Veiled Threat (9 page)

“Have you been in his head, Blaz?” I snapped. Anger and fear for Pamela and Milly made me less than tolerant. “You don’t know him. You hardly even know Ophelia but I would trust her over him. My father …” The words choked in my throat for some stupid reason.

He loved her dearly, didn’t he?

I nodded, took a breath and finally got the words out. “He died before my mother, and Ophelia nearly died with him of a broken heart. My mother’s journal said Ophelia was never the same after he died, that something broke within her. I’m surprised she’s as cognizant as she is, considering what my mother wrote.”

Regret flowed from Blaz into me, and I realized he knew very little about Ophelia, that he’d made snap judgments about her because his heart was tied elsewhere. He back drafted his wings so our forward progress stilled and he tread the air. My jaw ticked.

I will speak to her before we go farther. If she vouches for him, will you take Erik?

Shit, I’d just said I trusted her over him. And I did trust Blaz. “Fine. If she will vouch for him, if she would trust him with me, then I will take him.”

Blaz gave a nod and his eyes half closed. Minutes passed and several times he shook his head, letting out long low growls. Finally, he turned his head back to me.

She will vouch for him, she says he has changed, and she knows he is not the man he once was. If he
was
still that man she would have killed him herself.

“And she speaks truly?”

For all her faults that I see now were my own, yes, she speaks the truth.
He started off again toward the badlands, heading to the mineshaft.

“Is he going to help?”

No. He’s not.

Fuck a duck, why was I not surprised?

Chapter 9

S
tanding with Rylee
and Alex in front of the doorway within the mineshaft that led into the castle where red caps waited was one of the hardest moments of his life.

“You still trust me to do what I have to?” Rylee lifted her eyes to his in the flickering light, an eyebrow arched in query.

“I said I did. I stand by it. Doesn’t mean I damn well like this plan of yours.” Actually, his gut was churning with fear for her. The red caps were one thing, but going into the deeper levels of the veil, which neither of them knew anything about, with no one to guide her… the thought pulled at his soul. Going with her through the doorway wasn’t an option and it killed him.

“Thanks.” She leaned up and kissed him, pressing her lips hard to his before backing away. “I don’t know how long we’ll be.”

“How long do I wait before I come after you?” Because that was a distinct possibility.

She shook her head. “You don’t. Because if I’m wrong and I get killed then I’m not the one the prophecies speak of, and you will be one of the last few who has an ability to face demons.”

He sucked in a sharp breath. “That does not help me let you go.”

“But it’s the truth.”

Alex’s tail thumped the ground and he tugged at Liam’s pant leg. “I take care of Rylee.”

Liam looked from Rylee—her jaw hanging open—to Alex and back again. He didn’t want to change the subject but … “Did you hear that?”

She sputtered, “He used ‘I’ instead of ‘Alex.’”

“Shit, he really is coming around.”

Alex grinned at them and even winked at Rylee. “I keeps her safe, boss, no worries.”

Without any thought other than to hold her one last time, Liam wrapped his arms around her and held her against his chest. “Come back to me, Tracker.”

She clung to him for two breaths before pushing back. “I always do.”

With that, she stepped back, put her hand on the door and she and Alex slipped through.

He saw a glimmer of the castle walls within the lower dungeon levels and then nothing as the door shut behind them. In the quiet of the old mine shaft Liam waited. Hating he’d lied to her.

“Blaz, can you hear me?”

Ah. Yes. Why, is something wrong already?

“I don’t care what you have to do, but you get Ophelia to get Erik’s asses here pronto.”

Sweet mother of the gods, I didn’t think you’d let her go without a fight. I’ll make it happen.

Liam stared at the closed doorway. There was no way he was letting her go on her own.

She just didn’t know it yet.

The walls were splattered with blood from the red caps where the hoarfrost demons had gone through them. Except for the distant sputter of torches the place was quiet, even more so than usual. Like a tomb. A shudder rippled through me.

“Fucking creepy,” I muttered, and glanced at Alex. Crap, I stifled a laugh.

He was walking on the tip toes of his front paws, very cartoon like, his lower lip drawn down in an exaggerated frown, mumbling, “Stupid red caps, dumber demons,” under his breath.

I pulled my swords from their sheaths and drew the symbols Erik taught us. Tapping Alex on the shoulder with a clenched fist I pointed at the tip of my sword while I drew the symbol again. He nodded and did the same with his claws. But no flash of light this time, no burning of the blades. Maybe it was only the first few times? Didn’t matter. We were in and going, we couldn’t look back.

A swell of nerves rose in me; why would the symbols work when Erik was around, but not now?

I swallowed hard, tried to convince my brain we were ready to rumble with any demons we might face. Though I doubted we’d face those first. Red caps now, demons later.

We made our way up the first flight of stairs and at the top I peered out a window. It was early in the night here, the crescent moon giving off a bare shiver of light.

That would help cover us, as long as we kept to the shadows. The most direct route to the barricaded doorway was to cross the courtyard. Of course, I was assuming that not only could I get through the door, but it indeed led to the deep levels of the veil. And that I wouldn’t let anything nasty out when I opened the door.

I had to trust my gut on this one; everything brought me back to this doorway.

At the edge of the courtyard we stilled and I stared into the open space. An ocean of red caps lay between us and the other side of the courtyard.

Literally.

They camped, sleeping soundly, weapons within easy reach. Lazy bastards, hadn’t even bothered to set a guard. They just plunked down and went to sleep.

“Stinky dead caps,” Alex said, his voice echoing across the open space. I clamped a hand over his muzzle, but it was too late.

I balanced on my toes, waiting for the first rush, trying to see where we might dodge and get to the other side. Deliberately not thinking about having to retreat like a fucking coward. But they didn’t jump up to charge us, hell, they didn’t move a muscle. Not even a breath. “Wait, dead caps?”

“Yuppy doody. Red caps are dead caps.” He waved a paw in front of his nose and then let out a big sneeze. “Damn stinky.”

Alex trotted to the closest red cap, cocked his leg and peed on his face. “See? Dead caps.”

“Stop that,” I snapped. Alex dropped his leg and shrunk a little.

“Sorry.”

They might not have been my friends, or even allies, but something destroyed them like matchsticks snapped in half for fun. My chest tightened as I walked amongst the strewn bodies.

Limbs and heads twisted the wrong direction, weapons broken and, now that I was closer, I could see the pale moonlight gleaming off pools of blood. I bent and touched my fingers to the red cap closest to me.

He was still warm.

This was bad. I stood and beckoned to Alex. “We gotta move.”

He trotted to my side, snapping his knees up high to miss touching the bodies of the red caps, like a prancing pony.

Another time I would have laughed, or at least smiled. But not tonight. Whatever killed the red caps was close.

“Fuck this shit.” My nerve endings jangled, dancing with the knowledge something big, bad and probably really ugly could be watching us. And if the hair on the back of my neck was any indication, I wasn’t far off the mark.

Breaking into a jog, I wove through the bodies until we were on the far side of the courtyard. I paused at the open, dark doorway and put a hand out, stopping Alex. We couldn’t go in blind, that was just stupid.

“What do you smell?”

He lifted his nose, then dropped it to the ground. “Red caps. And a monster.”

“Do you know what kind of monster?” He was usually good at identifying the things he smelled, even the ones he’d never met before.

With a shake of his head he took another long sniff. “I sees it, but I don’t know what it is.”

I clenched my weapons. “See it in your head?” Shit, I hoped that was what he meant.

A quick nod and he tapped his head with the tip of one claw, and my nerves slowed a half beat. That was only a small consolation prize.

“Is it in there?” I pointed into the dark entryway.

Alex gave a long slow nod. “Yes.”

Fuckity fuck fuck. This could not get any worse.

“Traaaaaacker.”

I spun on my heel, dropping into a crouch. A hand lifted amongst the red caps, the fingers bending to draw me close. Breathing hard, I made my way to his side and crouched near his head. He was the captain who spoke with me in the mine shaft.

“Tracker. You are either braver than any man I know, or dumber than a troll.” His jaw was broken and words were slurred, messy and pain filled, but I understood him.

“Combination of the two. You have to be to do my job.” I wasn’t sure what to do for him. He was dying and we both knew it. He flopped his hand over and dropped it on my shoulder.

“I’ve never seen a thing like this before. We had no chance.”

Chills swept up and down my spine, the skin on my arms tingling. “Can you tell me anything?”

His eyes flickered, the light in them fading and then he let out a cough. “Alex, help me!” We rolled him onto his side as blood and bile poured out. Carefully, I rolled him back.

“It moved like the wind, a shape that could not be seen, a monster that had no form but killed with ease.”

“A demon?”

His eyes stared up at me. “It wants the sealed door open. Don’t open the door, Tracker. The world will cease to be if you do. Orion waits for you on the other side.”

My jaw clenched and tears threatened at the back of my eyes. “My friends are in the deep veils, and I have no other way to get them.”

“One other way. Always another way.”

My fingers found his and I clenched his hand hard. “Tell me. Please.” I would beg on my knees, give him anything he wanted. I would put on his bloody cap if it would make him tell me.

A long low boom filled the air and his hand gripped my shoulder. “It tries to break the door. It cannot. Blessed gods, let it not be able to.”

I shook his shoulder, demanding his attention. “The other way into the deep veils. Please, I can’t leave them there.”

He took a sudden, sharp breath and let it out in a final word.

“Necromancerrrrrrr.”

His hand fell limp on my shoulder and I slid it off, placing it across his chest.

Another castle-shaking boom rattled the air. Whatever it was, even I wasn’t brassy enough to try and find it. I stood and backed away from the captain’s body.

“Alex, we are leaving.”

“Goody good.”

We jogged to the doorway and I looked over my shoulder, regret for the lives lost heavy on me. Even if they were red caps.

There was no way to honor them, to honor their sacrifice to keep the deep levels from opening. And they did deserve that honor, even if they’d tried to kill us. Twice. I knew it wasn’t personal; they were doing what they’d been trained to do.

Protect the castle.

“Boss is here,” Alex said and I whipped around to stare into the dark stairwell leading to the dungeon.

“Are you sure?”

“Smells him.”

I didn’t dare call out, hell, there was no way I wanted to draw the thing’s attention to us.

“Give a soft woof, Alex.”

He did, but there was nothing from below. A slow burning fuse of fear wrapped itself up my legs and buried deep in my belly. There were two ways to get to the upper levels on the other side of the castle. I’d gone for the more direct route.

But Liam … he would take the long way so I wouldn’t see him. Which meant he’d be closing in on the doorway.

“Oh, shit.”

I ran across the courtyard, Alex behind me. We’d never beat him to the sealed doorway.

I knew why he’d come; hell, I even wondered at how easy he’d let me go. But I was too blind to see he had no intention of letting me go by myself.

None at all.

We bolted up the dark stairway and another boom rattled the walls, dust falling around our ears. We had to stop and steady ourselves or fall back the way we’d come.

“I no likes this shaking shit,” Alex grumbled, his body pressed into the side of the stairwell.

“Me either.” Fuck, I didn’t know whether or not to call out to Liam. It would draw the attention of the thing at the doorway, which was one problem. Another shake dropped me to my knees. There was no way we’d make it up the stairwell before Liam …

A yell erupted from above us.

Liam.

The shaking stopped and we scrambled to our feet, running up the final few flights. Once on the upper level, I didn’t pause, just turned to the right and ran through the hall.

“Liam. Don’t open the door!” I screamed the words, and what came back was not Liam’s voice.

Alex and I rounded the corner and there was the sealed doorway, bite and claw marks etched into the steel. And a ghostly figure hovered in front of it. Seriously, it was like a ghost; I saw through him, and yet the figure flexed and reformed several times within those first few seconds. A red cap, then a troll, then an ogre and then human again.

Behind him huddled a tiny figure, a woman with crazy, bright white hair and a young face. Very young, like maybe my age if she was showing her true age. Her eyes were wide and wild with terror and power.