“But if we get rid of them, there’s no more support for the king and queen from the nobles,” Finlay insisted. “They’ll have their legs swept out from under them, and we’ll be able to move in on the palace.”
“If we don’t get killed first.”
“Why are you so afraid?” Simon challenged, and his eyes flashed. “Perhaps you still have buddies in the Circle left from your cozy royal life. Are youreallyon our side, or are you working for your cousin?”
My lip curled. “I have no loyalty to anyone on the Circle, save for Lady Magdalina.”
“Then prove it,” he said. “Help us set the gunpowder, and ignite it when it’s time.”
I glanced at Professor Mara. “You approve of this?”
“We have to do something desperate,” Mara said. “We can’t afford a conflict with the Miriamic Coven. We have to stop it, before there’s no turning back.”
I nearly held back— told myself I was going to walk away.
Then I remembered the look on Emma’s face— how helpless she was, how helpless she must’vefeltwatching those witches die, and being unable to do anything about it. I never wanted her to feel like that ever again.
I nodded shortly. “I’m in.”
“Good man.” Finlay clapped me on the back. “Let's get you some gunpowder.”
Finlay led us to an old barn outside of campus, where the gunpowder kegs were being held. I changed into a wolven, and gunpowder kegs were loaded onto my back, tied there by the sorceresses. All the shifters were carrying multiple powder kegs, save for the dragons, who were deemed too large to go by unnoticed. Most of them would be flying overhead in the cloud cover, to keep lookout while we performed the job.
I sniffed the air. I smelled the faint smell of gunpowder— but it wasn’t as strong as I thought it should be. The sorceresses must’ve placed an illusion on the kegs, to hide what they really were from anyone who might’ve accidentally found them.
“There’s a direct line to Ceradyn Hall, underground,” Finlay growled. “We’ll take the sewers.”
I agreed. There were multitudes of catacombs beneath the city. I’d never used them as the Phantom, as the rooftops were quicker, but it’d be the safest way to sneak dozens of people with explosives through Dolinska unseen.
Once the power kegs were loaded onto our backs, the dragons took off, and Finlay led us onward. Professor Mara held open a door that led down into the city’s sewer. I took a deep breath, told myself I’d endured worse before, and plunged in after them.
The sewer was disgusting. I wrinkled my nose as we moved through the toxic water, trying not to inhale the stench. Sorceresses held up torches to give us light as we waded through the stone avenue.
Dorina looked around and said, “I didn’t know such a place existed.”
“There are many corridors underneath the city. They’re not all sewers,” I told Dorina. “Some of them are merely tunnels, to consolidate the stone quarries underneath Dolinska. The tunnels are used as pillars, to keep the city from sinking.”
“Or graves,” Simons replied in a haunted tone. Dorina shivered, and I failed to comment— I didn’t wish to get into that morbid conversation now.
We walked for a mile or more, until the sewer dried up and became nothing but a dry stone floor. No one spoke. It was morose— almost like we were going to a funeral.
I prayed it wasn’t our own.
The corridors lengthened, and widened. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone in the opposite corridor… someone who wasn’t with us. It was a woman, but I couldn’t make out her face in the darkness, though I could tell she wore a long black coat. When I locked eyes with her, she immediately scampered away.
We weren’t alone. Who else was down here?
My curiosity was stifled when Finlay nudged me, telling me to hurry up. I quickened my steps.
“There was a woman in the corridors, watching us,” I told Finlay. I felt uneasy.
“There are a few homeless people who take shelter in the catacombs at night. It’s nothing to be concerned about.We already surveyed the area before we planned this out. No one who means to do us any harm is down here.”
I wasn’t sure whether I could take him at his word, but I didn’t have a choice now. The corridor widened, until we were in a stone chamber about fifty feet across.
“We’re directly underneath Ceradyn Hall,” Professor Mara said, looking at a map. “The Circle should already be in session. We can start setting up the gunpowder.”
Dorina began pulling the kegs off of my back. The sorceresses untied the kegs from the backs of shifters, rolling them around the room and placing them in staggered spots.
