Cyra shrugged. “He’s not stupid. He knows why you’re here. Do you think he’s afraid of the others? Not a chance. They want to use him, not kill him. He knows you’re different. He knows you’ll hit him with a kill strike the second he’s in view.”
“She’s right.” Austin put out his hand for me. “Would you care to dance?”
I felt my eyebrows climb. The string quartet was still playing, and the room was empty but for the two of us and Cyra. Still…it was enemy territory.
“Ahhmm…” I took his hand gingerly.
Austin helped me out of the chair and led me around the table to the dance floor in front of the string quartet. A balding man with a round nose and thick glasses smiled at me as he played his violin.
“You went through all this effort to get ready.” Austin rested his hand around my side and pulled me in close, his other hand holding mine. His smell permeated my world, clean and spicy and masculine. “At least you can show off how beautiful you look.”
He bent to kiss me softly before he started moving, his steps graceful and sure, his prowess on the dance floor unsurprising. My dress swished around my legs as he swung me and then twirled me, one hand always holding mine, the other directing me.
My stress unraveled within minutes, and I smiled up at him as he spun me. I was rusty, but it didn’t matter, not with his firm and commanding leadership, never letting me stumble, making me look good with each move, even if it was just Cyra and the musicians watching us.
“We’ve battled mages in hairy conditions,” he said softly as we danced. “We’ve always been the underdog. We’ve always been inexperienced or way outnumbered. And yet we’ve come out on top time after time. With or without Ivy House. Keep the faith, love.”
Warmth filtered through me at the term of endearment. He’d said he loved me once, but not since. I knew he was waiting for me to go first before he said it again. He clearly wasn’t planning on hiding his regard, though.
My heart squished and I leaned in a little closer.
“The other heirs went for bad men,” I said as he turned me. “Men who ultimately killed them. Why did the gargoyle magic let that happen if it won’t let us finish the mating slide?
“You have no idea how those men started. Power corrupts.” Cyra had a refreshed dessert, clearly having asked for more. “Regardless, I suspect your gargoyle is feeding off your own hesitation. You are a woman of strong character, Jacinta Ironheart. You know what happened to the other heirs, and to your own first marriage. You know what’s riding on this—your future. Your safety. You are feeding that gargoyle, I think, and that’s why it’s holding back. It’s looking for more validation that he is worthy of you. That’s a guess, of course, but it stands to reason. You will be the greatest heir of all. Or…if not the greatest, then at least the one that lasts the longest.”
“Well.” I resisted Austin’s leading enough to get it across that I wanted to slow down. He wrapped his arms around my waist and the music slowed. I looped my arms around his shoulders. “Why haven’t you proved it, then?”
His eyes flashed. His kiss stole my breath. He didn’t respond, but I knew he felt the challenge. I knew he would rise to the occasion and answer it. Somehow.
The next afternoon, I led my team down the halls and to one of the exits in the smaller tunnels. We’d gotten the schedule earlier that morning. As Elliot had promised, we were going first. I was glad for it. I’d never been good at hanging around, waiting for something to happen.
The large wooden door over the exit was thrown wide, but there wasn’t a hole in the mountain face on the other side, as I’d expected. Another tunnel, darker than the one we’d been traveling, curved away and out of sight.
“Good thing we didn’t try to break out this way,” Niamh murmured as I stepped into the rougher-hewn tunnel and followed it away left.
Austin stayed by my side, in sweats and a T-shirt, face hard and power brimming.
“I wonder if they’re all like this,” Ulric said from the middle of the pack.
“Quite the fire hazard,” Edgar said.
“When you’re trapped in a mountain with a bunch of mages,” Mr. Tom said, “fire is the least of your worries.”
“You say that now,” Edgar replied. “Just wait until you’re also trapped with fire.”
The tunnel sloped up and bent around left, the space closing down.
“I forgot to mention—I’m not the best in small, confined spaces,” Hollace said, his voice strangely muted.
“Just think about if you were trapped with a fire in a small, confined space,” Edgar replied.
“What is wrong with ye?” came Niamh’s voice.
“Oh. Quite a lot, I think,” he replied. “I just keep trucking on and hoping for the best.”
“Jaysus,” Niamh muttered, and Cyra started laughing.
“Basajaun,” I called back as air fanned across my face. We were getting somewhere.
“Yes, Miss Jessie.”
“You good? The ceiling is a bit low. Are you hanging in there?”
“I do not have a problem with caves or tunnels. It will be a while before my back starts to ache from bending over.”
“Just don’t fart,” Ulric said. “My face is much too close to your butt. My view is not great.”
“You weren’t thinking when you let me go first,” the basajaun replied.
“This isn’t how normal people walk into battle.” I smoothed my hair back.
“Yes, it is,” Nathanial replied. “It is exactly how people walk into battle. Confident people. People who know that victory is at hand, and losing is not an option.”
“Hear, hear,” Jasper intoned.
But I knew they were just trying to bolster me.
Light filtered through the dimness as the tunnel bent right, still sloping upward. We were reaching the end of the tunnel.
“Good news,” Hollace whispered.
No door barred the way this time. Little green shoots led to the tunnel opening and patches of lush grass grew beside the entrance. The intensity of the sun blinded me at first, and I screwed up my face and blocked the rays. An electric blue sky looked down on us, not one cloud to mar its beauty.
“Wow.” Ulric stepped up beside me, hands braced on hips, and I had to agree. Gorgeous.
Stone steps led down to another tunnel, disappearing into a grassy berm. On the other side, the land flattened out into a huge meadow high off the ground between the peaks. All around us the land dropped away steeply, giving way to the mountain face. The horizon stretched out before us, peeking around distant snow-capped peaks. The view was breathtaking, the air impossibly clear and fresh.
“We’ll be able to fly,” Hollace said as I started down.
“No.” I pointed at the shallow magical dome straddling the path we currently walked, keeping people put, and then the larger dome encompassing the meadow. “Well, not you, at any rate. Ulric probably could. Maybe Jasper. Cyra. The rest of you would be hindered. It would be like the basajaun in that tunnel.”
“I was fine in the tunnel,” the basajaun said gruffly.
“I mean, the way you had to bend over—”