Page 35 of Road To Runes

I shone the light crystal up toward the trapdoor, where a smattering of crystals embedded in the doorframe glinted back at me. A part of me wondered if the enchantments didn't havesome kick to them, given that the Franklins hadn't put much more than a human deterrent at the perimeter of the grounds. But Hecate seemed confident.

"Don't lose a life up there." Asher grinned at Hecate who hissed back at him.

Hecate rested her two front paws on the top of my head and reached up toward the trapdoor, giving the air a few good sniffs. I craned my neck to watch what she was doing, just able to see out of the corner of my eye.

She lifted a paw toward the trapdoor, stretching her toes apart. The magic from the trapdoor collected into a ball in the palm of her paw, writhing like snakes in a pit. She grabbed the ball in her jaws and jumped down off my shoulders.

This time I had come prepared for her magical extractions and grabbed an empty crystal from my pouch. I held it out toward Hecate who gently touched the ball of magic to the lump of quartz. The magic zipped into the crystal as if it was sucked up the nozzle of a hoover, and I put it back into my pouch.

What I would do with it would have to wait for later.

"All clear?" I asked, as Hecate jumped back onto my shoulders.

"Squeaky clean."

"Great. Can you open it?"

Hecate reached up and swatted at the latch a few times before it came undone and she pressed the trapdoor with both paws, pushing it open. Man, she was a buff kitty.

She leapt up into the room above and I jumped up and grabbed the doorframe, heaving myself up onto a dusty stone floor. Thank goodness for rock wall training.

I rolled away from the trapdoor and my rump bumped into a cardboard box half covered with a sheet. Excellent. This was still a storage room, just as I had hoped.

Asher heaved himself up after me, biceps flexing visibly even through his jacket. Gods, I had to keep a clear head.

I pinched myself through my jacket to shake out any errant lustful thoughts. Celibacy and I did not agree at the best of times, but certainly not after six whole months.

Inhaling a few musty breaths to clear my head, I closed the trapdoor behind us.

"What's the plan now?" Asher asked, blowing at a long cobweb that hung near his head.

"My plan actually involved sneaking around here invisible." I straightened up and dusted off my jacket. "So...maybe you should stay here and wait until we're done?"

"Not a chance." Asher strode over to me and I took a step back, glaring at the hand he offered me.

"What?" I asked. "Want me to hold your hand? Are you scared?"

"I actually do, but only because I know that invisibility power you pilfered affects what you allow it to." Asher waggled his fingers at me. "So you don't have to change your plan after all."

I grimaced, stuffing the little spark of joy the idea gave me so far down that I would hopefully crap it out later.

"For the record," I said, taking his hand. "This sucks."

I killed the light crystal and tapped into the invisibility power I had brought along for the ride. If anyone wandered around looking for the bathroom that night, they wouldn't see a thing.

Asher disappeared from view, the two of us inking into the background like ghosts in the night. Hecate jumped onto my shoulders and she vanished along with us. I edged my way between the boxes, leading Asher to the door which I opened with every ounce of caution I possessed.

The floodlights from outside lit up the corridor through the stained glass windows, sending dull rainbows across everypompous bust and oil painting. Who even had the money for this rubbish?

I slinked into the corridor, closed the door, and hurried away as fast as I dared, ensuring I stepped on the fancy rugs as I did so. I had memorised the route to Troy's room that evening, calculating a path that would avoid as many bedrooms as possible.

"Asher, you can haul one of those paintings home for me."Hecate jabbed a paw toward an oil painting of a frilly lady giving a most contentious stare, and holding a fan almost as if she planned to use it as a weapon.

"That thing would weigh a tonne," Asher muttered. "I couldn't lift it off the wall, let alone carry it home."

"She's not having it anyway," I whispered.

"It'd look so good above your vanity."

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