Page 65 of Road To Runes

The thought of Asher exploding his way in had me swallowing hard, my dry throat chafing. He was here. To help me. No, not to help me. He had probably only come because someone had asked him to. Maybe Laura or Priya. An extra pair of hands and someone with knowledge in home security to aid them. There was no way he was here for me.

If Hecate had sneaked down here but the others hadn't, maybe they were in trouble. Maybe they needed help.

I looked past Hecate at Thornton who lay on his back, motionless on the ground. His eyes were closed, his chest rising and falling evenly. Still alive. I couldn't decide whether that was good or not.

"We need to get you out of these chains."Hecate jumped down from my lap and trotted around the room in search of what, I didn't know. The padlocks were way down by my feet and last time I checked, Hecate wasn't exactly handy with keys. Stealing them, yes. Using them? Not so much.

But then, the glove on Thornton's hand caught my eye. "Hec, can you get that glove off him? Maybe we can use that."

Thornton hadn't quite gotten around to the crystal on his pinky finger yet, but I knew what it was from looking at it. Cinnabar, which in that quantity would have caused burns when it touched my skin. Maybe there was enough of it to sear through the chains.

Hecate jumped, her legs splaying as another series of thuds rumbled upstairs, and yet more dust rained down from the ceiling. After a moment, she regained her composure and trotted over to Thornton.

Another series of bangs and shouts came from upstairs, and I looked up at the swinging lampshade. Whatever was happening up there, I really hoped nobody was getting hurt. Nobody who had come here to save me, anyway.

But Hecate carried on inspecting the glove. Even though the crystal still smoked at the end of the forefinger, she grabbed it in her jaws and tugged the glove off Thornton's hand.

"CarefulHec," I muttered.

The last thing we needed was for her to incapacitate herself for my grandmother to find. She already had a pretty large grudge against Hecate for helping me escape the first time. Hecate and Asher were deep in the Bishop family shit list as it was without also accidentally killing Thornton.

With a few little butt wiggles and some clawing, Hecate yanked the glove off Thornton's hand and trotted over to me with it in her mouth. She dropped it next to my ankle and pawed at the exposed skin there.

"Now what?"

"Can you get the cinnabar crystal against the chain?" I wriggled to try and get the chain closer to the glove, but I barely moved it an inch.

"Oh!"Now realising what I was trying to do, Hecate grabbed the glove in her jaw again and pressed the glowing crystal to the chain.

I winced as sparks flew from the metal and an unnerving sizzling sound filled the air. Even if I walked away from this with a few burns, it would be worth it just to be able to walk away.

When the chain snapped I pulled my ankle away from the glove at the same time as Hecate dragged the glove away.Ignoring the slight burning sensation there, I moved my foot around and the chain unravelled, allowing freedom to move my leg.

"Yes," I whispered, and tried wiggling some more.

Freeing my legs, my arms had a little more room to move and I squeezed them both out of their bindings before unwrapping the entire length of chain from my body and tossing it onto the ground. I didn't care who heard; it sounded like they were too busy up there anyway.

Hecate leapt into my arms and I caught her.

"I was worried about you," Hecate said, pawing at my face.

"I was too. Thank goodness for you." I kissed the top of her head and she mewled. "Come on. We need to help the others.”

Whatever was happening upstairs, it didn’t sound peaceful, and I would happily punch a few Bishops in the face to get out of here.

I wobbled my way toward the stairs on legs that felt like they were made of rubber. Hecate jumped out of my arms to allow me to grab onto the banister and padded up ahead of me. Occasionally, she looked back to check on me.

But I had barely made it up two steps when a roar sounded behind the door at the top.

“Come near me with that and I’ll punch you in your tiny Adam’s apple!”

No way. Was thatPenny?

The cracking of splintering wood had me retreating back down the steps, clinging to the banister for dear life. Hecate shot down the stairs as the door ripped off its hinges, a giant crack shooting up the middle as it tumbled toward us.

The door clattered down the stairs and slammed flat on the ground, and on top of it lay an unconscious Paul. His limbs splayed, one of his arms stuck out at an awkward angle. Anathame slipped between his fingers of the same hand and struck the floor blade first.

Penny hurried down the stairs, fists raised, and her face arranged into something a Maori warrior would charge into battle with. But her ferocity vanished the second she laid eyes on me.

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