“That’ll work,” I said, turning.
“And he’s always seemed so nice,” Vemar said, smiling again.
“Why would he not set the magical lock?” Hannon wondered out loud as we all started jogging toward the stairs. “Has that happened before?”
“Occasionally,” Micah replied as the others stepped aside so that we could take the lead. “Seldom, but mistakes happen. They don’t get too fussed about it. They figure the officers would keep us from getting through the dungeon, and someone else would stop us if we went through the castle.”
“We’ve stopped even trying to run when it happens,” Lucille said.
“But you’ve gotten out before…” I went up the stairs. Elex waited for us at the landing.
“When they forgot to engage the magical lock, yeah. And you’ve heard how well that worked out.”
“Not very uplifting, guys,” Tamara murmured as we poured into the second-floor dungeon.
We jogged through the cells, everyone awake and confused as hell to see us.
“Why didn’t they engage the obice spell?” Calia said, standing.
I explained as we jogged from cell to cell, releasing everyone.
“My love, you are early,” Hadriel said. “Why? How?”
I went through everything again as cells opened quickly, everyone stepping out in much better clothes than most of the dragons. This lot was better taken care of than we were. Of course, they had more to endure.
“Are we positive the officers are dead?” Leala asked as we headed back to the stairs as a group. Once again, everyone stepped aside to make room for the leadership, which had swelled with this last stop.
“Positive?” I asked, hitting the stairs. “No. Reasonably sure that at least a good portion of them are dead? Yes. One should be done dying right about now.”
“Wait.” Micah grabbed my arm before we reached the top of the stairwell. “We need to make sure this lock hasn’t been engaged either.”
“Right, yes,” I said, flattening to the side of the wall.
It was Calia and her sister who stepped up this time. Leaving their hands at their sides, they closed their eyes.
“Nothing,” Calia said, opening her eyes and moving down a stair to give me room again. “No magical lock.”
I took a deep breath and pushed forward, the others moving aside to let me go first. “Moment of truth.”
It was time to see if I’d actually killed the officers, and if so, if Denski had realized it and told someone.
Hadriel
I followed Finley and the others as we surged up the stairs. Leala ran beside me, both of us waiting with bated breath to see what awaited us at the top. I hoped to hell the officers were dead. Guards weren’t a concern—if there were guards anywhere up there, the dragons would massacre them in zero seconds flat and smile while they did it. But officers were tricky fuckers. I couldn’t even smell them when they were using their magic.
Finley reached the top floor and sprinted forward without hesitation. We followed her into the glow of the large hall. More officers than I’d ever seen lay sprawled out on couches and pillows.
It took exactly one glance to gauge that they were stone dead. Not just that, but they’d died grotesquely.
Been killed grotesquely, more like.
Arms dangled. Heads lolled back. Tongues stuck out. Some had grimaces even in death.
“Ugh,” I said softly, feeling a strange desire to grab a strand of pearls. I didn’t even wear pearls!
Micah knelt next to the first officer, putting his fingers on the other man’s throat.
“But do they have pulses under normal circumstances?” I asked softly. “Like…do they have hearts?”
A couple people huffed out shallow laughter, but I was actually serious. These things definitely weren’t human, and they didn’t seem like the other demons. In fact, they were a little like the creatures they made. I wasn’t sure if their anatomy operated the same way as ours did.
“We’re good. Let’s go. Hurry,” Finley said, motioning everyone forward.
Unease swam in my guts. Something wasn’t right about this.
Actually, that wasn’t true. Everything was too right about all this. There was no way a guard had passed through here without noticing these creatures were dead. No one was that oblivious.
Pieces started clicking together. The whole picture materialized.
Suddenly I wanted to throw up.
Finley had been taken up to the king, but the meeting had fallen through at the last minute?