“There’s nothing either of us can do there.” She motioned to Noelle. “She’ll remain asleep until you reach your destination. It’s safer for all of you.”
Luc handed Jason the black sword, then bent, undid the twine, and carefully scooped up his sister. When he turned, our gazes met. Those vivid depths were still filled with concern, but this time, it was for me. “Whatever you’re planning to do next, be careful. I don’t need the additional worry right now.”
A smile twitched my lips. “Careful is my middle name.”
He snorted. “Which is like saying reserved is Mo’s.”
“I’ll have you know I certainly can be, young man.” Her voice was severe, but her blue eyes twinkled.
“Hmm” was all he said to that.
I smiled and followed them over to the door, locking it behind them.
“Will she survive the extraction process?” I crossed my arms and watched them walk down to the illegally parked black van.
“In all honesty, I don’t know. Many didn’t.” She sighed and moved back to the stairs. “Even if she does, there’s no guarantee she’ll ever be the same. No one can be so intimately touched by darkness without side effects.”
Then I could only hope that for Luc’s—and his family’s—sake, she was an exception to the rule.
I followed her up the stairs. “Did you tell the High Council about the apartment and the possible gateway?”
“Yes. They’re sending a team over to deal with both.”
“They’ve still got teams that deal with this sort of thing?” I said, surprised. “I thought wraiths hadn’t been active since the last war?”
“For the most part, that’s true. But the High Council learned the foolishness of disbanding such a specialist unit after a situation that developed eons ago—one that almost wiped out the entire council.” She motioned to the next set of stairs. “You might want to go change into something warmer. I checked the forecast for Bodmin Moor, and it’s going to be a perfectly shitty day.”
“Fabulous,” I muttered. “There’s nothing nicer than flying in foul weather.”
She grinned. “You’re young. You’ll survive.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I have to freaking like it.”
She laughed and disappeared into her room. Once I was in full waterproof gear, I pulled the ring out from under my breast and tucked it safely into the bottom of Vita’s scabbard. Like the knives, the ring was made of silver, which was one of the few substances immune to the shifting magic. Then I lashed the two knives together so that they were easier to pick up with my claws.
Mo walked in. The backpack slung over her shoulders had two sets of wellies roughly tied onto it. “Thought I’d better bring along some proper footwear and some food. I know how grouchy you get if you don’t have breakfast.”
I grinned, although it was true enough. “There are villages in and around the Moor, you know, and they do have such things as cafés.”
“Yes, but I’m thinking it might be better not to be seen in too many locations within the area. It’s possible they’re keeping a watchful eye on all the ancient sites.”
“Why would they be doing that? Max has drawn the sword from the King’s Stone, and they have no idea it’s not the real one.”
“Perhaps, but there are plenty of other god-gifted artifacts lost to the mists of time I bet they wouldn’t mind getting their hands on.”
I frowned and waved her to the window. “Like what? And why is this the first time you’ve mentioned such things?”
“Because in the current situation, it’s hardly worth getting all het up trying to find them. Besides, I actually have no idea where to even start looking for them. Ready?”
“Yes. And you didn’t answer the first part of that question.”
“No, I didn’t, did I?”
She laughed, changed shape, and flew out the window. I shook my head and called to the magic that allowed us to shift. It rose swiftly, a thick wave of heat that swept through muscle, sinew, and bone, altering and miniaturizing all that I was in human form and shifting it across to my bird persona. As the power reached a peak, there was a moment of nothingness—a moment where I was neither human nor blackbird but held in unfeeling suspension somewhere between the two—and then I was winged, and the freedom and the glory of the skies was mine.
I scooped up the knives and flew out the window, following the brown speck that was Mo. The night was crisp and cold, and despite the ominous-looking clouds that curtained the sky and blocked the moon from sight, the storm had ceased. Dawn came and went in a glorious blaze of color, and it wasn’t until we neared Launceston that the wind truly picked up and the rain began to fall again.
We regained human form in a rather scruffy-looking parking area in the grounds of an even scruffier-looking car rental place.
“I arranged for the use of a smallish all-wheel drive,” she said, striding toward the small collection of transportable office units and sheds, one of which had Office emblazoned across the front. “I figured it would be safer on the off chance we have to go off-road.”
I tucked my knives under my coat and followed. I wasn’t seeing anything resembling a small SUV in the immediate area, just a ton of cars and trucks.
Mo took the steps two at a time and pressed the buzzer. There was no immediate response, but the internal lights were on, so someone was obviously around. Mo tried again; this time, an internal door slammed, then footsteps echoed.
“Sorry,” a rather red-faced man in his mid-fifties said. “I was giving the SUV a final once-over. I take it you’re Mo De Montfort?”
When she nodded, he opened the door and ushered us inside. The interior space was the opposite of the rather grungy outside—modern, clean, and tidy. Once he’d gone through the details and we’d signed the paperwork, we headed outside to check the SUV for dents, scratches, and whatnot and then hit the road. I pulled my knives out and retrieved the ring. It pulsed warmly against my finger, but there was nothing to suggest it was in any way directional. Not yet anyway.
“There might not be,” Mo commented when I mentioned it. “Not until we get closer. You want to open the sandwiches? I’m feeling a mite peckish.”
I handed her one and munched on the other. The storm that had been threatening for most of the morning finally unleashed as we entered the hamlet of Bolventor, forcing Mo to slow to a crawl lest she miss the turnoff for Dozmary Pool.
As we crested the first hill of the old road, the left edge of the ruby at the heart of the coronation ring began to glow. A few seconds later, the road swept around to the left.
The ring was indicating direction.
We continued on. A triangular sign eventually appeared to indicate a small side road to the right, and the light within the ruby’s heart indicated we needed to follow it.
Mo swung onto the narrow sidetrack and then slowed even further. The wipers weren’t doing a whole lot to clear the force of the storm right now, and visibility was poor. I was not looking forward to stepping out into it, though if the sword was in the lake itself, the storm would be the least of my problems.
We crawled past a series of barely visible buildings and continued on, following what had become little more than a single farm lane. The ring’s glow intensified to the point where the whole stone shone. We were obviously getting close.