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I nodded. “I wished we knew what exactly the combination of the three Claws did.”
“You have the Codex—why not ask it?”
“I might have to, given how little luck we’re having finding answers elsewhere.”
Whether it would answer was another matter entirely. It might hold all the knowledge of the old gods, but there was no certainty it would pass said information on to me.
But that was a worry for another day.
“Don’t forget to set your alarm,” Lugh said. “And make sure you lock the door.”
I rolled my eyes at him, and he laughed. “You’re just annoyed that I said it before you could for a change.”
I couldn’t deny that particular truth, so I pulled a face at him and headed back into my room. After locking the door, I leaned the sword against the wall, then pressed my hands across the small gap between the frame and old door. Thankfully, both were made of a good hardwood rather than softer, cheaper pine, and their song was unhindered by the layers of stain. I gently eased into the rivers of gold, caught multiple fibers, and then carefully wove them together, forming a bond between the two that wouldn’t easily be broken. After repeating the process with the window, I stripped off, had a shower, then fell into bed.
Sleep hit quickly, but so too did prophetic dreams. At first, they were little more than fragmented images—an old tunnel hung with curtains of slime and shored up by wood older than time itself. A lake of thick black water surrounding an island with no trees. An old wooden chest protected by bony fingers of fluorescent green. As the night moved on, these images gave way to a chaotic mix that revealed little but seemed filled with danger, death, deception, and desire. The latter I understood, because hey, it had been four days since I’d seen Cynwrig, but the visions of deception and death worried me, especially when they were scant on details. It made for a restless night.
The alarm woke me just after five-thirty. I scrubbed a hand across my eyes in an effort to rub away tiredness, then sighed, climbed out of bed, and stumbled into the bathroom. After a quick shower that didn’t do much to wake me, I got dressed and then separated the door from the frame. After shoving the sword back into the banner carry bag—the only thing we could find to easily hide its shape—I grabbed my purse and overnight bag, then went downstairs to meet Lugh.
He was in an annoyingly cheerful mood.
Thankfully, he’d had the foresight to google the nearest takeaways, and had discovered a McDonald’s only a small detour away from the hotel. An egg and bacon McMuffin, several hash browns, and a large white tea later, I was definitely feeling more normal.
Which most would say was a relative term when it came to all things me.
Once we were on the road home again, Lugh said, “Care to explain the grumpiness? You’re not usually so snarly in the mornings.”
I grimaced. “Sorry. Didn’t get much sleep.”
“For any particular reason? Or shouldn’t I ask?”
I half grinned. “It wasn’t sexual frustration, if that’s what you’re inferring. Besides, I’m perfectly capable of dealing with that if necessary.”
“Aren’t we all?” he said sagely.
I gave him the look. “If you’re still self-satisfying, you’ve only yourself to blame. Darby is ready, willing, and able—”
“Stop derailing the conversation,” he cut in, obviously not wanting to discuss Darby’s state of readiness or maybe even contemplate his own. “What stopped you sleeping?”
“Mostly unclear dreams, but I did see what looked to be an old treasure chest sitting on an underground island surrounded by a jet-black, somewhat oily-looking lake.”
“The location for the ring, maybe?”
“Possibly. We were talking about it just before I went to bed.”
“If it’s underground and shored up with wood, then we’re possibly dealing with an old mine, especially given the oil.”
“There’s not that many unexplored mines left these days, is there?”
“More than you might think. Plenty are too deep and dangerous to explore.”
“I’m betting that if what I sawisa mine, it’ll be one of them.”
He laughed. “It’s likely the only way an old wooden chest would have been left untouched.”
“I’m thinking the fluorescent green fingers might also have had something to do with that.”
“You have your magic-killing knives, so that won’t be a problem.”
