Antoine hauled himself out of the tunnel, followed by Jax. A bit of white fluff clung to his broad shoulders and it took everything she had not to brush it off for him.
“Alright, let’s head toward the castle.” Antoine marched forward, his head turning from side to side as he kept a watch on the perimeter.
“Worried?” she asked.
“Not at all.” He chuckled. “Just keeping a lookout for that fat goose.”
It took ten minutes to get to the castle. The gray stone walls stretched up farther than Veronica could see. She pressed her hand against the cold, rough surface. There weren’t any doors or windows that she could find.
“Is it a wall?” Jax asked.
“No. Like the rest of this place, it’s magic.” Antoine pulled out a heart locket hanging from a gold chain around his neck. He flicked it open and held it out toward the stone. “Three you require. Three we be.”
The air shifted around them, revealing an oak door so big, a twenty-foot-tall man could walk through without bumping his head. The watermelon-sized door knob was way out of reach.
“So how do we get in?” Jax pushed against the door with both hands.
The creak was nearly deafening, but the door swung open enough for them to squeeze through into the darkness beyond.
As soon as she crossed the threshold, unease tickled her shoulders. She searched the black void for the cause but couldn’t see a damn thing. Get a grip, Veronica. This wasn’t the first dark and scary place she’d gone to hunt for treasure. It wouldn’t be her last.
At least she hoped not.
“I got your back.” Jax’s voice gave his location away as being behind and slightly to the left. “Let’s get what we need and get the hell out of here.”
They turned on their flashlights, illuminating a great hall with two doorways on each side leading to other rooms. A giant-sized side table had fallen over. Broken pieces of huge wooden furniture littered the floor. Over, under and around they went, until they reached the first doorway.
Antoine held up a hand. “Let me search the room. You two stand guard here. I’ll be back in ten minutes.”
Without waiting for a reply, the older man shuffled into the room. Within a minute, all she could see of him was the beam of light from his flashlight bouncing off the stone walls.
Veronica leaned against the broken table leg behind her and faced the room where Antoine had disappeared. Jax stood on the other side of the doorway, his presence easing her nervous willies. The minutes ticked by as Antoine’s light moved in a circular pattern through the room.
She must have stared too long without blinking because her right contact began to irritate her eye. When she closed her eyes for a few seconds then blinked to rewet her eyes, the pain eased.
A soft giggle broke the companionable silence.
She turned and gave Jax a dirty look. “What’s so funny?”
His wide-eyed gaze was locked on something behind her. “I’m not the one laughing.”
Chapter 4
The urge to sprint away squeezed the air from Veronica’s lungs. But she forced herself to ignore the heebie jeebies highjacking her courage and concentrate on her training. Calm. Cool. Collected. Play it smart, and they’d all make it out of here.
“Don’t make any sudden moves.” Jax kept his gaze on the thing giggling behind her. “Slow and steady.”
Whatever was behind her sounded like a five-year-old girl who’d just sucked down a balloon’s worth of helium in one gulp. The high pitched and slightly wheezing tittering blew the loose strands of Veronica’s hair forward, making her earlobe itch.
She stared at Jax. He’d promised he’d have her back. Well, now was the time to prove it. Exhaling a shaky breath, she eased toward him. One foot in front of the other. Repeat.
“Down now!”
She dropped to her knees.
A long knife whizzed over her head.
A grunt. A thunk. Then, nothing.