Page 18

Chapter 18

M y jaw ached under the tension as we wound down the country roads toward the Franklin estate. Asher's arms wound around my waist, the warmth and softness of his touch a constant distraction as my mind fought to keep our long cherished memories at bay. His chest pressing to my back enveloped me in a faux security that I used to crave. Or perhaps, I still did.

I should have spent the journey to the property the same way I always did; going over the plan. But the feeling of him holding me again snatched every thought out of my head, balled it up and threw it into my mental trash can. If Hecate thought she would get away with all but inviting Asher along tonight, her fluffy butt was sorely mistaken.

I pulled into the layby I had marked out on the plan and killed the engine, gritting my teeth as I waited for Asher to get off. My skin prickled with cold when his arms left my body, leaving much more than an icy chill behind.

"Make yourself useful. Let's get this into the trees," I said, as I wiggled my helmet off.

I left nothing to chance during these raids. Nobody would see my bike anywhere near the property to put two and two together.

Without a complaint or even a look at me, Asher helped me wheel the bike into the undergrowth where we leaned it up against a large pine.

"Right." I stood with one hand on my hip, shining my phone light at Asher and Hecate. "This is not a negotiation. I'm in charge. You do as you're told when you're told, and if you mess up," I jabbed a finger at Asher, "I'm leaving you to get snapped up by whatever egotistical overpaid security guard they've hired for this place. Got it?"

"Oh, please." Asher held up his hands, a smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth. "I think we both know you were always the one slipping up."

"And the closest I ever got to getting caught since I went solo is when you showed up." I shone the light right into his face, grinning when he squinted and winced. "We're not going in there unless we're clear on that. So, what's it going to be?"

"Why are you roping me into this? We all know what my job is and the payment I require." Hecate flicked her tail.

"Don't take it personally, Hec," Asher said, lowering his hands. "She's only talking to me."

"Then you'd better hold my swag to make up for it."

The grimace on Asher's face had my grin growing wider.

"I'd almost forgotten how impossible you both are." He ran both hands round the back of his neck.

I tapped the light off my phone and stowed it in my jacket pocket, shooting him a smug look. "You wanted to come, remember? Let's go."

The difficulty of making my way through a forest in the middle of the night wasn't made easier by the fact that Hecate had wanted to come along on foot rather than on my shoulders.

"Can you just make this easier for both of us and let me carry you?" I muttered to the dark grey blob that moved around by my feet. I didn't want to step on her again.

Hecate batted a paw at the sore ankle she had already sliced tonight and I winced. "Your spiritual energy clouds other people's if I'm too close to you," she said. "Unless you don't care if we're caught?"

"Yes, all right sassy pants." I grabbed the branch of the tree next to me and stepped cautiously around her. "Although if you were really so good at detecting energies, you might not stand right in my path."

Hecate hissed in response. She could never admit when she was wrong.

I dropped back a bit to let her put some distance between us, but my next step gave me little choice but to stop.

"Ugh." I shook my leg as a set of brambles dug into my trousers. Didn't these people have groundskeepers or something?

"Let me." Asher picked his way over to me and grabbed the brambles with a gloved hand. For one begrudging moment, I let him tease the thorns free from my clothes.

"Thanks," I muttered, with no tone, and stepped over the bush to continue our jungle trek. "So. Are you going to explain why you're suddenly so okay with me power-snatching that you actually want to help?"

"Yeah, I'm not telling you that."

I inhaled a pine-tinged breath to calm my irritation. Even before we broke up, Asher loved taking a cheese grater to my last nerve.

"You're going to just threaten me with outing me to the others and then refuse to tell me why?" I asked. "Dick move."

"Sounds like a you problem." Asher met my glare with complete indifference.

Okay, turn that cheese grater into a chainsaw.

"Yeah, you've made being here my problem this whole trip, actually," I said, spitting venom into each word. "If I'd known us breaking up would get me this much attention I would have done it years ago."

Even in the darkness, I could still make out Asher's unnervingly smug grin.

"You still want attention from me? Cute," he said.

My stomach tied itself into knots and squeezed so tight I was about ready to throw up my dinner. Had I seriously just said that?

"In your dreams," I muttered. Ugh, what a lame comeback. "This isn't over, you know. I'll find out what the hell you're up to."

"Got it."

I chewed my entire bottom lip to stem the annoyance, but it did little to help. Instead, I tried to focus on the plan to get into the Franklin house.

Old buildings had old parts, and rooms and passageways that no longer served purposes in the modern day. The Franklin home was no different. In fact, it was better. Whoever had built their home had installed a merchant's corridor underneath the house, through which servants brought food shipments.

To separate the how-to-do household from the working class that served them, the corridor had a hidden access point on the far side and only connected to what had once been the servants' quarters. If my intel was up to date, those quarters were used for storage these days, which suited me just fine. Who even entered their storage rooms once they'd dumped their stuff in it? That was just one reason our attic was chock full and covered in dust.

We would encounter some enchantments, I was sure of that. But so far, Hecate and I had encountered nothing we couldn't handle. So long as Asher stayed out of the way, we would walk away with what we wanted.

I carried on fumbling through the dark until the floodlights from the Franklin home seeped between the trees. Not daring to use a torch or a light crystal until we were inside, I had counted on the house's obnoxious outdoor lighting to get us to the entrance of the merchant's tunnel.

I checked the blueprints on my phone until I stepped on something hard that rattled when I quickly lifted my foot from it.

"Hec," I muttered. She could see better than I could.

"Cellar doors. Looks like they're chained shut."

"Any enchantments?"

"Nope. Seems suspicious, don't you think?"

"A little," I whispered, feeling my way down to the doors. My fingers found mossy, partly rotted wood and the cold bite of chains. "Keep your eyes peeled for booby traps when we're in."

"Did you bring your bolt cutters?"

"Ha ha." I dug into the pouch full of crystals I had brought with me; my arsenal against any obstacle in our path, magical or otherwise, and felt around for the one I was looking for.

I had etched different runes into each of them, so I could differentiate between them by touch alone. When I felt the rune "insert" etched into one of them, I took it out and pulled the glove off my other hand. This had to be one of my favourite crystals to use.

The moment my skin touched the crystal, a red beam of light shot out the end, bathing the door with fiery hues. I held the crystal to the chains and the light sliced through them like a knife through butter. The chains clattered in pieces onto the trapdoor and rolled down it to the ground.

I took the crystal in my gloved hand and the beam of light shrank back inside the crystal.

"Are we ready?" I whispered to them both, sliding the crystal back into my pouch.

"Ready to get paid."

I rolled my eyes as I yanked the trapdoors open. Of course whatever shiny trinket she could steal was at the front of her mind.

I waited for Hecate to hop over the lip of the doorframe and down into the passage before feeling my way after her. Asher clambered down behind me and pulled the trapdoor shut. The moment we were safely inside, I felt around in my pouch again for a light crystal. Once I held it in my ungloved hand, light burst from its surface and illuminated the entire corridor with an angelic light.

Asher's face lit up, and not just from the crystal. Adventure and intrigue blossomed in his eyes, just like they used to whenever we went on jobs together way back when. I bit my tongue to stop from saying anything. He missed this.

I turned to face down the corridor. Maybe I hadn't realised so much until now, but I had missed this too.

Hecate stood on a stone ledge that stuck out of the wall a little way down and batted a paw in my direction, squinting.

"It's not like I can turn down the power on this thing, I just charged it." I sneaked down the corridor toward her and gave the top of her head a little scritch as I passed. "Can you focus, please?"

Hecate leapt onto my shoulders and pressed a paw to my cheek. "You try focusing with your retinas burning out of your face."

Such a drama queen.

I headed down the corridor, every step taken with care and caution, but Hecate didn't alert me to any enchantments. The trek down the passage felt endless as too many minutes ticked past, and on a few occasions I had to press my sleeve to my nose and mouth to discourage brewing sneezes.

Dust particles drifted in the air, thick and cloying, and seemed determined to irritate my throat enough to make me cough. I didn't want to so much as sniff the further underneath the Franklin house we got.

We traversed the corridor in almost total silence for about ten minutes, navigating past broken barrels, crates, and other long forgotten items. Hecate grew bored with walking and jumped up onto my shoulders for a rest, swishing her tail into my face at random moments.

Asher kept close behind me, as if scared I would run off without him. It wasn’t a completely unfounded fear.

Eventually, we reached a solid stone wall marking the end of the corridor, and in the ceiling above another trapdoor waited for us. Hecate dug her claws into my shoulders as I reached for it.

"Magic ," she said. "It's definitely enchanted."