Ethereal Entanglements (12 page)

“Sorry.” Claire scuffed her boot on the sidewalk and realized she’d switched to treating Drew like Justin. Drew didn’t have any more answers than she did. She watched the light change. The police car drove past and the driver didn’t seem to care about them loitering in front of a bar. “Come on.”

They slipped inside the well-lit pub. Tables of dark, polished wood filled the space with only narrow aisles between them. At this hour, no one sat inside, yet the place was open. A middle-aged man stood behind the bar, moving glass tumblers from a drying rack to stacks on the back wall. He had the light brown skin and black hair of a Native American.

“Welcome.” His brown eyes flashed gold as he smiled at them. Claire figured it must have been a trick of the light. “You’re a little young to be in here.”

“Are you the one who does the tours of the Shanghai Tunnels?” Drew asked. He took a moment to clean his glasses on the hem of his shirt.

“I am, indeed.” The man’s smile brightened. “I usually ask for prior reservations, but I’m not busy right now. It’s back this way.” He beckoned for them to follow him into the back room.

His enthusiasm made Claire grin and she took five steps before she realized Drew hadn’t moved. “What’s the matter?”

Drew pursed his lips and stared at the man. “What’s your name, sir?”

“Ki Teah.” He closed the distance to Claire and shook her hand. “Proprietor of Nine Cans, which has access to the tunnels.”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Teah. I’m Claire. This is Drew. How long does it take to walk the tunnels?”

“Please, call me Ki. Most people just want to go from here to the docks and back, which is about an hour and a half, round trip. Exploring everything that’s been excavated is more like four or five hours.” He pushed the back door open, still smiling eagerly.

Claire followed him. As with Khalil, she found someone polite and obliging to be a refreshing change of pace. “How much do you charge for that?”

“Oh, pish.” Ki waved a hand. “No charge for you.”

“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Drew said with a frown. “We should probably go.”

Claire had to admit something seemed off here. Nobody did something for nothing. “Is there another way down?”

“Nowhere you can access it legally,” Ki said. He smiled and gestured like a host with a bow of his head. “Really, it’s free. I insist. I’ll show you around myself. I’m not doing anything else, and I’m always happy to help the local Knights.”

Ki knowing about the Knights and identifying her as one explained everything for Claire. She took the dirt clod from Drew and said, “Stay here if you want. I need to get this done. As you reminded me.”

“Don’t get into any trouble,” Ki told Drew with a jaunty wink.

Chapter 17

Drew

Something about Ki bothered Drew, but he couldn’t put his finger on what. Like he told Claire, this stuff didn’t have a user manual, and Kay could only help so much. Tapping the ley line had made his head spin and now everything looked like magic, even the chairs and tables. Ki, though…something about him seemed off.

“Well? Follow her,” Kay said. “We just promised a
blood oath
to guard her. If anything happens down there, we’re both screwed.”

Drew blinked, then he hurried to catch up. As he rounded a corner in the back room, he found Ki holding a wooden trap door open with dim yellow light coming from the hole.

“Ah, you’re coming after all! Good,” Ki said, still smiling too much. He handed Drew a small flashlight. “There’s a ladder. Watch your step and your head.”

Before descending, Drew peered through the hole and saw Claire ten feet below, turning in a slow circle with a flashlight of her own. He stuck the flashlight in a pocket and climbed down. When he reached the ground, Claire looked him over and nodded.

They stood in a small room with an earth floor, wooden support beams at the corners, and more at three foot intervals along the ceiling. To Drew’s left, a narrow tunnel led away from the room. Another came from the opposite direction. He looked up and oriented to determine the tunnels ran north and south here.

“Look out below,” Ki called down. He sped down the ladder with far too much energy and jumped to the ground from three steps up. His landing kicked dirt into the air and made Drew cough. Claire seemed fine.

“Excellent.” Ki clicked on his own flashlight and directed the beam to the north. “That way goes to the docks. The other way goes to a dead end beneath another building. These tunnels were originally dug out and used by unscrupulous ship captains to illegally acquire ship slaves. This trapdoor was used by the abductors inside the building above to access the tunnels. Along this path—”

“Excuse me,” Claire said. She almost sounded polite. Almost. “I don’t mean to be rude, but we’re not actually interested in the history so much.”

“Oh?” Ki raised his brow and grinned. “Did you come down here to find a new creepy place to make out?”

Heat flared on Drew’s cheeks. “Uh, no. That’s not what we’re looking for.” He glanced between the two brick-wall tunnels, not sure which way to go. Claire picked for them, taking the north passage.

“Really. Well, now I’m interested.” Ki followed as Drew trailed Claire. “What’s the power-infused dirt for?”

Drew froze, making Ki bump into him. Power arced between them like static electricity and Drew stumbled away. “What are you?”

Ki’s eyes lit up with joy. “No, no. What are
you
, little boy? Tell me you’re here for the ley line. Please tell me you’re here to do something stupid.”

“We’re not here to do something stupid,” Claire spat. “We’re here to fix something. You can stay here. We won’t be back this way.”

“No? Why not?” Ki bounced on his feet. “Are you opening a rift to the Knights’ demesne down here? Can I watch?”

“Who
are
you?” Drew asked.

“Pah. No one important. But I’m
very
interested in what a Knight is doing down here when none of the ghost sightings have ever been the real thing. Except this one, apparently.” He pointed to Drew. “That’s funny to find a ghost working with a Knight, and the Knight’s a girl, to boot. What a pair you are! I love irony!” Clapping with glee, he danced in place.

Whatever Ki wanted, he seemed completely insane. Drew had no interest in giving it to him and nodded up the tunnel to Claire. “Let’s go.”

“Wait!” Ki rushed into Drew’s personal space with his hands up but not touching anything. “You don’t know what it’s like to be stuck here forever, watching all the normal people in their normal stupidity. They worry about such silly things. No one cares about what really matters anymore.”

Drew stepped back, but Ki stuck with him. “And this is our problem because…?”

“I just want to follow along. To watch.” Ki pouted. “I can’t do anything except watch anymore, and there’s nothing to see. It’s grotesquely unfair. Like gargoyles.”

When Claire rolled her eyes and shrugged, Drew had a feeling she wished the same thing he did—that they’d both just let Ki do his tour spiel.

“Fine,” Claire said, pointing at Ki with her dagger. “But keep your mouth shut.”

“Not a problem. I can keep my mouth shut. I’m excellent at quiet. Just ask Raven. If you can find her. She’s flighty, you know.” Ki grinned.

Drew groaned at the terrible joke. He nudged Claire forward and kept an eye on Ki as they continued on. The lunatic so far only seemed to kill with his sense of humor, but that jolt of energy made him wary.

The tunnel opened into another room, this one with brick walls and support joists around a long, rectangular cutout in the ceiling. A latch and thick, rusty springs kept the cutout shut. Beyond it, he saw a flicker of power through the stone arch in the wall. The air and ground hummed with energy.

“This trapdoor was used to move unconscious people from the ground floor down here, especially ethnic minor—” Ki clapped his hand over his mouth and said, “Sorry. Just call me a nun.” After a moment of Drew staring at him, Ki’s eyes twinkled. “Because I have a habit.”

Claire stared at Ki for a long moment, then shook her head and turned away from him. Drew groaned and followed. He felt power pulsing nearby, through the earth and stone. His fingers reached out and brushed the wall of their own accord, which he only noticed when Kay gasped inside his head.

“It’s so much,” Kay whispered. “We could live off this ley line forever. You could stay young forever.”

The Fountain of Youth, ready and waiting for anyone willing to be possessed and live in a cave. He suspected a fair number of people would be happy to overlook the minor downsides. Snatching his hand away from the wall, Drew ground his teeth together to avoid answering Kay in front of Ki.

They reached another aged brick room and he stopped at the threshold to stare in awe at the magnificence of power rippling across the floor. Claire walked right through it, apparently unaware of its existence. He couldn’t imagine how anyone could be oblivious to so much. Tendrils of the vast ley line licked up through the dirt throughout the room, whips flinging enough power to slice an elephant in half.

He saw Claire continuing to the other side and called to her, but his voice cracked and broke over her name. “Stop,” he croaked, unable to muster more than a hoarse whisper in its presence. “This is it.”

Claire paused in mid-step and blinked at him. “Really? I thought I’d feel something or see something.” Fingers of white-hot energy caressed her legs, wrapping around her boots and releasing them when she moved.

“How fascinating,” Ki gushed.

Drew knelt, unable to decide if he should touch it or not. So much raw energy seemed like it should be dangerous.

“Careful,” Kay said. “We need a mediator to interact with something this massive. We’ll get swept away and burned up.”

Claire returned to Drew and crouched at his side. “I guess this is like standing in a volcano for you?”

He gulped and nodded. “Something like that. I can’t help you with this. Not if I have to be in that to do it.”

“But I can’t see it or feel it. How am I supposed to interact with it?”

Enion chirped from around her neck.

Ki squealed with delight. “A real dragon! Here I thought it was just a questionable fashion choice. You know, I knew a dragon once. He liked to dress up as a girl. Get his
drag on
.”

“Shut up,
please
.” Drew thought he might dive into the ley line if it would spare him having to hear any more of Ki’s awful jokes. He waved at Enion. “Use him. If you really need me, I’ll help, but I can’t go into that. It’s too much. Maybe when I’ve been doing this longer. If you can do it with Enion, do it with Enion.”

“Okay. I can do this.” Claire squeezed Drew then she squared her shoulders and faced the room. Her determination awed Drew.

He needed to find some of that inside himself.

Chapter 18

Claire

With a silver flash, Enion grew to his full size. He had to lie on the floor to fit in the room and his tail snaked out the far doorway. Though they could do this with him small, Claire had a feeling she might need physical support.

Ki fanned himself with a hand and let out strained squeaking noises while dancing from one foot to the other. Stopping, he sucked in calming breaths, then clutched his chest. “Your seals were broken,” he gushed, on the verge of tears. “How did it happen? Can you break mine too?”

“Your what?” Claire stared at him, not comprehending. She knew creatures had been bound by collections of seals all over the world. Ki didn’t strike her as something fitting the category of “creature.”

“Of course,” Drew said. “He’s one of them. He makes sense now.”

“Sure he does. Tell me later.” Finding Ki a distraction, Claire rested her hand on Enion’s head and focused. Since she’d done it once, the ability to see magic came at her call. When she blinked, she saw the immense slosh of power streaming through the room.

Enion jumped and backed into the wall. “Scary!”

“It’s not doing anything to us, Enion.” She covered his eyes and shushed him. Calming the big dragon with sharp claws and teeth felt silly. At least he hadn’t shrunk himself and flown off in a panic. When he relaxed, she kissed his nose. “I’m going back to Drew, okay? I’m going to prepare the crystal and my hands, and then we’re going to do the thing and leave.”

Enion nodded and curled up as much as he could.

She took the crystal out of her pocket and noticed Drew had a misty, silver glow around him. Its edges rippled in a pattern she’d need more time to puzzle out. Kneeling beside Drew with both hands full, she offered him the crystal so she could deal with the dirt.

He snapped his eyes open and scrambled away, his back hitting the wall before he got out of reach. “Don’t touch me with that here.”

Though she had no intention of asking Ki for help, he raised his hands in surrender and backed away from her. His body had a thin, brown outline of power huddled close around him. “Don’t look at me. Not in my best interests either.”

“Okay.” Claire balanced the crystal on her knee and smeared the dirt from the clod all over her hands. When they were covered, she picked up the crystal again and looked to Drew. “I need your blood on it.”

Drew swore.

Ki gasped and retreated another few steps. “Hide the squirrels, you’re both nuts.”

“Cut my arm and let it drip,” Drew said.

Claire frowned. She had to cut him no matter what, of course. Before now, though, she hadn’t thought about it. “Okay. I can do this.”

When she lifted his hand, she remembered him holding her two weeks after her parents died, telling her everything would be okay. He’d been in the system for years and she trusted him to know how things worked.

“Just get it over with.” Drew clenched his jaw and closed his eyes.

She slid his sleeve aside and moved the knife close, hovering the tip over the outside of his forearm. As she clenched her jaws and tightened grip on the dagger, another thought popped into her head. “What if the enchantment on the blade hurts Kay?”