Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Why can’t I just use the front door?” I whispered.
She dismissed my question with a face that told me exactlywhat she thought of my intelligence. Estrid grabbed me by the elbow and yanked me to the ground. With gravel biting into my stomach, legs, and arms, I listened to her rebuttal.
“This isn’t like before, human.”
I glared at her, shaking my arm loose. I wasn’t thrilled that she was talking to me like she didn’t know me.
“The Phoenicians were expecting you. And even then, showing up at their gate could have turned out terribly. If Ella is in trouble—”
“And Kirby,” I said. I refused to let her forget about my friend.
Estrid’s nostrils flared at the interruption. I wanted her to care a little more about the other human. She wasn’t the only person with a loved one at stake. “If they’re in trouble, then we can’t play this fast and loose. He’ll have unimpeachable warding. I’m honestly surprised I’ve been able to get this close.”
I peered at the smooth black rectangle. It was a fortress.
“Even if it weren’t magically warded, the doors and windows will all be locked,” I provided unhelpfully. I thought of hours spent eating popcorn and watching movies about spies and burglars and heists. “We don’t have time to ingratiate ourselves to the help, or to tunnel in from underneath, orto scope out weak points in the infrastructure.”
“Be serious,” she grumbled.
Iwasbeing serious. Everything about infiltrating the fortress felt like a movie.
And for once, a supernatural being’s answers didn’t seem any better than mine.
Estrid looked at me as though I were personally responsible for Ella’s abduction. Her glare cut my verbal processing short. But I didn’t see any real options. Apep’s embedded cube of a home was in an area without coverage. We’d be exposed the moment we stepped out from the underbrush. Between the naked cliffs and the seaside, there was no way for us to approach, let alone enter.
“Estrid—”
“I’m thinking!” she snapped. Half to me, half to herself, she continued troubleshooting. “We don’t have time to work out his wards. We won’t be able to ascertain who’s loyal and who might be open to persuasion. What if he has snipers? Gods, I have no idea what sort of security he has up for humans and fae alike. For fuck’s sake, we don’t even truly know that she’s in there. Odin’s bones, what if Ella’s fine? What if she’s a guest and we break in and then he turns on us? What if—”
“Estrid…”
She continued to ignore me, murmuring all of the ways we’d failed before our mission got off the ground. I took my cue. By the time she whipped around to glare at me, I’d already gotten up and leaped out of the way of her frantic grasp.
I had a plan.
It wasn’t great, but it was a hell of a lot better than hers.
My precarious footing gave way, and I slipped, kicking up a cloud of dust as I slid for the road that wound toward his home. I heard one note of Estrid’s strangled protestation before she bit off her yell.
I’d done the math.
She could plot from the sagebrush for hours, or days, or a year, but there would be no way for us to get in undetected. I, however, had the luxury of ignorance on my side. I could knock on the door, posing as a simple human on a fantastic quest, and ask him if he was interested in overthrowing Heaven. I’d get through security. I’d be able to circumvent warding. If things went well, it could even get me inside.
Maybe I could unravel the wards from within.
But we certainly weren’t going to achieve anything from our vantage point in the dirt.
My slide through the sand ended with an undignified stumble, but I managed to avoid scraping anything. I kept the sea on my right and cliffs on my left as I started down the road. I didn’t look over my shoulder at Estrid’s hiding spot. I was sure she was furious, but she’d get over it. She’d been created as a chooser of the slain. That didn’t necessarily qualify her for strategy.
Maribelle, on the other hand, could get in anywhere.
I wished I had more swagger in my step, but there was a jelly-like quality to my knees. Every stilted breath matched the tremble in my palms. I’d made a choice, and now I had to stick to it. I could get us in. I could do it for the very same reasons that Estrid, Fauna, Azrames, and most importantly, Caliban, would never in a million years have wanted me to. I was human, and as such, I was utterly defenseless.
Silas was the one who’d explicitly warned me against Apep.
But…Silas, like me, was similarly wary of every god in the universe, save for his own. What did he know?
