Chapter 20

"Alan! What's wrong?" I didn't dare reach through the bars, but I was more than a little concerned about what was going on with him. Sure, he was my ex, and also a total pain in the ass, but he was my only help right then.

"I can't do this," he mumbled a second time, and then all but fell through the wall, disappearing.

I stared at the spot he'd slid through. "What was that about? Do you think something happened to him?"

"Could be a spell on this place," Ivan rumbled. "I don't know, lass."

I banged my head lightly against the bars, sending a note through the air. Not that I could tell you what note it was. I wanted to go home, curl up in bed, and pull the blankets over my head so I could pretend that none of this was happening. I wanted Crash.

A shudder went through me, as if someone had walked over my grave, and I picked my head up in time to see a flash of another place. Crash stared back at me, in full armor this time, a darkness wrapping around him.

"Anything, I would do anything to save her."

Just those simple words. He would do anything to find me. But what if he didn't find me in time? What then?

"What do we have for weapons, for help? Make an inventory of what we do have," Ivan said. "That will help figure out what to do next."

I made myself step back from the bars. "You're right. We have Alan. We have the rings from our friend. An arm. A few blankets." I looked around the space. "Maybe I could pull the bed apart? That would give me…" I looked at Ivan. "A wooden stake."

"There she is, the strong, smart woman. Good lass, get to it."

I hurried to the bed and looked it over. The legs weren't long but were indeed wooden. Was it an oversight? Or just arrogance? I didn't care, it could work in my favor. Maybe. As long as the magic of the cage didn't take it away from me. Maybe as long as I wasn't going to hurt myself, nothing would change.

"Just take one. From the back, maybe, so you can hide it." Ivan pointed through the bars and then quickly yanked his hand back, no doubt realizing that he'd put his hand in danger of being lopped off.

We didn't know exactly how that magic worked either so careful was better than armless.

I pulled the bed out and took a look at the far leg. There were tiny wooden plugs holding it all together—very old-school craftsmanship.

"Do you have anything over there that I could use to push the plugs out?"

"Try breaking it off first. It's a weak point," Ivan said. "Or lift it over to me, and I'll try."

I shimmied the bed around, tipping it onto its side so it jutted through the bars and Ivan could grasp one of the legs.

"Ready?" he asked.

I nodded as I put my weight on the bed, helping to anchor it. "Ready."

With a single jerk, Ivan snapped the leg off. "Good. Let's get it sharp for you then."

Something about his wording bothered me. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, so for the moment I let it go.

Ivan used the edge of his food platter to start whittling the leg of my bed into a finer point. "You need to have a good stake on you, if you're going to be a vampire hunter."

I smiled, though it quickly slid off my face. "Evangeline is Robert's love. His wife."

"And?"

"I just…" I didn't want to kill my best friend's wife. It seemed wrong on so many levels.

"He will understand," Ivan said. "He will."

I wanted very much to believe that. Assuming I could even catch her off guard.

I watched Ivan work on the leg. "You know, Robert has always been able to follow me anywhere. Skeletor too," I said. "Maybe something's blocking them from coming to me now?"

"Maybe it's the distance," Ivan said. "Or maybe, you need to ask him to come help you. More than a wish. Maybe even a command. You have a connection to the dead, after all. And he is, if nothing else, dead."

Could it be that easy? I mean, it's not like it would hurt to try. "Robert. I need you here."

"No power behind that command," Ivan said without looking up. "You need to put some of your oomph into it. Some of your power over the grave. Call him again."

I frowned and thought about the sensation of power that I'd felt at different times since I'd come back to Savannah and the shadow world. I closed my eyes and breathed out slowly, reaching for that connection I had to the dead.

"Robert." I spoke his name as I pulled power through that connection. "Come to me."

Three words, and the magic I'd stuffed into them seemed to reverberate through the air, sizzling the ends of my hair. I opened my eyes.

"That was more like it," Ivan said in approval.

"But it didn't work."

A shuffling sound behind me, outside the cage, turned me around. The figure was hooded and long black scraggly hair hung around his face, hiding the bones underneath.

"Friend," Robert whispered.

"Robert!" I whispered back, clutching at the cage bars, joy and hope vying inside of me. My heart felt like it would explode. "Robert, you came!"

"Friend." He swayed side to side. "Danger."

"Yes, I'm in danger. Robert. We have to find a way out of here. I need your help."

He tapped a long skeletal finger to his chest. "Friend. Whole. Better."

"Lass," Ivan said, whispering too. "You have the power to make him whole, for a little while. He can help you get out."

The room felt charged, like one wrong move would cause everything to come crashing around us, like a carefully wrought set of dominoes.

Robert swayed closer. "Friend. Danger."

I made myself reach through the bars and take his hand, despite my fear that my arm would be cut off. Remy had said it would only happen if someone was trying to hurt me. Robert was protecting me. Then, with his bony hand in mine, focused on the part of me that was connected so deeply to the dead. I pulled it up from the soles of my feet, through my body and down my hand to the first friend I'd found after my return to the shadow world.

My voice warbled strangely with that much shadow magic running through me. "Robert. I need you whole."

His body shimmered and then went from skeletal to fully fleshed out, down to his clothes, which dated back to the era he'd come from. Knee-high boots, short waist coat, white shirt with a high collar. His dark hair was pulled back in a long ponytail, and his blue eyes were sharp and clear.

He clutched my hand. "Bree. I'm so sorry, this is all my fault."

I held on to him tightly too. "No! This isn't your fault; how could that be?"

"I should have…I should have killed her…I thought I had." He swallowed hard. "We have to get you two out of here."

"Just her," Ivan said, confirming my fear that he'd been preparing me to leave him. "I need to stay. I…my son is still my son. I won't leave him. He's in his darkest hours, and I'm his father. For good or ill, I will stay with him."

I looked back at Ivan. "No. You can't?—"

"I can. I will do all I can to slow him down." Ivan smiled a sad smile. "My last gift to you, and to my son."

My heart ached. I didn't want to lose anyone else, and yet Ivan was throwing himself in the path of danger. "We won't ever see you again, will we?"

His sad smile only deepened. "No, I don't think so. Tell that Jinx…she's a beauty. And tell the others thank you…for the time I did have with them all."

Tears squeezed out of my eyes and trickled down my cheeks.

Robert squeezed my hand and then let go. "Bree, any ideas?"

"The bars," I said, my voice thick with tears. "They're magical. Each one produces a musical note, and a certain song must be played to open them up. At least, that's what we think."

Robert lifted both eyebrows at me. "Oh, is that all?"

My lips quirked, I wiped the tears from my cheeks. "What, do you think we've just been sitting around, twiddling our thumbs? We have the sheet music."

I hurried to the bed and pulled the sheets out from under the mattress. I found myself grabbing Richart's rings and stuffing them into my bra. "But I can't read music well enough to figure this out."

"Lucky for you, I can," Robert stuck his arms through the cage, and I held my breath, heard Ivan gasp.

"Don't do that." I shoved Robert's hands back, pushing the paper into them. "The last person who tried to help me had both his arms cut off when he reached through the bars. I mean, he was trying to cause harm, but still. We don't know how it works."

Robert pulled back slowly, as if slow movements were less likely to end in amputation. "Remy's magic?"

I nodded. I didn't want to tell him why, that I'd let Richart put his hands around my throat and had been prepared to let him kill me.

He held the sheets up, his eyes scanning the page rapidly. "Yes, I see. A simple tune, I like it, I heard it before I died, I think. Do you know which bars make which notes?"

I shook my head. "Only that they're not in order."

Robert moved around the cage, holding a bar and then tapping it with a single finger. The notes were muffled that way. He repeated the maneuver with the next few bars, then cocked his head to the side. "Yes, the notes are spread out. But if you help, I think we can play the song with the correct beats. He tapped a few more times, nodding to himself.

"I think I've got it," Robert said. "But we must assume that the minute your cage comes apart, someone will know. Probably Remy seeing as it is his magic. Do you know where we are?"

I grimaced. "Alan's been scouting. He found Feish and—" I was going to say Bridgette, but of course she wouldn't be coming with us now. I closed my eyes and let out a slow breath. "Maybe I can convince Alan to scout outside?"

The sound of the door above us scraped, just the softest whisper of sound, but in the silence of the dungeon it seemed as loud as a gun shot. "Robert. You have to…"

I snapped my fingers at him, and he flicked back to his skeletal form before reducing to his single finger bone. I reached through the bars and scooped the bone up. Holding Robert's finger bone behind my back, I gripped it tightly.

The swoosh of skirts preceded Evangeline's entrance. She was wearing a deep purple gown now, the neckline squared off across her breasts which looked like they were being pushed up with a serious corset. Remy was not with her.

"Well, well. I heard you had a visitor. Did Remy tell you about the spell on your cage? That lying causes some…discomfort?"

I hate to admit it, but I felt the world wobble a little. I couldn't imagine more pain than what that one small lie had caused me. "I'm…aware."

"Perhaps you'd like to tell me who visited you?"

"Nah, I'm good," I countered.

Her eyes flared, but it was the smile that had my belly turning over. "You would defy me? With two of your friends in my generous…care?"

"Defiance is part of my nature." I smiled back, though it felt more like gritting my teeth than smiling. I realized that Remy had a flaw in his little spell. I wasn't lying. I was telling her I didn't want to answer her question. I just had to be careful with my words. "But to answer you, because I don't want you to hurt my friends, I didn't know who came down the stairs."

Her eyes narrowed. "You didn't know the person who came down the stairs?"

"From the door up there," I motioned, hoping she didn't pay attention to how I worded my answer. I hadn't known it was Richart coming down the stairs. I hadn't known it was him until he entered the room.

Semantics. But they seemed to be working in my favor.

I didn't back up when Evangeline approached the cage. "You aren't afraid of me?"

"Well, if you want to get your arms cut off, you go right ahead." I tipped my head at the bars. "It's gruesome as all get out, so I don't think I'd recommend it. Zero stars."

She cocked her head. "Zero stars…what does this mean?"

I kept my hands behind my back. "Just curious, Eva, you okay if I call you Eva?" Her eyes narrowed on me, but I kept on going. "I've been thinking about why you have my friends here. If the spell were truly done and there was no stopping it…you wouldn't need me to be compliant. There'd be no reason for my friends to be used as leverage."

She flicked a single eyebrow upward and smiled, flashing her fangs. "Well, if you must know…there is a part of the spell that requires your…compliance as you say. You see, you must be willing to speak the spell, as it cannot be cast by another—" She drew in a breath and the pulse in her throat fluttered rapidly. "Who has been here?" Her eyes raked over me. "What do you have in your hands?"

Ducking hell.

I smiled, knowing this was going to cost me. I braced myself for what was to come and lied with a single word.

"Nothing."