Sinister Seraphim of Mine (Overworld Chronicles Book 8) (32 page)

I turned and faced her. "This is me preparing for the worst. If we have to bomb the place with cherubs still inside, I'll do it." I touched her hand. "But I think—no, I know—we can do this better."

Elyssa's eyes softened. "What about the Darklings Daelissa's already revived? Do you plan to rescue them as well?"

I sighed and closed my eyes for a moment.
I can't save everyone.
"We'll do our best." I looked down at Grundwig. "Thanks for helping us."

"Many of my people wish to remain in the Nether and hide from the fight." A growl rumbled deep in her throat. "Centuries of comfort have bred cowardice. It is shameful."

We stepped through the portal and back into the mansion. I deactivated the portal and took out my phone to look over pictures of the places around the perimeter of Kobol Prison. As I did, I noticed a text Fausta had sent me earlier.

The malaether doesn't have harmful fallout that we've detected. I guess your hair won't be falling out. –F

I showed Elyssa the text and turned to Grundwig. "How long do you think it will take to dig half a mile or more?"

Grundwig blinked her eyes. "I understand the word, but I do not have a concept of the distance." She looked at the picture on my phone. "If you take me to these places, I will tell you how long."

I opened a portal to the first location, deep in a pine forest. The ground was carpeted with pine needles and empty of bushes or other undergrowth. I sniffed the air, wary of brimstone, but didn't sense anything. A distant rumble tickled my eardrums, but it was too far away to determine what was making the noise.

Grundwig knelt on the ground and dug up a clump of earth. She sniffed it, tasted it, pressed an ear to the hole and hit the dirt with her fist. After a moment, she sat up on her knees. "Fresh, loose soil. Fast digging, but unstable. It could collapse and bury you alive." She put the loose clod back down and patted it. "I can dig out, but you couldn't."

"Next," I said, already feeling claustrophobia press hard against my lungs.

We tried an area a quarter of a mile away. An old red brick factory sat in the middle of thick undergrowth, and a creek trickled nearby. Grundwig went through her routine. "There's an underwater river and lake here. I need to dig deep, and it would be in the way."

We traveled on foot clockwise around the perimeter, keeping our senses open for danger, and stopping every so often for Grundwig to offer an opinion. She marked a couple areas as favorable, but not ideal. I hadn't realized finding a suitable place to dig would be such an ordeal. We reached a rocky cliff face at the edge of a small lake.

Elyssa climbed to the top and peered through her binocular spectacles. She jerked back as if struck, and motioned for us to climb after her. Grundwig extended her claw-like fingernails and scrambled the cliff faster than a squirrel. I lagged a few seconds behind.

"What is it?" I asked.

She handed me the spectacles and pointed in the direction of the prison. I looked through them and felt my heart skip a few beats. A huge furrow ran through the forest just a little ways from us. Looking to the left, I saw a clearing in the distance which had to be Thunder Rock. To the right, the swath of mown forest led to the prison. It wasn't the path of destroyed forest that frightened me, but what was using the path.

An army big enough to squash all of my allies like bugs.

Chapter 29

I'd expected Daelissa to have a big army, but not one that stretched over a mile long as it marched from Thunder Rock to Kobol Prison. My heart rode my small intestines like a fireman's pole in an effort to escape through my backside.

"They're not playing around," Elyssa said. "We're gonna need a lot of bombs to take out an army that size."

"I see blue cloaks, Nazdal, ghouls, Synod soldiers, some really fashionably-dressed people I think are vampires—" I took my eyes from the spectacles and looked at my companions. "Doesn't this seem a little disproportionate to the threat we pose?"

Elyssa shrugged. "Just like your dad said—overwhelming force."

"Like crushing an ant with a steamroller." Looking through the spectacles toward the prison, I saw flying carpets whooshing through the gray skies. The forecast on my phone indicated clear sunny skies. I had a sneaking suspicion someone had magically edited today's weather so the vampires wouldn't complain about the sun during their long hike.

"Ah, perfect," Grundwig said, one ear pressed to the rocky soil. "Firm bedrock many layers deep." She tapped the earth. "Granite."

"Uh, isn't rock a lot harder to dig through?" Elyssa asked.

The troll pressed a claw against a chunk of rock. It dissolved like butter.

Elyssa made duck lips. "Guess not."

"I will start at the bottom of this cliff face," Grundwig said. "Jeremiah gave me this to communicate with." She held up a small black arcphone. "He showed me how to use this dangerous thing."

"Dangerous?" I asked, scrunching my forehead.

Her eyes widened. "Oh, yes. It has these games on it, like one where you must fly a bird through a maze, and another where you must match candies. It is—how do you say?—addictive. I dare not use it...too much."

Elyssa put a hand over her mouth to repress a laugh. "A very wise precaution."

"I only play those games when I'm using the bathroom," I said. "Better than reading the backs of shampoo bottles."

Grundwig's bushy eyebrows pinched. "Shampoo?"

Elyssa explained the wonders of hair soap to the troll as we climbed back down the rock wall.

"I believe the males would benefit from conditioner," Grundwig said when we reached the ground. "Especially for softening the hair on their chests."

Elyssa made a gagging noise. "Perhaps a razor or waxing would be better in that case."

The troll traced an oval in the cliff face with a single claw, and then scooped it with her hands. The rock dissolved to sand, leaving a hole big enough for her to walk into. Elyssa and I would have to duck. Grundwig dug several feet in and angled down, disappearing into the dark.

"I will notify you when I am ready," she called back, her voice already growing distant. "Fare thee well."

"I have a feeling we're gonna be duck walking through that entire tunnel," Elyssa said.

I put an arm around her shoulder. "You know how much I enjoy taking my women into the bowels of the earth."

She showed me her pearly whites and planted a kiss on my lips. "Like the first time we went to El Dorado? All that spelunking with shadow people and cherubs trying to suck us dry was so romantic."

"I like to keep it interesting." I took a seat on the ground and pulled her into my lap. "Let's not go back to the mansion right away. If you ignore the sounds from the army of doom marching through the woods, it's almost nice out here."

"Very nice," she agreed, and gave me a long, deep kiss. "It's nice to have privacy for once."

I chuckled. "The mansion is getting a little crowded, isn't it?"

She shuddered. "It's kinda creepy with Jeremiah around. What if he has secret passages in the walls and he can spy through the eyes in the portraits?"

I made a sour face. "Why'd you have to say that? Now I'm going to wonder if the old man is peeping on us while we're in bed."

Elyssa giggled. "Sorry. I'm totally kidding anyway. Jeremiah seems like he could care less about anything except killing Daelissa."

"He told me he'd planned to unleash some sort of monster from the void on Seraphina." I told her about his plans for vengeance.

"He's definitely got some insanity going on." She kissed me again. "Right now, I don't feel like talking about him or anyone else."

"No more gossiping?" I made a shocked face. "No drama?"

She pressed a finger to my lips. "Shut up."

I did as asked and pulled her in for a passionate kiss. One thing led to another, and another, and another.

We returned to the mansion a couple of hours later, ate dinner, and geared up. Shelton and Bella returned as we were walking downstairs.

"Where you headed now?" Shelton asked.

"Kobol Prison," I said. It was just past six and already dark in the Atlanta area. "We're waiting on Grundwig to give us the green light."

He pulled off his wide-brimmed hat and gave me a confused look. "Who?"

"A troll," Elyssa said.

Bella touched Elyssa's arm. "Is it really wise to do this so soon after the battle in Australia? I'm still tired from that."

Even I was feeling a bit sluggish. "We don't have time to waste." I told them about the plan to bomb the prison once we rescued the cherubs.

"I never thought I'd hear the word 'rescue' in the same sentence with cherubs unless it involved saving someone from those devil babies." Shelton shuddered.

"There are good Seraphim trapped in those husk forms," Elyssa said.

Shelton put up his hands as if to ward off further conversation. "Yeah, yeah. I get it. Cherubs are people too." He turned to me. "On the bright side, we wrangled up a few extra hands. Zagg and his gang are in."

"Even the werewolves who tried to bite your head off?" I asked. I hadn't seen Zagg since a giant, sabotaged golem nearly burned him to a crisp.

"Yeah, even those butt cakes." He tucked his hat under an arm. "I managed to track down MacLean as well."

"How's he doing?" I asked.

"Not bad." Shelton turned and tossed his hat at the rack across the room. It missed, but Bella was quick with her wand, and a burst of wind gusted it onto a hook. "One of these days, I'm gonna make that throw," he said.

"Is MacLean still with the Illuminati?" Elyssa asked.

"Yes," Shelton said. "He said there's someone new pulling strings at the top and the organization is going from splintered and useless back to something resembling a real operation."

I felt my forehead crease. "Is that good or bad for us?"

Shelton shrugged. "Depends on who's running the show. MacLean doesn't know and hasn't been able to find out. But he did receive fresh orders to track Synod and Arcane Council movements at the university and the Science Academy."

"What about your mentor, Miles Chamberlain?" I asked.

Shelton's face turned grave. "He vanished along with a lot of other school staff. Zagg thinks Cyphanis is rounding up people from the school who might put a crimp in his ambitions to run the place."

"What about the students?" Elyssa said in horror.

Shelton shrugged. "Most students are still off on holiday. Cyphanis has been appointing his own people to important positions."

"Just what we need," I said. "A place for the bad guys to brainwash the Arcanes of tomorrow."

"I told everyone they could hole up here in the mansion." He gave me a somewhat apologetic look. "Hope you don't mind."

The front door opened and a group of people burst in. Cutsauce sprinted from the kitchen and started yipping at the top of his lungs. A huge man with his arm around a short brunette led the pack. Acworth was a lycan—a huge lycan. His girlfriend Natalie was of the same persuasion, but more reasonably proportioned. Acworth sported a thick goatee and wore his hair cropped close. He looked menacing despite the somewhat wolfish grin he cast my way.

Cutsauce growled at the big man. Acworth bared his teeth, and my little hellhound whimpered and took cover behind Bella.

Zagg appeared next along with his girlfriend, Kayla. The short blonde woman saw Shelton and gave him a hug. "Thank you so much for all you've done, Harry." Her face lit up with a smile as she held up a hand to show a big ring. "We got married!"

Shelton didn't look the least bit surprised at the ring, though he looked a little unsettled at the positive attention. "That's great." He looked at Zagg. "You didn't mention marriage."

The history professor grinned. "The minute she was freed from prison we ran away and tied the knot. I learned to never waste another minute."

"Carpe diem?" Shelton said.

"Hell, yes." Zagg squeezed his new wife in a hug.

"Such wise advice," Natalie said, giving a meaningful look to her hulking boyfriend.

Acworth had the sense to look sheepish, a strange look for someone who could turn into a mutant-sized wolf. "Uh, maybe I should take the suitcases to our room?"

"Welcome, guests," said a pleasant British voice behind us.

I turned to see a butler golem. "I will be happy to show you to your rooms," it said.

"Good thing Jeremiah reactivated all the golem house staff," I said to Elyssa.

"Looks like we'll be spending a lot more time in the woods if we want any privacy." She winked.

I gave her a salacious grin.

"Once we get settled in, we need to get an update," Zagg said. "From what I've heard, Justin here has been a busy boy."

"Bloody right he has," said someone in a thick Scottish brogue. "Lad doesn't know how to relax and have a pint."

Shelton grinned. "You just got here, and you're already stinking the place up like a tavern, MacLean."

"Aye, I had a bit to drink," the Scot said with a laugh. "Anyone who doesn't in these troubling times is in for a heart attack." He fished around in his shirt pocket. "I need a cigarette."

"Good to see you again, MacLean." Zagg turned to the Illuminati-slash-professor and shook his hand. "Seems like just yesterday we were hunting ancient relics in the Burrows beneath the university."

"I figured it was time I risked my life to save the world again," MacLean said, stuffing a cigarette in his mouth. He looked at me. "Where's the bar in this place?"

Another golem appeared, this one with a smart red vest and black bowtie. "Drinks are available in the parlor."

MacLean whistled. "You've really spruced up the place since you moved in." He rubbed his hands together. "And just in time for my visit." He followed the bartender golem into the parlor.

I checked the time. Grundwig still hadn't contacted me, and I was starting to get a little worried. I sent the troll a text asking her for a status update and waited. "Shelton, you may have to update the crew. We've got an appointment."

"Are you sure you've thought this out?" Bella said. "Perhaps you should take someone else with you."