Dashing down the tunnel, I held one hand high, a ball of witchlight cradled in my palm and casting an eerie glow over everything. In her pouch, Pandora snuffled, expressing her displeasure with my actions very clearly.
“If you have a better idea, I’d love to hear it,” I muttered, but she offered no reply. Looking into several of the branching alcoves as I hurried along, I knew the exit had to be here somewhere, I just needed to find the markers, something to show me the way.
Growing up, Heidi had drilled it into me over and over: follow the light into the darkness to find your way out again. Well, these tunnels were plenty dark, and if I could only find the right marker—the circle and flame symbol that was as familiar to me as my own reflection—Iknew I could get away.
To the left and right, plaques adorned both sides of the tunnel, row after row of names and dates, details of the bodies interred behind the bricked-up walls. Some crypts held whole families, entire lines of three, sometimes four generations, entombed together.
Family for eternity. It was a comforting thought, even if it would never be something I’d achieve, no matter how badly I longed for it.
Stumbling along, I tried to ignore that space in my chest, the gaping hole wheremyfamily should have resided, and kept looking for the plaque I needed.
I could think about my long-lost ancestors another time.
Reaching a sort of dead end, the tunnel split off in two directions, and I paused, considering. I didn’t have time to explore, not with a freaking pack of demons on my tail. Closing my eyes, I concentrated, trying to remember all of Heidi’s lessons. I knew what I was looking for, and with that thought in mind, I reached out, allowing what littlemagic I could muster to roam freely.
“Ostende mihi viam,” I whispered, blowing lightly on the witchlight in my palm and hoping for the best.
For a moment, it merely hung there, the glow pulsing slightly with every breath I took. Then, suddenly, the light darted away, zooming down the left branch of the tunnel like a firefly.
“Shit!” Hiking up the hem of my dress, I took off after it, following it down a second turn, noting the slight downward slope to the floor as I went.
I ran, the crypt getting deeper and the temperature dropping with each step. A shiver ran through me; I had no desire to know how far the path might actually descend. Nothing good ever came from below.
Relief flooded my veins when I turned a final corner and saw the light had stopped, hovering in the center of the ancient tunnel.
I approached slowly, frowning when I realized that instead of a door leading back to the surface, the light had stopped in front of a tomb, the iron plate screwed into the ancient brickwork gleaming dully in the witchlight. The words on it were clear, having been protected from the elements underground, and I ran my fingers over them lightly, reading them out loud.
“Be the light against the darkness.” My whisper was loud in the silence of the tunnel, ringing back to me on a ghostly echo.
Below the words, the symbol of theUmbra Fratrumwas carved, a circle with a flame inside. Protecting the light.
I paused, considering. Heidi had told me that Phips was a Guardian, and through her, I had known to come to him for protection. But, in all that time, I had never onceconsidered what else he may have been guarding. Perhaps what was hidden here could help me escape the demons and offer me the protection that Phips no longer could.
Perhaps this was why he’d been killed.
That had to be it. Upstairs, the church had been destroyed, the perpetrators clearly looking forsomething. I would bet they’d never thought to look below.
Their arrogance would be their undoing.
It made sense; the demon had said an artifact had been stolen.
There was only one artifact that a Guardian would have given his life to protect. One item so powerful that someone would risk the wrath of the whole Brotherhood to acquire.
The Fallen Key.
I just had to hope the protections theUmbra Fratrumhad put in place had held up and that the item was still safely stored behind this plaque.
Collecting the witchlight in my palm once more, I thanked it for its help, stared at the iron plate, wondering how, exactly, I was going to get inside.
“What are you doing, little witch?”
His words rumbled through the darkened tunnel, causing the hair on the back of my neck to stand at attention.
Damn it. How had they caught up to me so quickly?
Turning my head, I gazed at him, his handsome face looking haunting in the cold glow of the witchlight. I hated that he was so good looking; his outsides should have matched his insides.
“You shouldn’t touch things that don’t belong to you.”
