by Rainy Kaye
She nodded. “Take Paisley with you. April and I will cover the west wing, and you two can cover the east.”
I winced, but bit down a retort. Paisley had survived the blizzard and her brother’s death, so I couldn’t be too harsh about her, but still, it felt like a babysitting job more than an equal. Perhaps Ever meant it as a kind gesture; she believed I, the witch among us, could protect her baby sister.
Flattering as it may be, I hated to point out she was giving me way too much credit. To be fair, April wasn’t cut from a much more durable cloth, and it wouldn’t be reasonable for Ever and I to leave the frailest of the team behind to fend for themselves. It made little difference at that point if I brought April or Paisley with me. May as well pick my battles.
I nodded. “How do you intend to get inside?”
“Climb up to the third floor,” she said, pointing with a gloved hand toward the top level of the west building. “April and I do a lot of climbing, and a year or so ago we went straight up the side of a ravine, so I think we’ll be fine going up a few stories. What’s your plan?”
She shifted her hood a little to look at me.
I scanned the building and then let out a deep breath. “Less ambitious. Just going to take the stairs up the breezeway and see how it pans out.”
She tipped her head with a one-shoulder shrug. “Seems reasonable enough. Take no prisoners, right?”
I bit my lip inside my mask. Now that we were here, it fully occurred to me that this man was probably not alone. More so if he was one of the wielders. They were unlikely to be the same members from Green River or New Orleans, as they appeared to have dispatched into groups, but I doubted they would be any more friendly.
The memory of these men—or their cohorts, at least—snapping Arlo’s neck still played vividly anytime I closed my eyes. What they had done to Fiona seemed even worse. I had no remaining qualms about finding the worst, ruthless version of myself as we stormed their castle, but I doubted how much good it would do.
Still, I nodded. “Get in, get out, burn it to the ground if needed.”
“Yep,” she said, and with that, she flicked her hand toward April who clomped toward her, arms flailing at her side to keep balance.
When April reached us, her chest heaved and she stomped her feet to shake off the snow dusting her shoulders as the clouds resumed powdering the ground.
“We need to work stealthily but quickly,” Ever said to her. “As soon as we find the pendant, we get out. This is not a takedown if it doesn’t have to be.”
“But if it does…” April said, her eyes narrowing above her mask.
“He, or his group, have trapped us with the plague because of their beast,” Ever said, resolute. “Every death in this town from it rests as much on them as the plague mask man in the woods.”
She turned to me, placing a hand on my shoulder, though I could barely feel it through the thick layers of fabric.
“It’s much easier to talk about what you’ll do during a fight than when it comes time to actually do it,” she said. “We can show mercy another time, but not today, not right now.”
I had no idea what sort of life had forged these sisters, or if they had only been fortified in the last few days since the plague began, but either way, I was thankful they were, at least for now, on my side.
I wanted to assure her I would protect her sister, that I would stand up for her as if she were Jada, but somehow, it didn’t seem necessary.
Instead, I ducked my head against the wind and headed toward where Paisley stood, her backpack at her side in one hand, and the kukri loose in the other. She looked so small, so helpless, loaded down like that, bracing against the increasing wind and snow.
“Come on,” I said, but my voice was drowned out by the returning storm. I nodded toward the lodge.
She shouldered her bag and, wielding the kukri, followed me toward the steps leading up the breezeway and into the lair.
9
At the bottom of the stairs leading to the breezeway, I paused just below the railing, and Paisley hurried next to me. In my peripheral, Ever and April bounded around the corner of the west building and disappeared.
I stared up at the breezeway and over to the east building. Besides the lights, no other signs of life presented itself, though that didn’t mean anything. They could all be nestled inside, drinking hot tea as they pored over their diabolical plans—whatever they were.
They could be out implementing said plans, too.
Without a word, I started up the stairs. They made no sound under my feet, but I remained tense, ready to spring over the edge of the walkway and take off at the first indication these men knew we were here.
I was already convinced there would be more than just the man with the pendant.
Not that they should be expecting us. We had to be low on their list of concerns, if on it at all. No one expected my little ragtag group to come after them, and for good reason. We weren’t a threat, not really. None of us stood a chance against them alone, and we barely posed a problem together, either.
I really needed to learn how to give myself better pep talks.
The breezeway cover, held up by wooden posts, provided protection from the snow, but the coldness in the air only seemed to seep deeper into me.
To my left, several large windows offered no real glimpse of the lit interior. Ahead of us stood double glass doors, and I peered inside, breath shallow.
The doors led into a large round room with three tree trunks in what appeared to be their natural state propping up the high ceiling. An enormous circular bar stood in the center, and leather couches and chairs gathered around a fireplace the size of a car to one side. Several billiards tables with burgundy tops lined the far wall past the bar.
I let out a low whistle, though it probably didn’t escape the mask. “They sure know how to entertain.”
Paisley widened her eyes at me, but if she said anything, I didn’t catch it.
The storm picked up, beating at the breezeway cover, but breaking up before it reached us. I hoped Ever and April had already scaled the wall and had found a way inside so they weren’t caught out in the growing storm. If earlier was any indication, the weather would get much worse before it provided any reprieve again.
Arm tense, I reached out and tried the door handle, expecting it to be locked, and possibly a security alarm to go off. The door silently glided back, offering us entrance into the house.
Lair. I couldn’t forget that no matter how the inside beckoned, this was no longer a friendly place. The lodge that had operated here had gone out of business after the dark mage had been released into the town. Now these magic mafiosos had taken it over.
With a nod at Paisley, I crept into the room, keeping low to the ground, until I all but waddled in toward the bar, compressed under the weight of the backpack. Every few steps, I paused to listen for sounds of people inside, but the house remained quiet besides the muffled whistling of the wind kicking up outside.
Behind me, Paisley eased the door shut with a nearly inaudible click before following after me. When we reached the bar, we split up to check from opposite directions, and then signaled a thumbs up to each other before standing. I pressed my palms against the countertop as I surveyed the room, but nothing stood out to me that I hadn’t seen through the door. This room had long been abandoned; even the fireplace had cooled.
Two dimly lit doorways led off from the back of the room. One seemed to open into a banquet room, and the other into a cavernous seating area. Breath tight, I shuffled toward the entrance to the seating area, straining to hear far into the house. As much as the silence relieved me, it wasn’t going to get us anywhere. For a change, I needed to find them, or at least the man with the long green jacket. Otherwise, this little adventure would be in vain.
My stomach clenched at the thought of Jax, and I pushed down the memory, but it hung around in the background, much like Arlo’s death and Fiona’s blank stare and Joseph Stone�
��s corpse.
The skeletons in my mental closet were piling up.
In the seating room, more trunk columns held up the ceiling, matching the log frames around the massive windows that overlooked an expanse of the winter mountains. In better days, the view would have been incredible. The air hummed with the memories of happy couples and singletons spending well-earned vacations here, taking in the breathtaking landscape as they gathered on the clustered couches sipping hot chocolate and coffee to warm up before heading out into the snow with their skis.
The hallways led off from the seating room, each ending in an abrupt brick wall with only a set of double doors on each side.
The carpet absorbed our footsteps as we wove through the seating room toward the hallway on the right. I continued to focus on sounds farther into the lodge, but we seemed to be alone.
If they weren’t here, would we have to wait for them to return? What were the chances he had left a pendant of power lying around?
Slim to none.
Paisley followed me into the hallway. Two sets of double doors stood opposite each other. They were smooth knotted wood with strap hinges, and metal numbers posted on the wall to the right, indicating rooms five and six.
Licking my chapped bottom lip, I grabbed the knob for door five and tried it.
Nothing was locked in this place. Then again, it had been a mountain town ski resort just a week or two ago. Maybe there wasn’t a big crime spree up here in the foothills.
The door eased open, revealing a darkened suite that carried on past my view. I patted around on the wall for the light switch and flipped it, the overheads lighting up across the interior.
My breath hitched. The main area of the room stretched out as an entryway with a bushy potted tree and a side table with thick candle holders; a seating area with a fireplace to the side and brick walls covered in framed canvas art depicting nature in winter; a dining area with a table so heavy I doubted I could even budge it; and an open kitchen with fresh herbs growing in white pots on a wall-mounted shelf.
The walls alternated in brick and wood, giving the illusion that perhaps guests had communed with nature, but this was nothing short from five-star luxury, from the geometric statement chandelier to the vintage area rugs. Several doors that were nearly art pieces themselves stood to the far left, and I could only imagine they opened into private bedrooms and bathrooms of equal grandeur.
“Dang,” I said into my mask, heading deeper into the room. “Who knew Haven Rock hid such a gem?”
I poked around in drawers and cabinets as Paisley set to work exploring the adjoining rooms, but it seemed as if there were too many places to check and not enough at the same time. He probably hadn’t left his pendant unprotected, but we also couldn’t forgo checking while we were here.
We turned up empty handed and, without preamble, headed into the suite across the hall, which boasted just enough difference to be unique but not enough to matter if it was the only room available. We swept through the interior, less taken by the opulence. Nothing of interest presented itself and, shoulders slumped, we trudged back through the seating room and into the next hallway to try another two suites.
By the sixth suite, they had become less special. Irritation bit up and down my spine. We hadn’t trekked up that damn hill and lost Jax only to not find the pendant. As if that wasn’t bad enough, but the longer we were here, the more I was certain that the man in the green jacket still had it, and I was going to have to fight him for it.
Except, he wasn’t even here.
As my thoughts spun up, I realized I had stopped listening for sounds of impending danger.
Paisley trudged beside me, wielding a kukri a third her length, slumping under a backpack, her disheveled hair poking out from under her thick jacket hood.
I let out a sigh. If nothing else, I had to keep her safe long enough to get her back to Ever.
I nodded toward the seating area and led the way through it and back to the bar where we had entered. My soles dragged along the carpet as I headed into the dim banquet room. Plush blue and red carpet in a honeycomb pattern laid wall to wall, and long wooden tables set for dinner stood in neat rows.
Straight ahead towered floor-to-ceiling windows that provided a panoramic view of the mountains, the sun setting behind them in pink and yellow, but what should have been relaxing only served to remind me that we were distant from civilization.
Night had started to descend.
I swept the room with my gaze, more in obligation than interest, and turned to Paisley as she swung off her backpack. She indicated we try the dark doorways on the other side of the tables.
We may as well while we were here.
Dozens of tall silhouettes with respirators stepped out of the shadows around the perimeter of the room. From them, green and blue tentacles slithered into existence, casting lights at strange angles.
The men faced us, expressions chiseled, but made no move. They had blocked every exit, surrounding us from every side but the window wall.
My heart sank. This many men—and who knew how many more lurked in the lodge—had not gone undetected by chance. They had been waiting for us. They had probably seen us coming up the hill and instead of defending their fort from outside, had lured us deeper into their lair with silence until they could corner us.
Like now.
My thoughts flickered to Ever and April, but I didn’t have time to consider what position they might be in.
“What are you doing here?” one of the men asked from across the room, but his voice carried with commanding distinction. “You are not from Haven Rock. How did you get past the cockatrice?”
I swallowed hard, refusing to let my voice quiver even if my knees did.
“We’re just smarter than it,” I said with a forced scoff.
The man took a few steps closer to us, green and blue light reflecting off his olive skin and glinting in his dark eyes. His green tunic hung open, down to his calves.
It was him. The man we had been looking for. I tried not to be obvious as I scanned his neck for the necklace, but I couldn’t tell if he was wearing one under his shirt or not.
He opened his mouth as if to disagree, but his gaze flicked up and down me before settling on my eyes. “Did you happen to be in Green River, perhaps? Or New Orleans?”
These were not the same men who had pursued me in either city, but they certainly belonged to the same faction, even if I didn’t understand what their end goal was, exactly. Perhaps they had not yet had a team meeting to exchange my pictures, but news had spread. I could see him doing the math and not at all liking the answer.
“Why would you come here?” He continued toward me, his eyes searching me as if looking for clues as to why I had been showing up at inconvenient times, just as the dark mages and witches were released.
I couldn’t have expected to escape their notice forever. Not when each run in had ended spectacularly, and not now that Fiona—their hostage—had been liberated. They must have noticed.
Yet, he hadn’t mentioned her. Maybe the New Orleans team had not relayed the news.
He stopped a few feet from me.
“What could you possibly want with them? They would have nothing to say to someone like you.” Despite his words, he didn’t sneer, didn’t look at me with scorn. Instead, his brow creased, like I was a puzzle he couldn’t quite fit together. “There is nothing you could offer them, not even as a sacrifice.”
I stood straight, despite the backpack weighing me down.
“Our business is our own,” I said, but I scanned from my peripheral, looking for an escape. Any direction we ran would force us to cut right by these men.
The only way out would be through the window, and I wasn’t sure that was a viable option yet. I would have one chance to break the glass before they skewered us, and I doubted the widows would shatter that easily.
Besides, we had come here for a reason.
“Everything which happens in Haven Rock
is within our jurisdiction,” he said, as if explaining the situation to me. “Until the dark mage is recovered, we own this town and everyone in it. Everyone.”
He gave me a pointed look.
“By whose command?” I found myself asking, and then jammed my tongue between my back molars. I didn’t need to start an even bigger turf war with these people.
“Ours,” he said with an easy smile, splaying out his arms to his side. The tentacles from his hips quivered and undulated, coiled but ready to lash out at the first provocation. “The dark ones will join us.”
I started to reply that they wouldn’t if I got them back into their paintings in time. Something round against his chest, under his shirt, caught my attention.
The pendant.
I scanned upwards to meet his face.
A smile eased across his lips.
He slid the pendant out from under his shirt, and the green light reflected on it. In the dimly lit room, the pendant wasn’t unlike the medallion I kept on me, the one I had taken from New Orleans.
“This?” He chuckled, and somehow, despite what I knew he was capable of, it wasn’t the least bit sinister.
Who the hell were these people?
“You can’t wield this,” he said, like I was a silly child. “She would eat you alive if you dared to try to command her. In three hundred years, she has obeyed exactly two men. One being me.”
He tipped his head, feigning humility, but pride oozed from him.
I chewed my bottom lip, despite the stinging raw chapped skin, and took him in more closely. Nothing stood out to me why he might have earned the beast’s respect, if what he said was even true. Perhaps he was leading me on so I wouldn’t challenge him.
But that would require him to be the least bit concerned, or impressed, by me, and judging by his demeanor, he was neither.
“There are sick people here,” I said, though I had no idea why I thought I could reason with him. “They need to leave town, get to a better hospital.”
He rolled his shoulders once and leaned back a little, taking me in. “Once we have finished with the dark mage, you will be free to leave. Everyone will be, but not until then.”