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I was so lost in the joy of running alongside Evelyn and absorbed in the amplified senses of my animal form, that I didn’t notice the wall until we were nearly upon it. I slowed and skidded to a halt. Evelyn stopped alongside me and placed her hands on her head, breathing hard. I considered the vertical iron bars posted across the opening of the tunnel. Beyond the bars, the tunnel was boarded up, with wooden planks covering the opening. I nosed around at the feet of the iron bars, searching for the scent of the others who must have passed this way.
“Did we miss a turn?” Evelyn asked.
I growled softly and shook my head. They’d been here, I could smell it. But then they’d disappeared. Something about the bars tugged at my memory. I’d seen this somewhere before. I transformed so I could use my magic and confer with Evelyn.
“They were here,” I said. “But they didn’t go that way.” I pointed toward the bars.
“Did they…” She paused and made an explosion gesture with her hands. “Poof,” she added.
I snorted. “Maybe. If Sorcha knew where they were.” But how would she have known? I turned to face the bars. “Wait,” I said. “I think I know where we are.” I raised my hand, palm facing the bars, and cast a revealing spell. Markings in the planks began to glow.
“What are those marks?” Evelyn asked.
“Wards. Fae wards. It’s a protection spell, meant to keep out creatures who mean to harm us.” I let the spell fade and turned to face Evelyn. “But what’s more important is that I know where we are.”
She gestured toward the now-invisible marks. “From those?”
“No,” I said. “I think I ended up on the other side of these marks when I was exploring in the cellar at your uncle’s house.”
“Are you saying that this tunnel leads back to Lydbury?”
I nodded. “I’m not positive, but how many other boarded-up tunnels can there be just lying about underground near here?”
She raised her eyebrows.
“Yes. Okay. Valid point.” I crossed my arms. “Perhaps it’s best not to conjure us across, then.”
“What would happen if you’re wrong?”
“We’d be stuck between.”
“With no air?”
I nodded.
She shook her head. “What else have you got?”
“I think we could pass through the wards. I’d just need to create an opening.”
“But those are iron bars.”
“Iron is Fae friendly. It’s the man-made stuff that doesn’t agree with us. Watch.” I ran my hands over the bars and felt the metal heat under my touch until it became like taffy. Then I stretched and bent the bars to create a space wide enough to walk through.
Evelyn tiptoed forward and reached out a hand to touch the bars.
I caught her hand in midair. “It’s still hot.”
“That’s amazing,” she said.
I shrugged. “That’s just the first part. Now we have to get past the wards.” I stepped through the bars and placed my hands on the planks covering the opening. Then I muttered an incantation my mother had taught me years ago. It was the same incantation that unlocked the cottage where she lived, and where Arabella, Fiona, and I had grown up.
The wards glowed, giving off a pale-green light. Then a crack appeared. One vertical seam running from floor to ceiling. I slid my hands along the rough, unfinished wood until they were alongside the seam. Then I pressed. The wood groaned and crackled when I pressed against it, but the gap widened. I pressed harder, pushing until the gap was big enough for us to shimmy through.
“I’ll go first,” I said.
Evelyn nodded.
I slipped through the gap and cast a light down the dark tunnel. My paw prints still marked the dirt covering the tunnel floor. I poked my head through the gap and called to Evelyn to follow.
