Dark Lies (Magic Side: Wolf Bound 3)

51

Savannah

The cold spray soaked me to my bones as the Order’s Zodiac Sea Rib screamed across lake Michigan, jackhammering through the waves. I’d quickly grown numb to the chill, jarring impacts, and earsplitting roar of the engines.

The only thing on my mind was Dragan, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Bentham Island.

A dark storm had formed above the prison, building in whorls like a slow cyclone—just as the clouds had appeared above the graveyard. That meant Dragan’s ritual was already underway.

“Not good,” Jaxson said, as if reading my mind.

I let my gaze sweep over our team, wondering if they shared my ominous feeling. In addition to Jaxson, our boat held Devi, Ethan, and two agents I didn’t know, plus a captain and deckhand.

Not much for facing down an entire prison of psycho murderers.

Our team was small on purpose. According to Ethan, the entrance to the prison was underwater and could accommodate only a few people at a time. We would have to dive down, infiltrate the prison, and get to the control room to bring an end to the lockdown so that the rest of the mages could get in.

Jaxson leaned over and whispered, “If you get any tenser, your claws are going to come out and tear through the side of the Zodiac.”

Heat flushed my cheeks, and I jerked my hands away from the inflatable hull. There were a few nuances about being a werewolf that could sneak up on you.

Hoping the others couldn’t hear my whisper over the roar of the engines, I bent my head close to his. “Last time we faced Dragan, we had over a dozen people on our side, and he still got away. This time, he’s got a whole prison at his disposal.”

Jaxson smiled. “True. But all we have to do this time is take the control room back. The prison was built to handle riots, just not sabotage from within.”

I looked up at the storm forming over Bentham as trepidation sank further into my heart. “Well, those clouds tell me that we might run out of time.”

Jaxson gently traced my jaw and brought my eyes back to his. “The only one who’s run out of time is Dragan. We have the talisman. This is it.”

I touched the tiny drybag in my pocket that contained the talisman Devi had made. I felt the conviction of Jaxson’s words and wished I could believe them.

As we approached the towering walls of the prison, the Zodiac slowed. The captain consulted his GPS and began to maneuver the craft into position.

Ethan unzipped a black duffle and began passing out full face masks. “The entrance is at the base of the island. Each of these masks is enchanted to provide thirty minutes of fresh air, but we shouldn’t need more than ten. They also have intercoms, but they’re shit.”

“So we just swim down to the bottom and what, find a door?” I asked as I tried to figure out how my mask worked.

“Essentially correct. I’ll head down with a line and secure it. When I tug three times, you’ll all follow me down, one by one. Give the person ahead of you about a ten-second lead. When you get to the bottom, do your best not to kick up sediment. Whatever you do, don’t panic. If you can’t manage the swim, return to the surface, and the captain will take you back.”

“That won’t be a problem,” I said, more confidently than I felt. “Will we need fins?”

“No. I’ll take some because I have to hunt for the door. But you all can just descend the line. After I’ve disabled the warding spells on the entrance, Jaxson will help me open the hatch. Follow me down the tunnel, and then we’ll swim up to an exit pool. After that, we’ll review the plan from there. Any questions?”

We all shook our heads.

Ethan turned to the captain. “Are we in position?”

He gave the thumbs-up.

“Okay, everybody, masks on.” He fitted his over his face and tightened the straps. Turning a switch on the top of the mask, he flicked on an integrated head lamp.

I did my best to imitate him and turned on my light. Once Jaxson had his own mask on, he checked that my straps were tight.

“—ound che—” Ethan’s voice crackled over the intercom.

We all checked in one by one. He sighed and shook his head as he pulled on a pair of fins. “All the magi—in the–orld, and you think the Ord—could find masks to enchant that weren’t a piece of sh—fzzzzzt.”

His voice crackled out.

Great.

Ethan picked up the end of a silver spool of line and positioned himself on the side of the boat. He gave a thumbs-up to the captain, who shifted into neutral and flashed the sign in return.

“—lip backward, like this.” And with that, Ethan tumbled over the side into the lake with a solid splash. The silver line zipped as it fed into the dark below. One of the agents kept their hand on it, letting it run through his gloved fingers.

Then we waited.

Every so often, the line went loose for a while, and the agent pulled slack in. But it always fed back out.

Minutes ticked by as we rocked in the waves. My stomach lurched with every bob, and I very soon realized that I hadn’t calculated seasickness into the equation.

I hope I don’t barf in my mask.

I was totally unprepared for this shit. There’d been no time to change, and I was still dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and boots.

Man, this is going to suck. Wet jeans and sloshy speed boots. Chafe city.

This is why I think clothes are silly. Fur just makes so much more sense,Wolfie observed.

Obviously, we were far beyond the limits of safe operation protocols, but it seemed that protocols were things that went away when shit hit the fan. I guess when someone was threatening to bring a wrathful wolf god down on the city, the paperwork could go to hell.

Finally, the line jerked in the agent’s hand once, twice, three times.

Ethan was on target. The agent passed the line to one of the deckhands and gave us the thumbs-up. “Everyone ready?”

I added my thumbs-up to those of the group.

“Follow my lead, one at a time,” the agent said. Then he grabbed a bag off the bottom of the Zodiac and backflipped over the side with his hand firmly on his mask to keep it in place. As soon as he surfaced, he gave an okay sign by touching the top of his head.