I nod. Right. Need to keep all my attention and energy on causing a commotion.
“How’s the nose? Can you sniff her out yet?”
He shoots me a long-suffering look. “Nothing yet.”
We head deeper inside, still moving at heightened speed as we find a stairwell and make our way up the endless stairs. Thankfully, it seems like Fabian’s worked his magic on all the guards we’ve come across so far and knocked them out cold. No one has sounded the alarm just yet.
“Shit, this place is massive. I hope we don’t have to go door to door,” I mutter.
Although... maybe a bunch of escaped convicts milling about the place is exactly what we need.
Pretty sure it’s what the city deserves too.
Maybe I’m just cranky and it’s making me needlessly bloodthirsty. But needs must at the minute. I can chill out later, when I have Silver safe in my arms and we can snuggle for hours.Or maybe a good hard fuck to get out some of the tension. She can ride me and tug my hair and call me a good boy, or—
“Focus.”
Right. Yes.
“Focusing.”
One thing I didn’t consider was how damn dark it would be once we got inside. There are no fucking windows anywhere. Maybe we should have asked Zeph to save the power cut until after we found Silver.
Oops. Too late now.
“There should only be a couple of guards per floor,” Fabian says. “No doubt, they’ll have noticed their colleagues have passed out by now.”
By the time we’re onto the next floor, someone must have sounded the alarm—either that guards are dropping like flies, or that there are intruders, or maybe that the power’s gone out. Maybe all the above.
Who cares? They know we’re here.
There’s yelling and booted footsteps marching along somewhere close by.
We’re gonna get caught any minute, unless we—
Distraction.
Good thing I’m an expert at unlocking doors. And making a mess.
I tap a bunch of my runes. What we need right now is for there to be a bunch of shit going on so the guards don’t know what to focus on. Then Dante can sneak through and sniff out Silver.
I activate the rune that shows me where there are active wards and quickly blast my way through them. It’s easier than expected. Also easier than expected is unlocking the damn cell doors. I guess once the electricity keeping them shut tight isdisabled and the wards are gone, there’s just a thick metal bolt on the outside.
I hurry along, unbolting as many as I can and flinging the door open.
“Go free, my prettys. This is a jailbreak,” I yell.
The first inhabitants are more confused than anything and they don’t spring into action like I was expecting. But as soon as one goes, he lets out a yell, and that draws the attention of others, which causes a ripple effect. Then there’s movement from all angles, a stampede of escaping convicts.
Just the chaos we need.
I make the emergency lighting flash like we’re in a club and I wish I could make music blast out to add to the fun. Instead, I resort to singing about a jailbreak. I magic up illusions of people escaping, leading the people out of their cells and out of the building.
And then we move onto the next floor.
More illusions of people. More broken wards.
I keep on singing at the top of my lungs, letting out a whoop every so often and ‘yeehaw’ for good measure.
