Airships, Crypts & Chocolate Chips

by Erin Johnson

His lips quirked to the side and he glanced over quickly, before returning his focus to piloting. “It’s all right. I’m not sure what I expected… going by the date in the file, it’s been twenty years.” He shrugged. “Nothing’s going to be there after that long. At least we know there was a secret lab hidden on an obscure sky island though, and that Colin was probably there.” He glanced over again. “Thanks for going with me. I had fun with you.”

  “Me, too.”

  He bit his lip. “You have to assume we’re pretty good together if we have fun visiting jails and abandoned warehouses.”

  I lifted a brow. “Maybe we can explore the sewers next?”

  He chuckled. “Why stop at exploring? Let’s get married there.”

  I lifted my brows in surprise. He seemed just as shocked at what he’d said and clammed up. I pressed my lips together and looked out the window at the passing clouds.

  “Sorry.” He winced at me. “Guess I got a little ahead of myself there.”

  I grinned. “I don’t mind.”

  “I mean.” His eyes slid to me. “I haven’t even asked you yet.”

  I looked straight ahead and fought the huge smile that slowly spread across my face. Yet?

  16

  The Run Through

  It almost didn’t shock me to see Horace sitting at the kitchen island beside my friends when I walked into the bakery.

  “Nice of you to finally join us.” Iggy folded his flame arms.

  “Yeah, yeah.” I winked at him, then gave Maple a hug. I took a deep inhale—the bakery still smelled like the cranberry scones we’d baked for the ladies’ brunch.

  “How was your brunch, dear?” Annie sat on one stool and rested her feet on the bottom rung of another.

  I folded my hands on the cool countertop. “Didn’t go, actually.” I shrugged. “Hank and I went out to Nubis. Anyone heard of it?”

  “That’s an obscure choice.”

  “Gah!” I jumped and whirled to find Francis hovering behind me with his toes dangling just above the cork floor. I pressed a hand to my thumping heart. “Where did you come from?”

  “I’ve been here the whole time.” He shrugged. “Lurking.”

  I let out a heavy sigh. Oh, that vampire stealth.

  “I invited him.” Horace drummed his fingertips together.

  “Well, good to see you.” I pulled out a stool next to Sam, who sat in front of the oven beside Iggy. “Feels like it’s been ages since we saw you.” I looked down, my stomach sinking. “Or Rhonda….”

  “Or Amelia.” Sam sighed, though he did it with his tongue slightly sticking out, so it became more of a hiss.

  “I wonder what’s been keeping our vampire friend away?” Horace blinked his wide eyes at Francis. “Almost as if he’s avoiding the bakery.”

  Francis narrowed his black eyes at my brother. “Perhaps I’ve been busy.”

  “Hm.” Horace cocked his head to the side. “Perhaps.”

  Maple and I exchanged looks from across the island. What was going on between those two?

  “Anyway, you were saying, sister?” Horace blinked at me.

  “Uh.” I slid onto the stool. “Hank and I went to this tiny island called Nubis. We found this abandoned warehouse where this secret lab used to be. We think his old mentor—”

  “The one you found in the box?” Iggy munched on a linden branch I’d brought for him from home.

  “That’s the one. We think he was somehow involved in the lab, maybe they tested on him. Looks like they may have been working on that swallow’s mew material—at least, there was this old photo and it looked like Colin and the box were in it.”

  Maple shivered. “Creepy.”

  “Yeah, super creepy.” I took the glass of water Yann handed me and smiled my thanks. “Anyway, I know this sounds crazy, but I’m starting to think Hank’s dad may have killed Colin.” I grimaced and waited for their reactions.

  Annie tucked a strand of gray hair behind her ear. “That’s a pretty serious accusation. I’d be careful who you say that around.”

  I nodded. “Of course. But I trust you guys, obviously.” I glanced up to find Francis watching me with catlike stillness. He’d floated higher off the ground and his pupils had dilated and grown so that both of his eyes were entirely black. He held his arms slightly away from his body, his long, slender, pale fingers spread wide like claws.

  I froze as my breath caught in my chest.

  Wiley cleared his throat, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Francis. My heartbeat pulsated in my ears.

  “What are you looking at?” Wiley turned, in my periphery, and caught sight of Francis. He jolted and clapped a hand to his chest. “Snakes, Francis!”

  That seemed to break the spell. Our vampire friend blinked and settled down closer to the floor. The whites around his irises became visible again.

  Horace’s lips quirked to the side. “You hear something interesting, there, Frank?”

  Francis bared his fangs at my brother.

  I frowned, still uneasy. “What was that about?”

  Francis gave me a tight-lipped smile. “I was just thinking about a joke I heard earlier.”

  Wiley lifted a skeptical brow. “Must’ve been quite the doozy.”

  Horace clapped his hands together. “Big day tomorrow. Shall we?”

  My stomach clenched with nerves. Maybe going over the plan would make me feel better. We spent hours rehearsing and reviewing every detail of the prison break. The day lengthened into afternoon. Then, golden sunset light flooded the room, until the sky darkened and stars twinkled outside the windows. And still we practiced, because everything that could go wrong, did.

  “Again.” Horace conjured another compact mirror out of thin air and held it out to me.

  I eyed it as I rolled my shoulders, then snatched it. “It’s no use.” I set it on the floor in front of me.

  “Well, with that attitude….”

  I shot Iggy a look. My feet hurt, my head spun, and I needed sleep. I was in no mood.

  He stuck his tongue out from his spot in the oven. Sam sat before him with the schematics in his lap. He’d been quizzing Iggy over the details of the map for hours now. How my flame still had energy for snark was beyond me.

  “You can do it.” Maple balled her hands into fists and gave them a little shake of encouragement. “I believe in you.”

  I sighed. “That makes one of us.”

  “Oh come on now, Imogen.” Wiley tried for a smile. “Thirtieth time’s the charm.”

  Maple swatted at his arm.

  “You have to do this. If you can’t, you and your friends and our targets will have no way out.” Horace gave me a lazy blink.

  “Thank you, Mr. Obvious.”

  “Imogen.” Iggy clicked his tongue. “Play nice with your brother.”

  I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth. This time. This time I was going to do it. I took a deep inhale and sought out the cool night breeze that blew in from the windows we’d opened. All right, I had my source of magic. I breathed in again and as I did so, inhaled energy from the breeze. It flitted around inside my body. I pinched my brow and concentrated the energy into two balls of power in my palms. I held my hands toward the mirror on the floor and slowly, carefully nudged the mirror to grow. I could sense it expanding, though I kept my eyes closed, and urged it a little bigger and more rectangular.

  “Ssshe’sss doing it.”

  I opened my eyes at Sam’s voice and the glass shattered. I jumped and yelped. Broken shards littered the room, tinkling as they hit the counters.

  Iggy clicked his tongue. “Well, you’ve got four hundred years of bad luck at this point.”

  “Urggg!” I buried my face in my hands and let out a screech of frustration. “Every time! I put the energy in my hands, I try to get it to grow slowly and steadily, but every time, it just explodes!”

  Iggy’s voice burst from the corner like he’d been doing everything in his power to hold it in. “That’s what she said!” He d
evolved into cackles.

  Yann giggled and even Annie laughed.

  Wiley grimaced. “Kinda walked into that one.”

  Horace stood. “You weren’t breathing.”

  I planted a hand on my hip. “Excuse me.”

  “The mirror broke this time because you weren’t breathing. Don’t hold your breath.” He let out a heavy sigh. “I think we’d better move on and just hope that you perform better under pressure.”

  “Why can’t someone else do it?” I waved an arm toward my friends.

  “Because this requires a lot of power—more than anyone else is capable of.” Horace slightly hiked a brow. “Understand?”

  I folded my arms. “How about you then?”

  Horace pressed his lips tightly together.

  “Come on.” I arched a brow. “Why aren’t you going in and helping us, if this isn’t intended to be a suicide mission?”

  Horace sighed. He gripped his shirt and pulled it up, revealing the bare skin of his stomach.

  Wiley turned his head. “Come on, what are you doing?”

  Annie closed an eye. “Not bad.”

  Horace’s brows lowered as he pointed at the raised red mark above his hip. “This is the Carclaustra Prison brand. They burn it into every prisoner who enters.”

  My eyes widened. It was the writhing snake symbol the Badlands Army used. “You were in Carclaustra?”

  Everyone gathered closer to look.

  “A job went south. I got thrown in prison. The lord who’d bought me from the child army I grew up in got me out at the insistence of his daughter, who thought she had feelings for me.”

  My eyes widened. “Pritney?”

  Horace nodded. “I’m the only prisoner who’s ever left. And if I set foot on that sky island, this brand will trigger the alarms to sound.”

  Huh. A long silence followed as we all mulled that over. “Guess the mirror’s up to me then.” I frowned. “But then what? Won’t everyone know Annie and I were part of the break in?”

  Horace rolled a hand and looked bored. “The mirror will transport you back to the ship we take to the prison. I’ll tie you two up and leave you behind, or make a big show of using you as hostages.” He sniffed and looked between Annie and I. “Don’t worry, I’ll make it clear you both are victims. I won’t tarnish your reputations.”

  I folded my arms. “Yeah, well, you’d better.”

  “How does everyone else feel with their parts?” Maple quirked her lips to the side. She nodded at me. “You’ll get it, with the mirror. I know you will. You always do great under pressure.”

  Right. I collapsed, worn out, onto a stool.

  “I’m feeling quite confident as the countess.” Annie lifted her nose and paraded about the room.

  Maple grinned. “Sam and Iggy?”

  “I’ve got both versions, preconstruction and post construction, memorized.” Iggy grinned and Sam attempted a thumbs-up—it was more of an index finger up, but we got it.

  Maple blinked at Wiley. “Wi? How are you and Yann?”

  “I’m as good as I’m going to get.” He lifted a hand to the side of his mouth. “Not sure about the big guy.”

  Yann tugged at the bulging buttons of his uniform. “Eet doesn’t feet.”

  Horace lazily rolled his wrist and the uniform expanded to fit him perfectly.

  “Oh.” Yann rolled his broad shoulders.

  “Anything else?” Horace blinked his pale eyes.

  “Yah, actually.” He stomped a foot. “I don’t like thees plan. So, we go to da control room and I haf to make the men scared of me? By how?” He blinked his small brown eyes, almost the only part of his face visible behind his wiry reddish-brown beard that had sprinkles of gray coming in.

  “By whatever means necessary.” Horace folded his fingers.

  “Yah, dees ees what I don’t like. Oh, yust because Yann ees beeg and tall, he must be scary guy, huh?” Tears welled in his eyes and his bottom lip trembled. “When I was a boy, I was always very beeg for my age and everyone taught I was older den I was.” He lifted one plate sized palm. “I was always sticking out like a sore gopher head.”

  I pressed my lips together. That was a new saying to me.

  “Da bullies wanted me to join dem, because dey taught like you tink.” He scowled at Horace through his tears. “But I deedn’t want to hurt anyone, and plus I seemed slow because people expected me to be older, and so den da bullies always turned on me and hurt me.”

  Annie slid up beside him and patted his back.

  Yann sniffed and roughly wiped his eyes. “I taught, here ees a place where Yann can make cakes and no one expects him to be bully.” He took a shuddering breath. “But now I have to be bully.” He devolved into sobs and Annie turned him to her. She wrapped her arms around him in a hug as he bent low to bury his face in her shoulder.

  I slid off my stool and moved over to Yann. I rubbed his back. Stupid me. Always feeling sorry for myself when someone else I cared about was having an even tougher time. “Yann, we don’t want you to be a bully. You don’t have to hurt anyone.”

  “Well.” Horace sniffed. “You will if that’s what needs to be done.”

  Yann sobbed louder and we all shot Horace exasperated looks.

  Wiley clicked his tongue at him. “Come on, man.” He jerked his head toward Yann.

  Horace sighed and smoothed his dark hair back from his face. “Yann, this is all about appearances, deception. We’re making them think one thing, when in reality, something entirely different is happening. Right?”

  Yann kept his face buried in Annie’s shoulder but nodded.

  “So, your job is to make those men think you’re going to hurt them. The more you do that, the less likely it is that you’ll actually need to. Do you understand? We want you to be an actor, not a bully.”

  “Can you do that, Yann?” Annie patted his back.

  Yann lifted his head and sniffled. “Yah. I can do.”

  I grinned at Maple. Then yawned.

  Horace clapped his hands. “You all need to rest.”

  “Speak for yourself.” Francis hovered nearby and folded his arms.

  “Any last words?”

  I frowned at Horace. “That sounds morbid.”

  He lifted his palms. “Before we call it a night.”

  I shook my head at him. “Come on, gang, bring it in.”

  “Is she going to make us touch hands again?” Annie grumbled to Maple.

  I flashed my eyes. “Yes. Everyone put your hands in the middle.” I shot a side-eye at Horace. “You too, crazy.”

  He sniffed, looked away, then begrudgingly moved in and put his hand on top.

  “What about me?”

  I grinned at Iggy. “You’re in here in spirit.” I nodded at my friends. “Okay, listen up. We’re a family and we’re all here for each other now, and we’re going to be there for each other tomorrow.” My eyes slid to Horace for a moment. “None of us wants any part of this, but the fact is we’re in it now and either we pull this off or we’re dead meat.”

  Sam paled.

  “Great pep talk,” Iggy muttered from the oven.

  I lifted my brows. “So, we’re going to pull it off. There’s no other choice. We’re going to each give it our best and our best is pretty sea saltin’ good and we’re going to do this thing.” I grinned. “To breaking into Carclaustra. On three.”

  We chanted, “One. Two.”

  We lifted our arms in the air. “To breaking into Carclaustra!” we chorused.

  Or most of us did.

  Sam cried, “Three!”

  17

  Bon Voyage

  I dropped the key twice, my hands were trembling so badly, before I got the door to lock behind me. Maple, Annie, and I exchanged knowing looks. Today was the day.

  “You’re making a habit of that.”

  We all turned from the room we shared here in the Air Kingdom.

  Hank stood before us, his hands behind his back. “Hi.” He smiled bu
t his eyes looked tight.

  I let out a shaky breath and tried for a normal smile. What was normal? Was I just baring my teeth? Annie flashed her eyes at me, which I took to mean, “get it together, Imogen.”

  Annie walked up to Hank. “Come here.” She wrapped him in a big hug. As he hugged her back I caught sight of his hands—he held some loose pieces of paper in one. She grabbed his square chin and kissed his cheek. “Happy birthday, Hank.”

  My eyes widened. Oh yeah! I’d already forgotten. I was definitely not winning girlfriend of the year. “Happy birthday.”

  Maple gave a little curtsy. “Happy birthday.”

  He smiled at us. “Thanks.”

  Annie patted him with her velvet clutch. “Love you, kid.”

  “Oh.” His face reddened. “Love you too, Annie.” He’d known her for years, most of his childhood actually, as he’d snuck into the bakery daily. His brows pinched together as he noticed her outfit. She wore an emerald green skirt suit with a sparkling strawberry pin made of gems at her breast. Her matching pillbox hat sprouted brown speckled feathers in every direction and Maple and I had swept her silver hair into a French twist. I bit my lip, pleased with how elegant she looked, like the Queen of England. She could definitely pass as the countess of somewhere.

  “Wow, Annie, you look wonderful.” Hank grinned at me, then looked back to the older woman. “What’s the occasion?”

  “It’s a secret.” Annie winked at him and he chuckled. She squeezed Maple’s hand one more time with her own gloved one and gave her a long look. Then she started toward the airship hangar and called back over her shoulder to me, “I’ll meet you at the ship.”

  I nodded, then turned to Hank. He rubbed his wrist. “Sorry, Maple, but, Imogen, I was wondering if I could have a word… alone?”

  “Of course!” Maple started off for the bakery, then stopped and ran back to me. She threw her arms around me and buried her face in my shoulder. I hugged her back tight, probably too tight, but I didn’t want to let her go. I could be heading to my demise and this might be the last time I ever got to see my friend.

  “Be careful.” Her voice came out muffled and tight. Her shoulders shook with a sob. “Imogen, I don’t know what I’d do without you. You have to get back safe, okay?”