“I think so,” Justin said, reaching up to rub away the webs and dust on the door to reveal a single word:
Temni?a
I blinked. “That’s… my mother’s tongue. Why the hell is there an old gypsy word on a door in a secret tunnel in Castle Lockes?”
“The gypsies helped build the castle,” Justin muttered, running a hand down the door. “They made these secret passages under the instruction of the king at the time, Barry the Paranoid.”
“The guy that thought that everyone was against him and that there were conspiracies to steal the crown that ran through the highest-ranking members of his Court, only to tragically starve himself to death when he refused to eat meals he thought were poisoned?”
“Yes. That guy.”
“Huh. Verania has a strange and storied history. Also, you descend from him, so I hope the crazy doesn’t run through the family. I won’t let anyone poison you.”
“That wasn’t as comforting as you think it was.”
“I’ll try harder next time. What does temni?a mean?”
“It literally translates to dungeon,” Justin said, frowning at the door. “I think. But there doesn’t seem to be a handle.”
“Great!” I said cheerfully, shoving him to the side. “Allow me, then.”
“Why you?”
“Your relatives had this castle built on the backs of my relatives,” I said. “This is a gypsy door, and I have gypsy blood.”
“It wasn’t like that,” Justin said. “They weren’t slaves.”
I waved a hand at him dismissively. “I expect reparations at some point, but we can talk about that later, so long as we can agree that white people are the worst.”
“Hey!” Ryan said. “Not all white—you know what? That’s a terrible argument to make.”
“It is,” I said, putting my hands on the stone. It was cool underneath my fingertips. “But I forgive you because you keep my dick wet.”
“I hate you both so much,” Justin mumbled.
It was pretty much bullshit, the whole gypsy door, gypsy blood thing. I highly doubted that it would open just for me because of that. But I didn’t want Justin to be the one to stumble through the doorway into the dungeons in case there were Darks in there. I knew my duty as his wizard, and it meant keeping the once and future King safe.
I pushed on the stone, and of course nothing happened.
I pushed a little harder.
Still nothing.
“Well, then,” I said. “This is quite the conundrum.”
“What is it?” Justin asked.
“Apparently, and stick with me here because it can be hard to understand, but stone is really heavy and hard to move.”
“Sam?”
“Yes, Justin.”
“You’re a fucking moron.”
“Hey!”
“Both of you move,” Ryan said, popping his neck side to side. “This probably calls for brute strength. And we all know how much I work out.”