Magical Midlife Dating (Leveling Up 2)

Sound blasted down the corridor from somewhere way behind us. After a moment I realized it sounded like rocks falling. I jumped and spun, stepping on a giant paw and falling forward, getting a face full of Austin’s fur. It didn’t taste great.

His leg came up and bumped me back, trying to help. I staggered, the guy clearly not knowing his own strength in that form.

Silence descended, even Niamh stopping with her scrabbling and clicks. Another sound, smaller than the first, like a small rock pinging against stone.

“This cave has clearly been here for a long time,” I whispered into the silence, not a creature stirring, not even the wings of the gargoyles. “That cage was plenty rusted. There is no way this whole place would come down on us, is there?”

Wings did rustle this time.

“Someone needs to stay in human form from now on. I need someone to verbally panic with,” I murmured, barely loud enough to hear myself.

Wood bumped my hand, and Niamh clicked—how was she making those sounds, anyway? Was it with her tongue, or was she gnashing her teeth? Whatever it was, she clearly meant it as communication.

I wrapped my fingers around the wood stick, and the clicking skirted beyond me to Austin, increasing in pitch and volume. The feeling of something large moving stirred the air, followed by four bright bursts of light sparking against the stone wall. Austin had raked his claws down it.

Niamh was with me again, dragging me that way, pulling at the stick. In a flash, I saw what she was trying to do—get the tip of the stick to the sparks. She’d given me a torch.

Another couple of tries, and the torch kindled, the fire growing large enough to create a glow within the tunnel. It branched off into two paths from the circular entry point, about a ninety-degree angle between them. More torches dotted the way, bracketed in old-school metal—iron?—holders.

The gargoyles were all clustered together, barely able to move, clearly not having tried to venture very far without their sight.

“Which way first?” I asked, looking each way.

Austin huffed and nudged me forward with his snout. Might as well go the direction we’d started.

I wasted no time, jogging, and Niamh scampered in front of me on all four legs, a horrible little ghoul who was, thankfully, on our side. Small shadows danced up ahead, the light playing off the uneven surface of the rock. Niamh disappeared into a room off to the right, the door roughly hewn in the stone and the dirt a mess of footprints.

Another crash from down the tunnel, the origin distant and the sound not unlike rocks falling. The idea of that made me incredibly nervous. The basajaun had killed one of the mages, and if they were pissed enough, they could’ve rigged up something to bring this mountain crumbling down.

“Hurry up,” I said to myself, the torch shaking in my hand, making shadows jump in the small room Austin would somehow have to squeeze into, and then back out of.

A card table sat in the middle, surrounded by four metal folding chairs. Two candles had dribbled white wax onto paper plates in the center of the table, their wicks blackened and a box of matches just beyond one plate’s lip. A black plastic bag leaned in one corner of the room, lumpy and half-full of what looked like food containers. A cooking stove with little green canisters for fuel crouched in the other corner, a can of unopened chili sitting on one of the cold circular burners. Two battery-powered lanterns hugged the wall next to those.

The funky smell indicated food had been cooked, consumed, and thrown away in here, which fit with the scene, but it didn’t look like they’d slept in here. I couldn’t tell how fresh everything was with the dim light, and Austin couldn’t speak to fill me in. Regardless, they weren’t here now, and given the chill and lack of smoke, they hadn’t been here very recently.

I handed the torch down to Niamh. “Can you put that out?”

She chittered at me but didn’t take the torch. Clearly that was either a “no” or an “I don’t want to.” I held it wide as I bent to grab one of the battery-powered lanterns, awkwardly tested it out without setting myself on fire, and then clicked it back off. I’d keep the torch until I could put it back, just in case… No, there was no real reason. I’d just gotten so used to putting things away that it was habit.

Judging by the orderliness of the room, I wasn’t the only one.

Niamh quickly caught up to me as I passed Austin and then the gargoyles, probably frustrating Austin because he was now stuck at the back. I briefly stopped at the entrance area in order to put out the torch and stow it in its holder. If they weren’t here now, they might come back, and while they might overlook a missing lantern, a missing torch and a missing lantern would probably be noticed.