Page 95 of Their Reckless Thief (The Below #1)

One of the dogs recovered faster than expected, its dark eyes narrowing as it growled in our direction.

My heart lurched, but I didn’t hesitate.

Pulling out the tranquilizer gun from my side holster, I steadied my aim, exhaling slowly before squeezing the trigger.

The dart hit its mark, and within seconds, the dog’s growl faded, and it slumped to the ground.

The threat was neutralized—for now.

“Nice shot, love,” Dorian whispered, squeezing my shoulder briefly.

With the dogs dispatched, we moved quickly through the outer courtyard, reaching the stone archway that marked the entrance to the inner compound. The faint hum of security systems buzzed nearby, invisible yet crackling with energy, a warning that any misstep could spell disaster.

Vivian’s voice returned, soft but urgent. “Two guards patrolling from your left. Ten seconds to bypass and reach the entry point.”

I took a steadying breath, glancing at the others. “On my lead,” I whispered, pressing a quick sequence on my wrist device to bypass the lock on the main gate. The gates creaked open wide enough for us to slip through, and I gestured for the others to follow.

Luca moved close, covering my flank. “Keep going, Celeste. We’re right behind you.”

Together, we moved into the inner courtyard, a vast expanse surrounded by towering stone walls that loomed overhead, casting long shadows beneath the dim security lights.

As we rounded the corner, a beam of light flickered nearby, the glow marking the approach of another guard.

I motioned to Dorian, and without a sound, he slipped into the shadows.

He knocked the guard unconscious and dragged him into the cover of the nearby hedge before rejoining us.

We pressed on until we reached the heart of the estate. Here, the air crackled with latent magic, a sign of the ancient wards that guarded the entrance to the vault. The spellwork was faint but potent, shimmering with a warning that the slightest misstep could trigger a chain reaction.

I signaled at Luca to hold off on his magic, then I turned back to the device. “Disabling primary grid,” I murmured.

The wards shimmered briefly, creating a gap, and I felt the faintest surge of pride as we slipped through the barrier unscathed.

The corridor stretched on, cloaked in shadows, each step resonating with the quiet hum of ancient magic that pressed down on us like a tangible weight.

The path felt endless, the silence absolute, and every turn seemed to narrow in anticipation, as if the walls themselves were waiting for us to falter.

The air grew colder with each step, and I pulled my jacket tighter as if it could stave off the chill of the oppressive power that lay ahead.

“Hold back on veilstepping until it’s absolutely necessary,” I murmured as I glanced at Luca. He scanned the corridor ahead, every muscle taut with a wariness that mirrored my own. I dreaded him leaving my side.

A faint glow illuminated the hologram on my wrist as I synced with Vivian’s feed, her updates tracking the shifting security grid in real time.

“We have twenty seconds to make it through this first enchanted hallway once the wards are disrupted,” she informed me over the earpiece, her voice steady but urgent. “Timing is critical, Celeste.”

Nodding to myself, I pressed my hand to a faintly glowing ward sigil etched into the wall.

The cold stone thrummed beneath my palm, and I tapped into the familiar controls on my wrist, navigating through the complex security pattern.

The wall’s magic stuttered, its glow dimming, the pulsing energy growing weaker with every second until it was barely a whisper.

“Go,” I hissed, and we moved as one through the narrow gap.

We were in.

The path beyond twisted in unnatural ways, the stone floor shifting as if it were alive, and the air seemed to hum with a faint, sinister energy.

Dorian touched my hand. “You’re magnificent.”

The encouragement steadied me, his confidence bolstering me against the crawling sense of dread that prickled up my spine. I could feel Luca and Vincenzo at my back, their presence reassuring as we advanced.

“Stay close,” I instructed, keeping my focus on the glowing map on my wrist. Vivian had marked a weak point in the illusions ahead, a point where the magic could be countered if we stayed within the precise boundaries.

Eerie, mocking whispers echoed around us, curling from the walls like voices of the dead, and the path before us began to ripple, dissolving into an abyss that stretched into nothingness.

A chill settled over me as Vincenzo’s hand landed on my shoulder, his touch firm. “I’m right here,” he reminded me, his voice breaking through the disorienting illusion. He pointed to a reappearing section of floor to our left, guiding me back onto the mapped-out path.

“Thank you,” I murmured, steeling myself as we pressed forward, each step more treacherous than the last. The path shifted beneath us, narrowing at times, then abruptly widening, every movement of the walls designed to throw us off balance.

The faint threads of a ward stretched across the floor, and I stopped suddenly, holding up my hand.

“Stay low and avoid the threads,” I instructed Dorian, who crouched to slip silently beneath the traps.

With Luca and Vincenzo following close, we moved with meticulous care, evading the ward’s reach as we made it to the other side, breaths held.

Just as we cleared the ward, the floor beneath us rippled again, reconfiguring into a narrow ledge that left us teetering above a seemingly endless drop.

“What now?” Dorian whispered, a trace of unease in his tone as he looked over the edge.

“The illusions are built to mislead, create false paths,” Luca murmured, focused on the other side of the chamber. “I bet someone from The Shadow’s lineage had a hand in creating these wards. I think they can be countered.”

I checked the hologram. “There’s a weak spot ahead,” I said, pointing to a corner on the map. “If we can reach it, we should be able to stabilize the path.”

Moving slowly, we tested each step, the ground shifting beneath our feet. I was barely breathing. One wrong step, and this all went to hell. As we reached the marked spot, the ground solidified, acknowledging our persistence. I released a breath, allowing a spark of hope to ignite within me.

Vivian’s voice buzzed in my ear. “There’s another set of wards up ahead. Be very careful, Celeste. This one resets every ten seconds, so you’ll need to disable it quickly.”

I steadied my fingers, locking onto the familiar commands in my device as I worked through the final layer of the ward. Its energy pulsed in sync with my movements, as though reluctantly conceding to my intrusion. The enchantment dimmed, and we moved deeper into the fortress.

Ahead, the hallway expanded into a vast chamber, its stone floors gleaming with faintly visible sigils that glimmered like spiderwebs. One misstep here would trigger an alert, leaving us trapped as sentries arrived.

“Careful,” I warned, signaling for the others to keep close as I assessed the floor’s delicate grid of magic. “The disappearing paths are meant to strand us, lead us into traps if we lose focus.”

Dorian nodded, his eyes bright with adrenaline. “Lead the way. We’re right behind you.”

Breathing slowly, I calculated every step, each decision a delicate balance between skill and instinct. The corridor narrowed at points, forcing us to edge carefully along the walls, then broadened without warning, leaving us exposed on wide stone paths with nothing to anchor us.

At last, we reached the end of the corridor, the dark mouth of a larger chamber looming ahead. The latent energy stirred the hair on the back of my neck as we approached. Every muscle in my body was taut, the pressure of the moment settling over me like an unbreakable weight.

“The vault is just beyond this point,” Vivian said. “Last set of wards, Celeste. Take it slow.”

I glanced back at my men, catching Luca’s steady gaze, Vincenzo’s unreadable intensity, and Dorian’s faint, reassuring smile. Their confidence in me settled the storm of nerves churning inside me, and I forced myself to focus on the intricate grid of wards ahead.

“Let’s finish this,” I whispered more to myself than anyone else.

With one last sweep of the hologram and a final breath, I prepared to face the vault’s formidable defenses.

A flicker of movement ahead caught my eye, and I signaled the others to pause, pressing myself against the wall as a patrol of sentries passed through the dim hallway.

The guards were different from those outside, their forms cloaked in armor that glowed with runes.

Each of them radiated supernatural energy, and their eyes shimmered an unnatural hue, as if the wards themselves had marked them.

Their steps echoed with the heavy certainty of those who had long defended this place and wouldn’t hesitate to eliminate any intruder.

Luca met my gaze, the tension in his jaw saying everything: these guards weren’t ordinary. “Keep magic to a minimum,” he reminded himself, his voice barely audible, knowing that any use of shadow magic would set off alarms in an instant.

The first patrol moved out of sight, and we crept forward. As we rounded the next corner, a second wave of guards appeared, and one caught sight of us. His hand shot out, and the faint hum of a ward pulsed, casting a bright glow across the hall.

“Luca, with me,” I hissed, dropping low as he surged forward, moving with a deadly precision.

He took on the closest guard in brutal close-range combat, every strike swift and lethal, while Dorian dispatched another with his signature blend of stealth and speed.

His movements were almost imperceptible as he slipped through the shadows, his dagger finding its mark with precision.