I swallowed a giggle as the urge to hum the Mission Impossible theme hit me. I knew there were no cameras in the dorms besides in the entrances and stairways, so there was no issue opening a portal at the end of the hall.
Arriving back at that first hawk shifter estate, I immediately used the shadows rune to cloak myself. The fae dogs still knew I was there and I dipped my head to them. I was pretty sure I read something that shadows or cloaking runes didn’t work with them as they could see heat signatures like infrared.
Cool, but creepy, given how lethal they were.
I easily scaled the cute estate wall and soundlessly dropped down on the other side. I might have showered after my run, but I’d changed in lounge yoga-ish clothes… Which might be a good default a few days a week during classes if I was going to do this more often. Heels and skirts wouldn’t work well for this.
Then again, wearing that sort of outfit would throw suspicion from me. I could change fast. A quick trip to the bathroom in the cafeteria, switch outfits, and open a portal. I just needed one big place or to figure out how to keep it under five minutes or I would get caught.
Fast.
Chief had already told me where to head at each place, and I quickly found where the hobgoblins were kept. It was hard not to burn the estate to the ground when I opened the door to what was one room off the kitchen that was clearly meant for a cook or chef, and dozens of hobgoblins were living in there.
On the floor. They had mats for beds. Old and shitty gym mats. Chief and his pack slept on better dog beds in my garage than the hobgoblins that worked at this estate.
Needless to say, I was livid.
They couldn’t see me, but they could clearly sense something was going on aside from a door randomly opening. They all hurried to their feet, even if it was after three in the morning there. I opened a portal to the main HAVEN address and knew they would handle things from there and get the hobgoblins to the right place.
“Thank you,” one of the closest ones whispered before hurrying to the portal. The others muttered the same, but didn’t waste time.
Good thing, because there were a lot of them. The moment the last one was gone, my magic closed the portal, and I raced out the way I had come. I was over the wall again in under five minutes. So this was perfect.
I nodded to Chief that I was done, and he led the way to the next place. I hopped the fence they had, and it was smooth sailing until after I got the hobgoblins out. I was halfway down a hallway when two of the guards on patrol came towards me. There was no good path for me because, even if I backtracked to where I had just been, they would hear the door open and close.
After a few moments of internal debate, I curled into a ball as close to the wall as I could. If they bumped into nothing that seemed to be the size of someone, they would rightly assume a person was there using magic to hide themselves. But hitting something lower, they would assume they simply misstepped.
It made sense in my head at least.
Sure enough, the guy’s shin bumped me as he went by and he stumbled.
“You got more than water in that bottle?” the other guard ribbed him.
He shook his head, but then glanced back to about where I was. “No, my shoe just caught.”
“Uh-huh, just pop some gum.”
They started bickering, giving me the perfect cover to get the fuck out of there. So I took it.
The next three went smoothly and gave me time to think about the best way to keep with the plan. I axed the cafeteria bathroom idea. It would be weird to go everyday with that many eyes. Someone would get nosy with all the attention I had on me.
No, better to do it during changing of classes. I could walk into a bathroom or empty classroom, change while covered in shadows, handle what I needed to so the hobgoblins were free, change again, and get back before the bell for lunch even rang. Yeah, that would be best and work up an appetite.
Perfect.
The next problem was the second to the last place. They had guard dogs that smelled a new scent that intrigued them.
Luckily, there was a rune for that.
Unluckily, that could be seen faster. I used the rune and harmlessly knocked the dogs out before racing for the hobgoblins. I opened the portal and was glad there was only a handful that hurried to leave, as if sensing something was wrong.
Yeah, it was because a blaring alarm went off right as the last went through and my magic closed the portal.
Fuck.
I used the fairy rune to make myself run faster and was at the estate’s wall seconds later. I honestly might want to always use that, just to be on the safe side.
“Magic,” a deep voice growled. “They’re down with magic. Turn on the floodlights and search the entire estate. Make calls and warn the entire kettle.”
Fuck. That meant the last place was out… At least for today.
And next time might be much harder. Chief and the pack were of the same opinion, not wanting to back down and retreat when I leapt over the wall. I nodded and used the fairy rune speed to get to the next place. We could at least check it out and maybe they hadn’t been given the heads up yet.
