Page 16 of Ascension of the Pack

‘What happened to them?’ Debbie asked.

Greg grimaced. ‘There was a total loss of life.’

‘Yeesh,’ Tarkers breathed. ‘The whole recovery team died? Just how sure are you about this runing thing?’

‘All but certain. I rang a witch friend,’ I told him. ‘She said that there wasn’t a record of a recent runing request near Castell Dinas Bran. By “recent”, she meant that there hadn’t been one for more than a decade.’ I paused. ‘That doesn’t discount the possibility of a black witch runing the castle, or even a white witch doing it off the books.’

Greg spoke up again. ‘She might not have runes securing her hoard, but she does have an army of deadly, highly trained brethren soldiers.’

‘That’s not good,’ Debbie complained. ‘I much prefer my enemies to have incompetent soldiers.’

Wakado snickered. ‘Me too.’

‘Competent soldiers aren’t a problem,’ Greg said. ‘But we’regoing to need a diversion.’ He grinned. ‘Luckily, I’m an explosives expert and we have some aerial support.’

He nodded towards Jacob. ‘I’m going to create some bangs and whistles, and my airborne friends here are going to drop smoke bombs to keep them busy.’ He paused. ‘Where possible, we are aiming to distract rather than destroy. We want to draw the brethren away from Castell Dinas Bran, but we don’t want to kill them. Lethal force is a last resort.’

‘As it should always be,’ Wakado rumbled.

‘Indeed.’

I looked at my brother. ‘How are we doing so far?’

Ben nodded. ‘Sounds good to me.’ He was pale and sitting on his hands, rocking in his seat.

He’s hiding something,Esme noted quietly.

Agreed. But is it something we need to know or something that would fuck up everything if we knew it?

She shrugged.If he’s not willing to tell us then it doesn’t matter which it is.As usual, she was right.

Greg went on. ‘I want Debbie and Wakado with me to help cause chaos, together with Jacob and his team. In the meantime, Lucy, Tarkers and Ben will sneak down the tunnel created by thedwarves.’

He paused. ‘Because of the previous … incident … the dwarves are willing to tunneltothe hoard but they won’t break through, so we’ll need to use explosives for the final breach. We’ll need to time that explosion precisely to the one that I’m going to set off to draw attention to me. You then get into the hoard, grab the orb and go. We’ll continue to engage the brethren soldiers until you confirm you’re safely out of the hoard, then we extract the distraction team with the help of the dark seraph and get the hell out of Dodge.’

‘Any questions?’ I asked.

‘When are we doing this?’ Debbie asked.

‘Did any of you have any particular plans for tonight?’ I queried archly.

At that moment there was a knock on the door and Seren and Marissa burst in, visibly agitated. ‘What’s wrong?’ I demanded.

‘Daniella is missing,’ Seren burst out.

‘She hasn’t been seen since the early hours this morning,’ Marissa chimed in. She was wringing her hands.

Goddamn it.

Chapter 10

I needed another emergency like I needed lip fillers – which is to say not at all. My lips are perfectly kissable as they are, and I’m all about natural beauty.

‘What do you mean, missing?’ I asked, trying to hold onto my calm.

‘She didn’t come home from her shift at the hospital last night,’ Marissa explained. ‘She was supposed to meet us for afternoon tea. When she didn’t show, we asked around the mansion. No one has seen her today.’

I turned to Greg. ‘Take the master key and check her room.’

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