I stepped in front of Sebastian, waving my hand exuberantly. He rolled his eyes, but followed. I had to admit, I was impressed by how quietly they moved. In an afternoon, all I had seen from this group was frenzy. Chaos. For the sake of what we had to accomplish, I was grateful they were disproving my doubts. And I was doubly grateful when Akeno whipped out a lock picking set as we hit the door to the mines.
The looping staircase was silent except for our soft footsteps. That familiar tug jerked at my stomach as we stepped into the dimly lit cavern. Mordecai didn’t bother with more than a few lights in this chamber—he rarely used it. When I looked toward the hallway where I knew the Fae were trapped, my stomach plummeted.
Tarik’s alive, he has to be alive . . .
I pulled my hair into a tie, glancing back at the men behind me. Their eyes were wide, and Caspar nudged me. Jabbing his finger at the long hallway, he mouthed, “Creepy.” I nodded.
Nevaeh clambered onto my shoulder, her tiny rat claws poking at my skin. We crept to the far wall where the shadows were slightly denser, and I paused to listen. I shot a glance at Nevaeh for confirmation. Nothing, except the few soft shuffles from our own group.
We crept closer. My heart was going to leap from my throat. When we heard quiet noises ahead, it certainly tried. Nevaeh darted from her perch and dashed down the curved hallway, out of sight. I started to follow, but Sebastian gripped my arm, holding up a finger. My jaw clenched in protest. This was what she did, I reminded myself. Helped them, spied for them, as she had been doing for nearly three years. The news was still a shock to my system.
Only a few moments passed before the purple rat reappeared, rapid-shifting into human form as she approached. She motioned with two fingers to the right side where the crystal cavern’s first entrance was.
Two what?
Akeno began to pass out tiny straws before I could ask. Straws? My trembling stilled, replaced with pure shock. He offered me a little cloth pouch filled with . . . darts? I arched an eyebrow incredulously and he grinned. Raising one, he demonstrated, slipping the dart inside and pretending to blow toward Sebastian. I bit back a chuckle, but loaded my own.
Soft chatter echoed from down the hallway. Guards, in human form. Flynn slipped past our group, clinging to the lessening shadows. A slight hiss echoed down the corridor, and then a tiny pop. The dart sank into the guard’s neck. Flynn repeated the action before the first guard finished falling, but none of us were fast enough to stop them from collapsing with a loud thump. No one moved. Nevaeh shifted again, but even she waited, ears twitching rapidly.
Two more guards rounded the corner. Akeno shot at the same time as Flynn, their darts passing each other as they met their marks. Flawless. Almost too easy. Another two guards went down, then three more. I crept ahead of the rest and bit back a yelp when sharp pain lanced through my foot. Akeno slipped forward, plucking a shiny object from the ground—a dart, similar to ours but made of glass and steel. He examined the side for a moment, his brow wrinkled, before he glanced up at me. Pressing his hands together, he mimicked a sleeping pose—a tranquilizer dart. In the hallway? I glanced down the length of the corridor. Had one of the Fae escaped?
My stomach churned. Tarik?
We stopped in front of the “for emergencies only” room, and I started to wave the men over when a ripple of shadow on the steel door caught my eye. I knelt, pressing my fingers against the small dents. The others looked as confused as I felt. Why would there be dents on the outside of the door? What had Mordecai done?
One of the twins—I needed to get them ID bracelets—mouthed “Whoa” and flexed, pointing at the door. I nodded in agreement. Caspar unslung a pouch from his back, tugging out what looked like a miniature laptop along with several small silver instruments.
“I need time,” he mouthed at us. “Keep watch.”
Sebastian pointed at various spots along the hallway, then swirled a finger in the air. When no one responded, he rolled his eyes and repeated the gesture, brow furrowed. He rapidly pointed in all directions and flicked his hands in a shoo gesture. Oh. The men dispersed, each finding a lookout spot.
Caspar flipped open the small computer, attaching wires to the keypad of the lock. Lines of numbers filled his screen as a bright red light blinked on above the door. The light shifted, squares falling away until a number remained.
3:00
And counting down.
Behind me, Sebastian swore softly, motioning for the others to stay where they were. Caspar’s amber eyes flicked up. “Well, that’s just splendid,” he muttered, his focus on the screen renewed with vigor.
I paced the hallway, the quiet throwing my nerves into a frenzy. Three minutes. Caspar could beat that if the mines stayed undisturbed, right? This couldn’t be all, though. Did Mordecai really think himself so untouchable? Did he really believe everyone was so afraid of him? Alec had told me stories growing up, tales of the great black dragon who had taken to the skies to “rid us of the Fae overlords.” Stories were biased to the side that told them. The older I grew, the clearer that became.
“Any luck?” I asked Caspar quietly.
He shook his head. “That time limit is bad news. I’m entering codes manually to speed the process, but I’m not sure we want to know what will happen if we can’t figure this out.”
Blood pounded in my ears. I looked up at the timer. 2:00. “You need more combinations?”
“As many as you can think of.”
“I may
