“Where the hell does it go?” I asked.
“Old bootlegger tunnels,” she said. “Wendy told me people used to run moonshine and liquor out of this house during prohibition.”
“They’re gonna follow us,” I said as we came to the bottom.
“Give me a second.” She held her hands up toward the hole above us. A moment later, the white-bearded face of Professor Karmody appeared, staring down at us with a mixture of disappointment and anger.
“Young lady, you need to answer for your crimes!”
“Please work,” Veronica whispered. A flash of power burst from her hands, shooting upward while she clenched her teeth, face going red with strain.
Above, the professor gave another cry of surprise and leapt back. The spell slammed into the metal ladder we’d used. To my surprise—and if I was honest, my delight—the metal twisted and bent, rising up like a double-headed snake, the ends ripping free and showering ancient mortar and brick dust down on us.
I grinned as the metal slammed into the concrete above. Through some sort of magical manipulation, it closed the hole, as though the metal ladder was a string of thread and the entrance a simple hole in a sock.
Veronica kept saying she wasn’t good at magic, but it had to be in her head, because shecoulddo stuff like this, even if she had trouble in other areas or when she was panicked.
Once the entrance was fully sealed, Veronica did her best to conjure a floating blue ball of light, but somehow managed to get it wrong twice, which made me second-guess my assumption of a few minutes before.
“There,” she said as the ball finally appeared, giving off enough light for us to see.
“Nice job,” I said as I checked myself over for injuries.
All I found was a skinned knee from sliding on the floor, and a small slit in my leather jacket from the ice knives that had almost speared us earlier. Veronica retched, bringing my attention back to her. The hovering ball of light floated above her, but she was doubled over, hands on her knees.
Worried once again, I put a hand on her back. Some wizards could cast biological spells. Had one of the professors sent an errant shot down the hole before it sealed?
“Veronica?” I said, worry creeping into my voice. “Are you al?—”
She let out a wet cough and spat into her hand. I looked down, blinking in confusion, and saw the rook in her hand, coated in thick saliva.
“What… how… I don’t…” I shook my head.
She stood up and wiped her wrist across her mouth. “I knew we needed it, so during the fight, I managed to tear Karmody’s robe pocket. I swallowed this.” She shrugged helplessly. “I don’t have any pockets when I’m in my wolf form.”
Laughing, I cupped her cheeks. “You. Are. Amazing. Well done, Veronica.”
The smile on her face showed me how pleased she was at my praise, but she also turned her eyes away, obviously embarrassed. To tell the truth, I was too, and quickly released her. That wasn’t like me. Not me for the last three years anyway.
“Let’s get out of here,” she said and raised the piece over her head.
“No, stop!”
“What’s wrong?” She froze, hand held high.
“That’s a one-way ticket to The Shadow Streets. From anywhere. As long as we have that totem, the spell is still binding. We could use it at some point if we find ourselves in trouble. Let’s see how far we can get on foot. I’d rather save that in case we need it.”
“Oh, I didn’t think of that.”
Above us, the low rumble of magic shook the building as the professors began the work of trying to open the hole again.
“That won’t hold long,” Veronica said. “Not against magic users like them. Let’s go.”
I took her hand. “You stole the words right out of my mouth.”
The two of us ran, moving through the tunnels and deeper into the sewers below. For a while, at least, we could relax. I wasn’t sure how long that would last, though. It had been a rough twenty-four hours, and my instincts told me things weren’t going to get better any time soon.
13
