Page 79 of Even Robots Die (Even Ever After #3)

Florentine

T he only salvation for my eyes is that this dungeon was very much underground and that even with us through the first door, there are still multiple flights of stairs to go up before we reach the light of the day.

“Want to tell me what this is all about?” Ariel asks me while we’re running. The bastard doesn’t even sound breathless.

“Why, is it an extraction?” I ask in answer, and I sound a lot more winded.

We get up the first flight of stairs and instead of orienting me the way I know Brice’s heat signature to be, Ariel makes us turn in the opposite direction.

I don't argue with him. We need to free everyone anyway, so it serves Brice right to wait a bit longer. He wanted to be inside after all. I might as well let him enjoy this time. I know I’m being petty, but he was so obvious in his wanting to be taken with me that I almost thought that he would ruin everything.

I should have known Raphael wouldn’t see through our little scheme, though. He’s no Michael. He hasn’t been trained to lead for war or to use spies. Everything was thrust upon him when both the newly appointed Michael was killed, and Gabrielle was gravely injured and has been in a coma ever since.

“Surely, Michael won’t take that well,” Ariel says and I realize he must have been in this cell for quite some time.

“He’s dead,” I tell him as we turn a corner and find ourselves faced with three birds.

“You’re out,” one of them says, and since this corridor is slightly lit, I can see the look of horror on his face. He's not addressing me, though. His eyes are stuck on my new companion and they widen when Ariel moves with preternatural speed and one-by-one, the birds fall like flies.

Damn, I know how to pick my allies.

I also can easily guess why Ariel was stuck down there if he can fight like this and obviously doesn’t agree with the current way the birds are leading things.

“His son would take the role after him,” Ariel says as if he hadn’t just fought three birds between my answer and now.

“Damn, you’ve been down there for a while, old man,” I tell him with a chuckle.

We go down a new flight of stairs, and I have to be careful where I walk, so I resume talking only when we’re at the bottom.

“His daughter killed the first,” I tell him.

“Angélique?” Ariel asks.

“You know her?” I ask, trying to gauge his reaction, but we’re back in the dark and we need to unlock the cells that just appeared in front of our eyes, so I don’t have time to be careful with my words like I would want.

Yes, he’s an ally now, but what is to say he will still be one when we get out.

I take a look at the cells in front of us, and all I can see with my heat scanner are forms slumped on themselves. That explains why there was no reaction when we entered. This dungeon is going to be harder to empty .

“I was her etiquette teacher,” he says, “I gave her the blueprints of Versailles’ castle before she left.”

His tone is soft, as if he’s reminiscing about better times with her, and I realize that this man is probably the closest thing to a real father figure that Angélique had. I also realized that he knew something needed to be changed, and that he was probably stuck here and did what he could to help.

Maybe he will still be an ally once we’re out after all.

After giving Ariel my glove again, we get to work.

“What happened to the son?” He asks me when we’re done with the cells.

“The official version is that a human managed to get into the palace to kill him and almost succeeded in doing the same to Gabrielle in their wedding bed.”

“Wedding bed?” He sounds perplexed.

“Oh, yes, forgot to tell you they made the former Gabriel disappear, too. That’s on the first Michael, though, not the humans.”

“You said the official version …” he says, and I know it’s more a question even if it’s not worded this way.

“Everyone in Paris knows a bat shifter, not a human, did it,” I tell him.

I don’t tell him that I have very heavy suspicions on who that bat is, knowing that she disappeared from my door steps full of rage barely a few days before the murder.

“That’s unexpected,” Ariel says without adding anything for a while. “So, who is in command?”

”Raphael.”

“I see why everything is a mess then,” he says with amusement.

Okay, I’m not the only one who has noticed Raphael is not suited for the role. Like his animal—a swan—he’s vicious and short-tempered but he lacks the organizational skills that would make him efficient.

“I’ll take care of the people here,” Ariel tells me as he gives my glove back.

He knew. He knew I wouldn’t be able to deal with the people in this dungeon, and that’s why he came with me. “I trust that you know where the last dungeon is and that you won’t need me?”

“I should be okay.”

“Good. Buy me some time before you decide something drastic.”

I don't know the male, but he seems to be very good at reading people even if I didn't have anything drastic planned. The drastic part of the plan was Brice’s idea and we don’t have the material it takes to play it out today, anyway.

Still, I agree with Ariel and turn to go up the stairs.

“Once I have them outside,” Ariel says when I reach the door at the top of the stairs, “I’ll go win back my army. Maybe it’ll help whatever you’re trying to achieve here.”

Fuck. I don’t have time for questions.

Maybe one day, but not today.

I don’t know how Ariel came to be in a dungeon, but one thing is sure, once upon a time, Ariel was one of Michael’s generals.

With that conclusion, I run in the opposite direction we arrived earlier and towards the heat signature of the idiot who thought he would protect me by letting himself be a prisoner.

I guess I'm the one doing the protecting now.