I cleared my throat. “Excuse me.”
“What’re you doing down here?” asked one of the guards, spotting me.
“She’s here to help us move him,” Harris growled. “Allegedly.”
“I won’t get under your feet,” I said, “but if you run your plan past me, I can point out any issues. We don’t want him walking free.”
“We most certainly do not,” said one of the guards. “He’ll remain sedated while we transport him out to the nearest node. Then…”
“I have a transporter spell,” I told them. “That will allow us to send him directly to the Death King’s territory, where the liches can take him into the jail without any chance of him running free.”
“Who made you the boss?” said Harris.
“One of you can operate the transporter spell, if you’d prefer,” I said. “Or I can ask one of the other Elemental Soldiers to come here in my place if you really have that much of a problem with me.”
“No,” said Harris flatly. “We don’t take orders from the Death King or his poor choices for soldiers.”
Great. If Adair made a break for it, it’d be their fault, not mine. If I pushed them too far, though, they might take the transporter off my hands and lock me in the cell alongside Adair. I didn’t know what they’d sedated him with, but I hadn’t exaggerated when I’d said most magical substances were much less effective on him than they were on regular people. At most, we’d have half an hour before he woke and started taking his anger out on everyone within range.
Thankfully, the guards ignored Harris’s complaints and hauled the unconscious Adair out of his cell. Without glancing in the direction of Tay’s cage this time, I headed up the stairs, while two guards carried the unconscious form of Adair ahead of me. His hands were cuffed with the same magic-proofed stuff as the bars on his cage, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try to break out of them the instant he woke up.
We needed to get to the Death King’s castle first.
Outside the House of Fire, we turned the corner and headed for the nearest node. I found myself regretting coming here alone. I wished I’d brought Harper at the very least. While I knew she didn’t want to get close to anyone connected to the Family, being a lich meant she could pass through the node straight to the Death King’s private node without the need for a transporter spell.
I reached into the pendant around my neck and removed the gleaming coin Shawn had given to me, but the guards continued to drag Adair towards the node without paying me any attention.
I cleared my throat. “I have the spell ready. Who wants to volunteer to send him through?”
To my horror, Adair’s eyes snapped open, meeting mine. He twisted out of the guards’ grip almost at once, swinging his cuffed hands at them. The blow caught both guards at once, sending them flying into the air.
Shit. I knew this would happen.
I ran at him, transporter spell in hand, but he pivoted out of the way with a bellow of rage. I hadn’t a hope of restraining him single-handedly, but the heavy chains on his wrists made it harder for him to keep his balance. Yet he was too damn fast, and too close to the node for me to risk a proper assault in case I ended up stranding us both in the middle of nowhere.
“Fuck off,” he spat at me. “Let go of me and go away.”
To my horror, I found my body automatically obeying his commands. His persuasive magic was still in full working order, and the lightness that seized my limbs urged me to run as far away as possible.
Instead, I shot a fireball at him. He dodged, tackling me around the middle and propelling both of us through the node. I fumbled for the transporter spell, too late, and it flew from my grip as we tumbled through emptiness and landed sprawling on hard ground.
I looked up, finding that we hadn’t landed on the Death King’s territory, but near the warehouses of Arcadia. Worse, I’d dropped the transporter spell somewhere on the other side.
Adair staggered upright, chains dangling from his wrists, and made another lunge for the node. I tackled him before he could reach it, using the momentum of our fall to pin his cuffed arms to the ground.
“Care to tell me where that cantrip of yours came from?” I said. “The one that was used to kill the jailor?”
Instead of answering, he twisted out from underneath me, and I hit the ground on my knees, hard. He made a break for it, his feet skidding in the muddy ground and his cuffed hands swinging—and a skeletal horse walked into his path, headbutting him in the face. Adair flew back into the mud, swearing explosively.
“Thanks, Neddie,” I said, genuinely grateful for the grumpy horse’s sudden appearance. At least until he knocked me over, too, and I landed on my rear in the mud. “Ow.”
“The horse is called Neddie?” Adair pushed to his feet, his nose bleeding.
I climbed upright and jabbed a finger at him. “He’s the one who deserves a good thrashing.” Bloody zombie horse.
“Get them!” a voice shouted from the direction of the node behind us, and several of the House of Fire’s guards ran to surround the pair of us.
“Hey, I’m taking him to the Death King!” I said indignantly. “Or I would be, if this damned horse did anything I asked it to.”
Neddie placidly stood at the side and chewed on some muddy grass while Adair turned on the guards. “Fight one another, not me.”
The effect was instantaneous. Several fireballs flew among the guards, and alarm flickered through me. You’d think Adair’s power would be somewhat dampened after his imprisonment,
