“No, no, don’t ye get out that stuff a’tall. Ye look like a clown, so ye do.”
“I don’t want to stand out in places where I can’t blend in,” Mr. Tom said.
Niamh stared at him for a long beat. “Then why in the beejeebus are ye putting on that garb? Are ye out of yer mind or what? Of course ye stand out, ye donkey. Who in a dark tunnel wears a feckin’ bowler hat and sunglasses? Ye’ve got to be takin’ the piss altogether.”
“We’ll all go.” Austin walked from the bedroom with tousled wet hair and a five o’clock shadow. He’d clearly overheard our conversation and decided not to primp. No watch lined his wrist, and he wore a simple T-shirt and jeans. “A Jane and some animals made laughing stocks of mages yesterday. That won’t sit well.”
I slipped my arm around his middle and gave him a quick squeeze. “Wise.”
“Cyra, at the back,” he said, pulling the door open for me. “Watch our six. Weakest in the middle. Shifters flanking.”
Shivers ran down my arms and a strange feeling quaked in my middle. We started walking before I could decipher it. The banter and relaxed chatter from a moment ago had completely dried up, everyone now on their guard. Austin was entirely correct—we’d been noticed yesterday and might be a target today. No one wanted to be made a fool of by the butt of the joke.
“Where to?” Austin asked, and I handed over the note. Rather than take it, he read the message and then nodded. As we made our way to the meeting point, cutting through the repaired and empty lobby area (with a longing look through the new double door), and into the smaller, danker tunnels, he dropped his voice to address me privately. Or mostly privately. “You let the shifters upstage you yesterday.”
“I didn’t want to accidentally kill anyone. I almost did anyway.”
“I know. And that made sense at the time. But we’re at a meeting of mages. You need to shine. You need to show them the full extent of your power, your ferocity. I think Cyra was right: Elliot knows why you’re here. He’s keeping himself away from you. He’s playing games with you, just like he was with that lesser-powered mage. You shouldn’t play by his rules. I wonder if he expects you to break them. You certainly haven’t come across as a rule follower in the past.”
I took a deep breath. “I don’t want to kill anyone.”
“I know. But sometimes you don’t have a choice if you want to survive. Try your best, but if the worst happens in this place, make no apologies. He should’ve known better than to let you loose on these people.”
I nodded but made no comment. My anger toward Elliot Graves burned a little hotter because of the position he was forcing me into. I didn’t want to hurt people. I didn’t want to battle. I didn’t want to be stuck in a cave dealing with the belittling buttheads. All of this was on him, solely, and I would not forget it.
“The other thing that has become clear is that he’s treating you like an honored guest,” Austin whispered as he glanced behind us. “Our rooms are much more spacious and high-ceilinged than one would expect in a tunnel, and judging by these other paths, the other suites aren’t as nice.”
“I know. That had occurred to me. Someone is bound—”
A flash preceded what felt like a heavy hand slapping me sideways. I hit the wall headfirst, and blackness dragged me under.
Twenty-One
My vision swam for a moment and my head pounded. Something wrapped around my body from my elbows to my knees, cutting into my skin and squeezing. Lifting me into the air at an angle. Hair cut off my vision, hanging in my face.
“She’s awake, sir!”
I craned my neck, finding myself in a circular area covered in couches and chairs. A common room, half the size of ours but laid out in the same way, with the kitchen at the back and an archway that probably led to other rooms.
“Well, well.”
The man from dinner, Chambers, walked up and stopped in front of me, his dress shoes shined up and his suit expensive, one hand in his pocket. He wore a smirk as calculated as that impeccable bow tie from the other night.
“We’re not supposed to battle until tomorrow,” I said, wheezing. I set to work healing myself immediately, checking on my team through the links. Austin was unconscious, but Niamh was awake and mad as hell. Mr. Tom mirrored her sentiment. Cyra seemed patient and Hollace equally so; they were probably waiting for the others to join them. None of them seemed worried about me. But then, why would they be? They could feel me, a little dazed, a bit confused, but otherwise fine, at the end of the tunnel they were in.