14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

We soon discovered the reason for all their snickering. Hidden as it was by witchy runes, we just couldn't find the entrance to the damned tunnel, even with a clearly drawn map to guide us to the precise spot.

Very funny, guys. One of the pricks could have shown us the way, but I took this as some sort of test – and I freaking excelled at tests.

I reached down to the magic pooling in my stomach and pulled it up. Using my piping magic, I spoke to the trees around me and explained that I needed to find the tunnel. Connected as I was to them, I felt their irritation. The tunnel had disturbed their roots and the dwarves had lined it with sharp metal struts that prodded them.

The trees tugged me forwards to a spot between two of them but, try as I might, I still couldn't see the damned entrance. I tried walking forwards but noticed immediately that I wanted to walk around the area. I tried to ignore the urge without success; I needed Plan B.

I shifted onto four feet and Esme put our nose to the ground. Our eyes might not have been able to see past the illusion, but our nose should. We closed our eyes to minimise our confusion and trotted forward until the scent of dwarves grew stronger.

‘Esme!' Greg called. ‘Back up!'

We opened our eyes and all was dark. It took a few beats for me to realise that we had indeed found the tunnel – and walked right into it. The panic in Greg's voice told us that we'd disappeared, been hidden by whatever illusion the witches had painted there. We retreated slowly until we were back in the light.

Now that we knew where the tunnel was, the illusion had lost its grip on us and we could see the entrance clear as day. I shifted back to human. ‘I can see the entrance now, can you?'

Greg and the others shook their heads. Next to me, Ben was looking around with visible agitation. ‘Hey, what's up?' I nudged him with my hip. ‘You don't have to come into the tunnel with me if you don't want to.'

‘No,' he said firmly. ‘I'm coming.' He made a conscious effort to still himself and offered me a strained smile. ‘It's just that right now I'm rather a long way from being a lawyer and my day revolving around chargeable hours.'

‘I hear you.' I grinned. ‘I promise you'll get used to it. Soon you won't want to get back to tracking your billable time.'

He shot me a faux -scandalised look. ‘Bite your tongue,' he retorted and I snickered.

‘Okay,' said Greg. ‘Lucy, I need you to lead me into the tunnel. We'll go in and set the charges. After ten minutes Debbie, Wakado and I will set another much bigger charge as far away as we can to draw the brethren to us. Geneve is reportedly still at Caernarfon but be on your guard because she may have other dragon shifters nearby.'

I looked at my brother; he'd said that in his dream there was a dragon and I really wanted it to be the ice bitch herself. He was keeping his face blank, trying not to give too much of the future away lest he fuck with the outcome we wanted.

‘No clues, huh?' I murmured.

He sighed unhappily. ‘I've already given you a damned blueprint. I can't do any more. I think I told you too much – something isn't as it should be.'

I grimaced; that wasn't good. ‘We'll carve our own way.' I tried to sound upbeat but Ben looked unconvinced. ‘ Cheer up,' I said. ‘The worst that can happen is that we all die in a fiery inferno.'

He glared at me. ‘Has anyone ever told you that you're shit at cheering people up?'

I laughed, threw my arms around him and gave him a cuddle. ‘We're going to be all right.'

His eyes softened. ‘Yeah,' he agreed weakly.

‘Come on, it's go time,' Greg said. He turned to the dark seraph. ‘Take to the skies but be discreet.'

‘You fucking heard the man,' Sara barked. ‘Mack, Jacob, go high; Alfred, Robin, stay low. Mack north, Jacob south, Alfred east, Robin west. Go!'

With a whoosh of wind that took my breath away, they leapt into the air. Sara hovered above us using the tall trees as cover.

Greg shouldered a large rucksack full of all things explosive and incendiary. ‘Let's synchronise our watches,' he said to everyone who was still on the ground. He had insisted on getting us all military G10 watches. ‘We need to make sure both explosions happen at precisely the same time otherwise the brethren will realise there are two attacks rather than one. It's now 20:05 and thirty seconds. When the minute hand reaches the twelve, stop the second hand by pressing on the pusher.'

We did so.

‘Everyone press the pusher again in – three, two, one, push!' he instructed sharply. There was a collective beep as we all pushed again. ‘It is now 20:06 and fifteen seconds, anyone got a different time?'

We shook our heads.

‘Great. Let's go, Lucy.' He and I were going into the tunnel first to set the charges.

I took his hand and propelled him towards the tunnel entrance. ‘Close your eyes,' I instructed. ‘I'll take you through the illusion.'

Obediently his eyes slid closed and my heart warmed a little at his instinctive trust.

I led him forward. In my human form, the tunnel was on the small side. ‘You'll have to bend over a bit,' I told him. ‘The roof isn't very high.'

He ducked his head and folded his body; he'd done this sort of thing before. ‘That'll be fine,' I assured him as I pulled him into the tunnel. When I was sure we were in deep enough, I told him to open his eyes.

He blinked into the darkness and we paused to let him adjust to the total darkness. ‘All right,' he murmured after a minute. ‘Let's keep going.'

It was nice that he was still holding my hand even though he didn't need to. We moved forward, bent uncomfortably. The tunnel was far longer than I'd expected; it was incredible how deeply the dwarves had dug, and so quickly too.

‘Five minutes,' Greg muttered. ‘We'll need to leave a little more time between explosions than I'd expected. The tunnel is lower, which makes it slower going. Damned dwarven height. I want to make sure we get far away enough before we start the carnage.'

I cringed at the word. ‘Distraction,' I corrected.

He flashed me a grin. ‘Right. That's what I said.'

We reached the end of the tunnel. Greg handed me a torch and I held it for him while he set charges against the wall in front of us. The dwarves had kindly helped us to identify the correct place by spraying in red spray paint: Bang-bang! Explosives go here!

‘Wise asses,' Greg muttered.

He dealt quickly with an intimidating tangle of wires, then set the timer for twenty minutes. There would be five minutes for us to get out, then five minutes for Tarkers, Ben and me to return to the tunnel to hit the hoard as soon as the small explosion created a hole. Then we had another ten minutes to give Greg plenty of time to set up another really big explosion to coincide with our little one. Simple.

Before Greg pressed the button to start the timer, he hesitated and turned to me. ‘Lucy, Esme. Stay safe, okay? In and out. Grab the hammer and the orb, get back through the tunnel to the car park, get in one of the cars and peel away. The seraphs will extract us from the distraction zone when you give the all-clear. No heroics. You hear me?'

‘We hear you,' I said firmly, though if I thought Greg was in trouble it would be a cold day in hell before I left him. We would go down together in a blaze of glory.

He read the thought on my face. ‘No,' he said firmly. ‘You're not listening.' With a muttered curse, he kissed me in the dark, cramped tunnel, pushing me against the muddy wall. I wasn't in the mood to be pushed around so I turned us so he was the one smushed into the earthen walls. Then I leaned into the kiss with gusto.

The smell of cold, damp earth was all around us but it faded to nothing with our mutual heat consuming me. His lips moved against mine, his tongue sweeping in and conquering my mouth as surely as he'd conquered my heart.

‘I love you,' he murmured against my lips. He pulled back and studied me in the darkness. His eyes burned with intensity. ‘Stay safe, Lucy. I mean it.'

‘Back at you,' I said firmly. ‘We have a future together, one that I'm fully invested in. Go forth, distract the enemy, then come home with me.'

‘Yes my Queen,' he promised with a tender kiss.

I prayed it wouldn't be our last.