by Raquel Lyon
“I don’t have one.”
“How can you not have a plan?”
“It’s not as if I’ve had much time to come up with one. I’ll figure something out. Besides, I don’t hear you throwing out any gems.”
Overhead, the hoot of an owl mingled with the far-off cries of bleating sheep drifting on the evening air. A light drizzle threatened heavier rain, and tufts of bracken scraped the girls’ legs as they navigated the untrodden path towards the facility. Maddie side-stepped a rock jutting from the uneven earth, then hopped on one foot.
“Eww,” she said. “I think I just trod on a mouse.”
“I shouldn’t think so.”
“Well, something just squelched and crunched.”
“In that case, you’d better watch out for that owl attacking. He might be angry that you just ruined his supper.”
“That’s not funny. Owls eat snakes, too, you know.”
“I’m sorry. If I don’t make light, I think I might cry.” Piper’s leg muscles were protesting over her day’s impromptu exercise, and couldn’t have felt any heavier if Medusa had cast her stony stare on her calf muscles. But as much as they screamed for her to rest, she pushed on. Saving Lambert’s life would be worth any amount of pain.
The building appeared to be deserted, and Piper offered up a silent prayer that the workers had all gone home for the day. A couple of security guards were one thing, but if the place were full of Supes, she doubted the ability to move objects and throw a few fireballs would cut it. She really hadn’t thought this through.
When they reached the perimeter fence, Maddie looked up at the warning sign pinned to the thick metal wires. “Great. What now?”
“I don’t know,” Piper said, searching for surveillance cameras and pinpointing only one—on the corner of the building and fortunately pointing the other way. “It’s not like I’m an expert at breaking and entering.”
“Haven’t you got some electricity-sucking spell up your sleeve?”
“I must have skipped that class.”
Maddie squatted to gauge the gap between the fence and the ground. “How about a body shrinking one?”
“Nope, but...” Earlier that afternoon, she had made the mistake of forgetting to raise her hands when attempting to levitate the grand piano, resulting in a surprising occurrence. Maybe she could do it again? She angled her palms towards the earth and pushed down a burst of energy. Her feet raised from the ground, and with one further acceleration, she propelled herself over the fence.
Maddie nodded appreciatively. “That’ll do it,” she said, as her body slackened and sagged, as if her insides were shrinking under her skin, and she sank down into the grass.
Piper squinted into the darkness to where blades of grass bent and flattened. A trail wove under the fencing, stopping at her side as Maddie reappeared and pulled Piper flush to the ground.
She opened her mouth to protest, but Maddie laid a finger on her lips, shook her head, and pointed. At the side of the facility, a fire exit had opened.
A man dressed in a light-coloured uniform stepped out into the open and lit a cigarette.
“Stay here,” Maddie whispered. “I’m going to sneak past him. When he goes back in, I’ll open the door for you.”
“Be careful,” Piper replied, but Maddie had already transformed into an adder and was slithering through the grass.
Feeling useless and more than a touch nauseated, Piper counted the seconds, wishing she had the power of invisibility to get closer in the interim. She rubbed at the growing pain stabbing her temples and wiped a hand across her brow, confused when it came back damp. Now was not the time to be coming down with something. Then, just when she was beginning to wonder whether his tea break would ever end, the guy returned inside.
Checking the camera hadn’t changed direction, Piper rushed to the door, reaching it at the very moment Maddie swung it open.
“Okay, we’re in. Now what?” Maddie asked in a hushed tone.
“Find Lambert.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
ALL SEEMED QUIET AS THEY moved slowly forward, taking turns to peek around corners and into rooms. Piper’s fingers prickled on high alert for impending danger. Above them, bulbs buzzed and flickered, throwing one corridor after another intermittently into darkness.
“It’s like a freaky nightclub,” Maddie whispered, “but without the crummy house music.”
Turning yet another corner, Piper wrinkled her nose. “Nightclubs don’t smell of burnt flesh.”
“Is that what that is?”
“Have you never been past the crematorium at night?”
“Not something I make a habit of, no.”
“Do you think the quarantine might be near where they dispose of the bodies?”
Maddie shrugged. “Sounds feasible. All I remember is Dad mentioning how glad he is it’s not near the conference room. He’s paranoid of catching something,” she said, twisting to check they weren’t being followed while Piper stopped to peer through the small window of another door.
Further along the corridor, Piper heard the sound of movement. “Wait,” she said, pushing Maddie into a doorway. They flattened themselves as far into the recess as possible and held their breath as they waited for the footsteps to fade.
Carrying on in the direction of the strengthening odour, they passed a row of yet more featureless doors and arrived at a section where the corridor opened out into a desk area. Piper jumped back behind the wall at the sight of a guard sitting watching television. She ducked to the floor, gesturing for Maddie to do the same, and they crawled past the security station before returning to their feet at the other side.
The further they travelled, the warmer the air grew, until eventually, they reached a door emitting a low drone.
“Do you think that’s the furnace?” Maddie asked.
“Huh?” Piper’s attention had caught on a sign on the opposing door—a yellow triangle with a swirling symbol and ‘Authorised Personnel Only’ written underneath.
“I said... Never mind. What have you found?”
“I’m not sure,” Piper said.
A peculiar sixth sense drove Piper to lay her hand flat to the door, and Lambert’s face flashed before her eyes, as if her magic were trying to tell her he was in the room. She jerked her head back, startled. Was he? She tried the handle, unsurprised when it didn’t turn, but if this was where he was being kept, she wasn’t about to let a sealed door stop her. It was time to test her lock picking skills again. Concentrating on the inner workings, she imagined pushing the pins free of the cylinder as she jiggled the handle once more. The door clicked open.
She turned to Maddie. “Keep watch while I check it out.”
Unable to locate a light switch, Piper drew on her fire and used the glow of a small flame to search the rows of shelving. But after a few minutes of shuffling items, and one tiny glint of hope when she discovered a similar box—which was quickly dashed upon closer inspection—she had to admit defeat. If Lambert had ever been in the room, he wasn’t there now.
She was about to return to the corridor when she heard a voice shout, ‘You there.’ She opened the door a crack. A few feet away, a guard challenged Maddie.
“What are you doing in here? Who are you?” he said.
Maddie was careful to keep her eyes on him without them deviating to Piper, who’d snuck through the door and was approaching him from behind. “I’m looking for my dad. He didn’t come home from work. We were worried,” she said.
The guard tilted his head as he stuck out his chest and his hand reached for his walkie-talkie. “Liar. How did you get in?”
Piper tapped him on the shoulder. He flinched with surprise, and his head shot round as she flashed him her sweetest smile, right at the moment Maddie transformed and sank her fangs into his leg.
“Argh,” he shouted, reaching down to grab hold of Maddie’s serpentine form. But as he grasped at the air, his eyes rolled back, and he crumpled to the floor.
“Jeez, Mad, you’ve killed him,” Piper said as Maddie returned to human form.
“Nah. I gave him a shot of somoria venom. He’ll wake up in a few hours, wondering why his leg’s hurting, but he won’t even remember we were here.”
Piper’s relief didn’t last long. More footsteps approached. Without stopping to think, she pushed on the nearest door, amazed when it gave way at her touch. “Quick. In here,” she said, bundling Maddie inside.
She realised her mistake too late. Maddie had been right about the furnace. The heat hit them immediately, oppressive and demanding, sucking the oxygen from their lungs. At the end of the long room, the door to a huge iron box hung open, exposing the furious fire it contained, and in front of it, a darkly dressed man fed objects into the flames.
Recognising immediately the next item he selected to ignite, Piper gasped. He turned at the sound, and paused, puzzled by the interruption.
“Nice one,” Maddie muttered from the corner of her mouth. “Any more bright ideas?”
Piper was torn between holding his attention and the urge to grab the object, hovering perilously close to destruction, from his hand. One false move and Lambert would be history. “Nope. You?”
“Nope,” Maddie said, as the man hissed and bared his teeth. Long teeth. Too long to be human. His face took on a grey tinge and his skin parted and cracked over every inch of his bald head. “Make that a yes.” Maddie pulled Piper’s arm. “We need to get out of here. Like now.”
“Not without what we came for.” Piper threw out her hand and willed Lambert’s box to come to her, but the man’s hold on it was strong and unyielding. The box strained in his grip.
Frustrated at his interference, Piper whipped the key from her bra. If the box couldn’t come to her, she would send the key to it. She willed the key towards its goal, but the man glanced down at the hand gripping the wriggling box. He grinned at Piper as he raised it and tossed Lambert over his shoulder.
“No,” Piper screamed as she watched the box somersault towards the furnace with its key chasing after it.
With her breath coming thick and fast and her heart throbbing in her ears, the first taste of bile stung her tongue. At any second, the contents of her stomach were sure to launch themselves from her mouth when all she wanted to do was launch herself into the fire after Lambert. But even without her legs shaking so much they refused to move, Cracked Head was blocking her path.
She focused her mind and attempted to levitate him out of the way. If she could just get to the box, she may be able to save it from the fire. Her head felt as if it were about to explode as she pushed wave after wave of energy towards her opponent, but his feet remained firmly planted to the spot. Confused as to why her magic hadn’t worked, Piper stared angrily at his laughing face as he swayed from side to side, beckoning her forward. Fine. If he wanted a fight, he could have one. He’d killed Lambert. He deserved to die.
Rage surged through her body and shards of pain ripped at her insides as her fire burst forth from her hands, and she thrust the flaming spheres at his smugly smiling form.
The release of energy allowed her feet to uproot and she stepped forward, determined to get around him, clinging to the hope that in the precious, wasted seconds, Lambert had not yet ignited. But in her haste to bypass her opponent, she’d failed to notice how his body had stiffened and solidified, and her fire had extinguished upon contact. As she drew level to him, his arm shot out, hooked around her waist, and pulled her to him. Her back pressed against the solid slab of his chest as his other arm wrapped around her neck.
Piper struggled to break free of his tightening grip. She reached for the knife and stabbed at his thigh, but it refused to pierce his skin, and her feeble attempt only heightened her attacker’s amusement as two guards burst into the room, reaching for weapons at their belts. Under the crushing force of Cracked Head’s hold, Piper’s vision blurred, so she couldn’t be sure, but she swore the guards’ faces bubbled over and tails sprang from behind their backs.
Maddie leapt into action, and her giant, black serpent lashed out its tail, wrapping it around one of the guards as her fangs sank into the shoulder of the other.
In the corner of her consciousness, another figure cast a bond of power which swirled through the air towards her head, and as the air left Piper’s lungs, her last thought was of Lambert and his charred body lying inside the burnt-out remains of his prison.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
PIPER OPENED HER EYES to find Maddie crouching over her, surrounded by a halo of moonlit sky. “Maddie?” she groaned, twisting to ascertain their position. “What happened? How did we get away?”
“Shh... Lie still. You need to get your strength back.”
“But the guards—”
“Won’t be coming after us.”
A vision of the black serpent flashed before Piper’s eyes. “More somoria venom?”
“Nope.” Maddie shrugged. “Those ones I killed.”
“Seriously?”
“I had no choice, but don’t worry. That furnace was very hot. I doubt anyone will find their remains. We’ll be okay.”
Piper pushed to her elbows, her head shaking as other memories flooded back. “I won’t. My magic failed, Maddie. I failed. And now Lambert’s dead...”
Maddie laid a hand on her arm. “Piper—”
“How could I have let it happen? He was right there. I was ten feet away, and I couldn’t save him.”
“Piper—”
“I made him a promise, and now he’s dead.”
The hand moved to cover Piper’s lips. “Would you shut up for a minute? There’s someone who’d like to say hello.”
Piper blinked as a figure stepped into her line of sight. She was dreaming; she had to be. Either that or she was dead. That could be it. Dead, and in her own form of heaven where Lambert was still alive.
He squatted down next to her. “Your devotion pleases me, but the next time an occasion arises for you to come to my aid, it would be wise for you to know your limitations.”
Weary and exhausted, Piper refused to believe he was real. She squinted and reached out to touch his face before drawing her fingers back sharply. He felt real, but he couldn’t be. Could he?
“A witch’s power is not infinite,” Lambert continued. “A fact you would be well aware of had you been raised to study the arts correctly.”
His lips were moving, and she noticed for the first time how pretty they were, but his words washed over her as she stared into the eyes she believed had been lost to her forever and accepted his support to rise to a sitting position.
“I fear yours is depleted and will take much rest to restore.” He angled his head. “Why do you stare at me?”
“I-I saved you?” As hard as she’d willed the key to reach its destination, she was convinced it hadn’t made it.
“And I you in return.”
“Yeah, that Crusta demon would have squeezed the life out of you if tall, dark, and handsome here hadn’t shot him to smithereens. You should have seen it. Pieces of rock flying everywhere, but Lambert conjured a great protection shield to cover us,” Maddie said, pressing her phone screen. “I’m going to call a taxi.” She lifted her phone to her ear as she turned away.
“I-I thought I saw somebody... That was you?”
He nodded. “Your friend exaggerates. It was nothing.”
“But you said you had no magic?”
“I thought you understood. My key not only freed me, it also freed my magic. Fortuitous for you, considering your lack of knife skills.”
Maddie returned, pushing her phone into her pocket. “A bit harsh, don’t you think? Piper wasn’t to know knives can’t penetrate rock demons.”
“As I said... inadequate training.”
Furious at his tone, Piper tried to stand. “Are you... angry at me for saving your life?” she managed to blurt before her knees buckled and she stumbled.
Lambert caught her. “You should not have ris
ked your life for mine,” he said, sweeping her into his arms. “If anything had happened to you, it would have condemned me to an eternity of remorse.”
“Oh, I see. So really, you’re thinking about yourself?” she said, acutely aware of his hand squeezing her thigh. The smell of woodsmoke and leather invaded her senses as his eyes softened and locked onto hers.
“My one thought is of you,” he said, holding her gaze.
Maddie cleared her throat. “We’d better hotfoot it to the road, if we don’t want to miss our ride.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
PIPER AWOKE LONG AFTER the sun had risen, to feel a weight pulling the covers tightly over her feet. Forcing her eyes to open, she looked down to where Lambert was sitting cross-legged on the end of the bed.
He smiled. “You have slumbered long.”
“Yeah. I do that sometimes.” It was past midnight when they’d arrived back at the Towers, and explaining the evening’s events to Sophie had added another half hour. By the time Piper collapsed into bed, she was totally drained and had planned to sleep until lunch. Clearly her plan meant nothing to Lambert. “What are you doing in my room?” she asked. “Is there something wrong with yours?”
“My head has never lain on a more agreeable pillow. I am well rested and wide awake.”
“Good for you.” Piper turned over and buried her head under her own pillow. “I’m not,” she mumbled almost inaudibly.
The bed shook as he crawled up and pulled away the pillow. “A beautiful day for freedom, is it not?”
“I’ll tell you later, when I wake up.”
He leaned over, his arms caging her as he looked down with a playful smile. “You are awake now.”
Piper stared up at him, speculating if it was standard brotherly behaviour to be so annoying. “Only because you insist on keeping me that way, after all that talk about needing to rest.”
“I spoke of your magic. Was my meaning unclear?”
“And what of my body?”