“No,” I barked. “We’re not blindly running down a dark hole with no idea where it leads.”
Briggs shifted from foot to foot in agitation. “She could be right there.”
“Or she might be lost in a maze of caves and kill zones that guarantee we can’t get her out.”
I howled into the crisp air, the wolves assembling. “Once we’re inside, split into groups of three. Don’t lose each other. Mental communication only. I want you silent as thenight.”
You sound like a leader.Fallon said into my mind, pride tinging her words.
“Let’s have fun tearing them apart!” I added in my most chipper voice.
Fallon laughed as she mounted again when I shifted, bigger than ever before. She held tight to the horn of the saddle as Briggs and Cosomo followed me into the closest portal. A golden streak ran past us, and a furious barking dared us to keep up.
“Ned! With me,” Fallon called and he dutifully waited for us at the bend of the underground tunnel.
The darkness was so deep that even our wolfie night vision had a hard time making out any landmarks. Wet soil, mixed magic, and layers of fear pressed down upon us. Brushes of fur were the only thing that told us the other wolves headed down different tunnels.
Fallon’s mantra resounded in my head.I’m dying at my stove. I’m dying at my stove, not in some lightless hole in the ground full of creepy monks.
Flame flared in Fallon’s palm.
Neat trick, I told her, pride for my mate’s skill welling in my heart.
As long as we keep with the food theme, I can help.
I grinned into the gloom.Then I’ll take tooth and claw.
As good as my word, a monk appeared and I snapped her in my jaws. All rational thought left me. They put Momma and Fallon in danger. They came into my territory and frightened my people, killing one of my wolves. Ibroke her neck like a stick. I pounced on her still form for good measure.
Fallon’s hands threaded through my ruff, soothing away the fury.Maybe we interrogate the next one?
These toys are too fragile.My monster answered in a voice that had Fallon clutching my fur around the saddle. My mind cleared with her touch.
The monk around the next corner tried to run.
If you break it, you can’t play with it again, Dec!Fallon yelled in my head.
My teeth only met his red robe. I shook him a little, but he was still alive.
His screaming cut short as Fallon barked, “Shut up! Take us to the main hall and he won't snap your neck.”
A sniveling set of directions followed. One leap of faith into a red-rimmed portal and we were finally prowling through rooms that looked like more than a pitch-black tunnel.
Unfortunately, the paved floor and sandstone walls didn't make the torch-ringed room any less of a torture chamber instead of the great hall we requested.
Never ask a man for directions.Fallon sniped, searching for something beneath all her layers. Our missing pack sat in their human form in tall chairs, along with a basilisk, a gorgon, and a husk of an oni that lolled against its chains. Tubes full of bright red magic rose behind Starla and Krystall. Grey faces and emaciated forms saidthey weren’t going anywhere too soon and we had a pound of flesh to take.
Get down, Honey. Stay in the corner.Her eyes followed the tubes out of the room.
Don’t think about following it without me,I snarled as a monk threw a ball of red magic right in my face. It barely stung and I shook it off easily. The monk’s fearsome expression didn't match the weakness of the magic he possessed. I expected to have a real fight on my hands once we confronted the Followers of Virtue. Surely they couldn’t look scarier than they actually were? Those bald heads and blood robes had to mean something.
Ned already had a monk in his mouth, savaging a leg while Briggs removed the woman's head. I didn't care what these monks were doing here. It ended now.
Cosomo,release our brothers and sisters.
The rest of the monks in the room recovered enough to shout and point in our direction, a glowing ruby ring on every hand.
Briggs, don't let the monks form portals.
