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I walked up to where she had sensed the ‘bad magic’ to see if I could feel it. As I reached out a hand, I felt the prickly barrier. I took a step back. ‘Yep,’ I said aloud. ‘That’s definitely warded.’

Gunnar squeezed past us; when he felt the barrier, he jerked back his hand. ‘Yep,’ he agreed. ‘It doesn’t feel that strong, though, nothing like the barrier around town. It feels prickly.’ He closed his eyes in concentration. ‘I’m pretty sure I can break through it, but whoever created it will probably sense me. They must have a decent magic user with them – warding isn’t an easy skill.’

‘Why would a weak ward affect Matilda?’ I asked.

‘Bad,’ Matilda emphasised, shuddering. I heard a clattering and realised her hands were shaking, her metal nails clanging against themselves. Shit, this reallywasaffecting her. Other than feeling prickly; it didn’t feel wrong or ‘bad’ to me and I was baffled by her reaction.

‘Didn’t you tell me that Liv said the only way to kill an earth elemental like Matilda was with an air elemental?’ Gunnar asked.

‘Yeah, so?’

‘Could the ward have been put up by an air witch?’

It made a sort of sense. Witches were weaker versions of elementals, so although an air witch probably couldn’t harm Matilda, they could make her very uncomfortable. The ward hadn’t stopped the hag from using her powers beyond it and she’d cleared the dirt away from the bunker, but she didn’t want to pass through it.

‘Huh,’ I said. ‘That’s actually a pretty great theory.’

Thomas interrupted our musings. ‘Gunnar, before you take down this ward, we need to make sure we can get inside of the bunker. Can anyone find an entrance?’

We stared through the invisible ward at a cement wall. I saw no points of ingress. Being able to see in the depths of the ocean, Sidnee had the best eyes in the dark. Luckily, we all had water bottles to help her, so in an instant her eyes flashed black. She moved forward and stared. ‘There’s an indentation on the right that could be a door.’

That was better than nothing. We had no idea if we could get through it, but having seen Gunnar open locks and seal the barrier temporarily, I knew some of what he could do with his magic. ‘Gunnar, can you open thecement door using your trick?’ I waggled my fingers at him in an effort to denote his magic.

‘I’m not sure,’ he answered honestly. ‘There isn’t a handle.’

Thomas spoke up. ‘I say we have Gunnar take down the ward and Matilda can take down the wall. It’ll be faster and we’ll have the element of surprise.’ He turned to Matilda. ‘Could you do that?’

Matilda’s eyes lit up in the weak light of our flashlights. She clicked her metal nails together and gave one of her cackles. ‘Matilda can do!’

Gunnar returned to the edge of the ward. ‘Everyone stand back just in case this has some blowback.’ We backed away cautiously, even Matilda.

He rubbed his hands together, concentrated, then lifted them to face the ward. He mumbled something in what I thought was Norwegian and a white light blasted from his palms. The ward glowed for a moment before a blast of wind hit us. Gunnar staggered back a few steps, his long hair and beard blown back.

Matilda laughed with delight. The second the ward fell, a large section of the cement wall melted away too.

There was no messing with the hag.

Chapter 40

We could see into the bunker. The area that had disintegrated in the face of Matilda’s magic was a bunkroom with about twenty beds. Luckily it was empty. We lifted our weapons and stepped inside.

The door leading out of the room was metal. Whatever this place had been designed for, it was solid and hidden; I bet it would be pretty damn impenetrable without magic and the presence of the wards told us that they weren’t averse to using it if it suited them. Bloody hypocrites!

Thomas opened the door a crack then opened it wider and craned his neck to see both ends of whatever lay behind the door. Finally he opened it wide and waved us on. Once I got a good view, I saw we were at one end of the facility. There was only one way we could go, to the right where Sidnee thought there had been a door.

Gunnar motioned for Thomas to step behind him. I thought for a moment there would be an argument, but after a beat Thomas complied.

I could hear machinery ahead but I couldn’t place what it was. Gunnar stalked down the corridor past several closed doors with zero signage. He and I stood on each side of the first door that had a high-tech scanner next to it. I tried the knob. Locked. I gestured for Gunnar to do his thing and the door opened at his touch; magic apparently outdid tech.

He opened the door a crack, then wider, shotgun at the ready. ‘Clear,’ he whispered.

I glanced inside. This one looked like a storage room; there were shelves of canned and boxed food, cleaning supplies and extra blankets. Matilda took a look then went inside to explore. I was sure that whatever she normally ate was pretty boring because she tore open several boxes and tried the contents of them all. ’Come on, Matilda,’ I hissed. ‘Now isn’t the time for a snack!’

‘Always time for snack.’ She continued focusing on the food and I shrugged helplessly. We couldn’t wait for her to finish her mini-banquet because the longer we were there, the higher the chance of discovery was.

We had no choice but to press forward and anyway, she’d completed her side of the bargain and got us to the secret place. What we did from here on was up to us – so we left her behind.

Atthe next door Gunnar repeated his actions before flinging open the door to reveal a cell with a woman inside. Filthy, gaunt and dressed in dirty rags, she looked up at us with haunted eyes. She had a collar around her neck with a strip of red light around it. Her face showed her utter despair.