Infinite Magic (Dragon's Gift: The Huntress Book 5) (14 page)

“It’s clear,” Aidan whispered before he quietly climbed the stairs. At the top, he ducked and placed his hands on the ceiling, slowly pushing upward.
 

The ceiling didn’t give.
 

He climbed back down and said, “It’s not blocked by magic. But I don’t want to force it and cause a commotion. IF I flip over furniture in the room above, someone might hear.”

Del stepped forward, her skin turning blue. “I got this.”

It was handy to have a phantom around. She climbed up the stairs and straight into the room above, never ducking her head. My heart pounded as I waited for the trap door to open. Sweat began to trickle down my spine and everything that relied on the success of this mission ping-ponged around in my head.

There were prisoners up there who needed us. Kids, probably. And Victor’s arsenal of magical artifacts.

And now Del was up there, too. Possibly captured.

I fidgeted as I glanced around at my friends, all huddled at the end of the corridor. They all looked as nervous as I felt, gazes darting and brows furrowed.

“Do you think she’s okay?” Nix whispered.

I didn’t have anything good to say, so I didn’t say anything at all. I was about to try my comms charm to contact her when a faint cracking noise sounded from above. Then another, and another.

The ceiling shifted as the trap door opened, and Del’s transparent blue face peered down.

“All clear,” she whispered.

Silently, we climbed up into the little room. Around the entrance to the hatch, the thick wooden floorboards had been torn up.

“Pried them up with my sword,” Del said. “Looks like someone redid the floor at some point and hid the escape hatch.”

“No wonder Victor never found it,” Connor said.

“Our luck,” Emile said.

I looked around the room, taking stock of the few items stored down here. A broken chair and mangled broom. A cradle that was nearly falling apart. It was some kind of storage space. There were no windows, which didn’t surprise me. We were deep inside the castle at the lowest level.

“Let’s go,” I whispered, leading the way to the door.

Carefully, I pushed it open, peaking out into the hallway. It was narrow and dark, lined with stone and floored with wood. I stepped out, followed by Emile.

Light, rapid footsteps sounded down the hall and I stiffened. Before I could lunge back into the room, a massive dog appeared at the end of the hall. He was nearly the size of a horse, white with massive brown spots. He halted, his jaw dropping low to reveal large white fangs.

When he raised his head as if to howl, my heart dropped.

Emile stepped forward.

A second later, the hound lowered his head, his dark gaze meeting Emile’s.

They were speaking telepathically. Aidan stepped out of the room and joined me, followed by the rest of the gang.

Whatever Emile said to the dog, the animal liked it. It trotted toward us, suddenly not so vicious. It was still huge and bore a striking resemblance to a hellhound, but its eyes were friendly and locked on Emile. The dog smelled of brimstone and flame, so I could check
Met a hellhound
off my list.

“This is Pond Flower,” Emile said.

Pond Flower?
Looked like a Killer to me.

“She chose her own name,” Emile added. “The men here call her hound. She doesn’t like it.”

“Hello, Pond Flower,” I said. It was exactly the kind of name I’d expect a dog to choose, though I couldn’t say why.

Emile held out a hand for her to sniff, then scratched her head. “She’s a guard dog. Along with a dozen others. Though she’d like to live somewhere else.”

“Can’t say I blame you, Pond Flower,” Aidan said.

“We’ll help you with that,” I told the dog.
 

Her clever eyes met mine, though I wasn’t sure she understood. Beside me, Emile’s magic swelled, smelling like grass. A moment later, Pond Flower’s tongue lolled out of her mouth in what I would swear was a smile. Emile must have translated for her. I didn’t know where the hell I was going to find her and her twelve hellhound siblings a home, but I’d manage.

“Ask her to help us find the FireSouls and the artifacts Victor stole. A chalice, a cauldron, and a gemstone. When we’re done, we’ll get her out of here.”

Emile nodded and turned back to Pond Flower. The dog stared intently up at him, then turned in a tight circle and headed back down the hall, her footsteps clicking on the wood.

“She can take us to the FireSouls, but she doesn’t know what the artifacts are or where they’re stored.”

Fair enough. One out of two wasn’t bad, anyway.

We followed in a line, Emile at the front and Claire at the rear. I stuck behind Emile, with Aidan at my back. Every creak of wood beneath my feet or disturbance in the air made me stiffen. We were a massive group of people, just strolling through this castle without a single nook or cranny to hide ourselves in.

I’d like to try to use my power over illusion to conceal us, but it was too risky. Even if I didn’t blow us up, my signature might go out of control and alert the guards to my presence. So I did the only thing I could—I crept along behind Emile and tried not to freak out.

Eventually, we reached another staircase. It was only slightly wider than the one leading up to the storage room, though not by much. The stairs were worn down in the middle, the evidence of thousands of feet over hundreds of years. This was definitely an older castle.

Pond Flower padded up the stairs, trailing the scent of brimstone behind her. We stayed close behind her.
 

The next level of the castle was as barren and creepy as the one below. But if I reached out with my magic, I could just pick up the sense of other supernaturals. Demons, mostly. The smell of smoke accompanied the shadow demons I’d seen earlier on the ramparts, and the unidentifiable signatures of the other species.

We reached a corridor that veered off from the one we were in. Pond Flower turned, heading down that way. In the other direction, a set of stairs led upward. I’d bet anything that Victor kept the artifacts up there, with him. This dungeon basement was too horrible for him to want to hang out in.

“Time to split,” I whispered to Aidan.
 

He nodded. I gestured to my friends, indicating that they should follow Pond Flower and Emile. They nodded and set off, while Aidan and I headed for the stairs.

We’d decided that the larger group would go for the FireSouls, since the prison wouldn’t be as heavily occupied as the rest of the castle. It helped that Victor had a habit of using magic rather that live guards to control his prisoners.

Aidan and I were headed for the artifacts, which we assumed were probably stored in a more densely populated part of the castle. A big group would only draw unneeded attention, and if Aidan and I got in a bad way, we could shift and fly away.

I held out a hand and stopped Aidan for a moment, then tried calling on my dragon sense, focusing on the image of the artifacts in my mind. The familiar tug pulled tight around my middle, directing me to the stairs.

Excellent.
I hadn’t been sure if my dragon sense would work inside the protective barrier, but it seemed to. I called upon it again, this time focusing on Victor Orriodor.

I got nothing.

Damn.

He wasn’t here. But at least we could still go after the artifacts.

“Up the stairs,” I whispered.

We crept upward, finally reaching a level where the air smelled almost fresh. The hall was wider here, but still constructed of roughly hewn stone. A sense of misery still pervaded the space, as if the former occupants’ souls still wandered the halls. Ratty tapestries hung listlessly on the walls.

No wonder Victor had chosen to live in his mansion at the waypoint. It was much nicer than this dump.

“We need to head higher up,” I whispered.

Ahead of us, a figure stepped out from a doorway.

Shit!

I reached for the dagger strapped to my thigh. It was my spare and not enchanted to return to me like my old pair had been, so I had to make this shot count. I didn’t want to use my magic as it was too loud and too risky.

The demon opened his mouth to shout as I flung the blade. It sailed end over end, sinking into his throat. A gurgle escaped his mouth before he collapsed to his knees.

I raced to him, my footsteps silent. Aidan followed, dropping to his knees beside me and turning the body over. I yanked the blade out, making sure the demon was dead—and silent—before patting down his pockets in search of a transportation charm.

I came up with nothing, though it was no surprise. Victor probably rationed them out, giving them only to demons on missions outside of the castle.

“Nothing,” I whispered as I rocked back on my heels.
 

“Then let’s go.”

I rose and turned back the way we’d come, following the tug around my middle toward the artifacts I sought. As we passed through a shadowy, abandoned great hall, I shivered. Evil lurked in this room more than the rest, like a cloud hanging in the air. What had Vlad done in here? An old drawing that I’d seen flashed in my mind—people impaled on stakes while he calmly ate dinner. Had that happened here?

I’d been wrong about this place. It was perfect for Victor.

We hurried from the room and through several smaller antechambers. Fortunately, the place was blessedly empty. It seemed most of the guards monitored the walls, not the interior of the castle. My heartbeat pounded in my ears, and my muscles were tense, waiting for a demon to jump out at us.

When we reached the spiral staircase that led up toward the artifacts, the comms charm around my neck vibrated with magic. Del’s voice drifted out, frantic, though quiet.
 

“Cass! The alarm is about to be raised. Get out now!”

My stomach dropped. “Do you need help?”

“I think—” The sound of a fight echoed through the charm. “We’ve got it. But a demon has run off to alert the others. This place is about to go crazy.”

Shit.
“Okay. Get out safe.”

Del didn’t answer, but I heard more sounds of fighting before the charm cut off. I glanced at Aidan. “We need to hurry.”

“Are we close?”

“Yeah.” If we got a little lucky, we could make it out of here before anyone saw us. Worst came to worst, we could fly out of the tower windows, so going up was as safe as retreating.

We raced up the spiral staircase. One floor, two, three. I was panting by the time I reached the top, but grateful. The person coming up the stairs always had the disadvantage. I didn’t want to be caught there, with demons bearing down upon us.
 

At the top of the stairs, a dark, deadening feeling swamped me.
 

“You feel that?” I whispered.

“Yeah.”

“The Gundestrop cauldron is definitely up here.” My magic was totally repressed—nothing more than ashes in my chest. If there was an ember of power there, I had a hard time feeling it. The cauldron was one of the strongest dampening charms in the world. Maybe
the
strongest.

Without our magic, we were dead meat if the guards found us.
 

“Let’s hurry.” I took stock of our surroundings.

We were in a small hallway, with at least six doors extending off of it. This was a damned big castle. My dragon sense no longer worked, so we had to peer into each room as we passed. Fortunately, most of the doors were open. And I was grateful to see no one inside.

But something was eerie about the rooms—even more so than the great hall. By the third room, it hit me.

There were no windows.

Shit.
That was our escape route.

“Hurry,” I said.
 

We needed to grab the things and make it back down the stairs. At least no one knew we were up here. That should buy us a bit of time.

The door we sought was just ahead. We were so close.

This was the only door that was closed. My hand trembled as I reached for the handle. The protective magic shocked me, making me jerk.

This had to be the room.

Though it looked like the cauldron didn’t dampen spells placed on objects—just the magic possessed by a supernatural.

Aidan pulled the Penatrist charm out of his pocket, and I pulled out my own. I hoped they worked, though they should, if the enchantment on the door wasn’t affected by the cauldron.

I was about to enter when Aidan gripped my arm.

“Wait,” he murmured. He held up the small silver spell stripper and ran it around the edge of the door. “We can enter with the Penatrist charms, but I want to make sure there isn’t an alarm on the door.”

Smart. We didn’t need to direct Victor’s guards straight to us.

He finished quickly and tucked the spell stripper back into his pocket. “All clear.”

This time, when I reached for the handle, the magic didn’t shock me.

 
I pushed open the door and stepped inside.

The room was so dark that I had to raise my lightstone ring. The yellow glow flared to life in the small room, revealing a set of heavy wooden shelves along the wall. The Gundestrop cauldron sat next to the golden Chalice of Youth. Beside that was the Heartstone, glittering blue and bright.

Aidan moved quickly around the room, running his spell stripper over the shelves and walls, removing any protective enchantments placed on the room.

“Clear,” he said.

I hurried forward, reaching for the Heartstone and the chalice. If we just took these two, we’d stay fast and mobile but also put a real dent in Victor’s plans.

I grabbed them from the shelf, catching sight of a flash of silver metal beneath each of them just as sirens blared to life.

Shit!
Victor had put
human
security measures in place? As soon as I’d taken the artifacts off the weight sensors, the alarms had blared to life. I’d never expected him to use human security.
 

Half a second later, four demons appeared in the room, their massive forms filling the darkened space. A heavy body slammed into me, throwing me to the ground. The Heartstone and chalice flew from my grip, clattering into the far corner where a demon swooped down to pick them up.