than when he left it.
He slowed, stalking forwards. Eloise stood silhouetted by ice-light.
She grinned when she caught sight of him.
“Look who finally decided to show his face. What, no Frankie? Oh, well.” She waved a hand, and he hit the floor and rolled as gunfire cracked behind him. Eloise swung around. “Not live bullets, you fuckwits! We need him alive until my fated mate awakens! You can kill himthen.Honestly.”
