Page 108 of Love & Heart Braking

“What do you keep in there?” the unicorn asked.

I picked my way down the slope. The ground here was boggy and uneven. Devereaux had stopped me falling on my ass three times already. “No one knows. I’m going to look one day.”

That seemed to puzzle Bain and Gug.

“Let’s keep things quiet now,” Devereaux said low. “Follow me.”

We were all dressed in tight black clothing even though no one had discussed what to wear in advance. Guess it made sense with what we were planning to do.

Save a daemon.

My stomach swooped. How the actual hell was I here? Bain being here made sense. Devereaux? Total sense. And Gug was a gen one—no doubt with a few tricks up her sleeves.

Me? Nope.

My ability to follow bonds aside, this was no place for Venus’s line.

An eerie, creeping sensation like spiders crawling over my back intensified as I scanned the misty terrain. We had to be close to the moats. I shivered again at the thought of submerging in their depths. The canals may look shallow from the top, but beneath was an underwater mansion as expansive as any of the other estates we’d been to.

“Keep low,” Dev murmured. “Camera to the left.”

I didn’t bother looking, obeying his order. Gug did the same beside me. Though, if we were being technical, when Bain and Devereaux stooped, they were as tall as Gug standing upright.

We continued hunched for a time before Devereaux crouched. I stopped beside him and adopted the same position, feeling his eyes on me.

I winked, but my attempt at humor did nothing to alleviate the grave set to his mouth. One of his eyes was blue, so I could assume that he and his predator had come to some sort of arrangement about how the order of events would go tonight.

“What do you see?” Gug whispered to me.

A thick pink ribbon threaded through her chest, shooting off to the far right before plunging beneath the surface. I lifted an arm. “He’s that way. Under the water.”

She closed her eyes, shuddering. “That’s abhorrent to a daemon. They are fire.”

Bain rolled out the map of the Dethnels’ estate, and we studied the moat system. I lined up the map with what we were looking at, then tapped the laminated paper. “He’s over in this area as best as I can tell.”

The unicorn traced from where I’d tapped back to our position through the squiggling mess of canals. “We can’t cross by land.” He traced back, shaking his head and restarting again with a different route. And then another.

“Here.” Devereaux pointed to an entry point further to our left and away from Maligni. The krakens’ underwater network really was like a maze, and the direct route made the least sense unless a person was walking by land or flying—which was a sure way to get caught.

“Agreed,” Bain said after a beat.

I triple-checked the route. “Bain, you’ll be on navigation?”

He nodded, peering into the distance. Looking for Soleil?

Devereaux would keep an eye and ear out for anything amiss. Gug would be our magical lookout. She’d kept her powers under wrap but judging by how she’d plucked off her blur charm, she had a command over magic. When Soleil had asked how she’d contribute to the mission, all Gug said was “Magic eater.” Goblins were nearly as secretive as unicorns, but the term did ring a bell.

And me? I’d focus on the ribbon.

I took a steadying breath as Devereaux passed out the human rebreathing things. We’d practiced with them before setting out, but I trusted the gadgets not at all. What if one of the tubes hooked on something?

Slipping off my sneakers and socks, I shoved everything in the waterproof black bag that Devereaux would have on him. I placed the rebreather vest over my head and let Devereaux tighten the fastenings that would keep the black case firm against my chest. Blue hoses extended from the case and connected to a mouthpiece that would apparently help me stay alive.

Humans sure were strange.

Devereaux fiddled with the green bottle thing reading Oxygen O2, then checked the two display things attached to my gear. He did the same with his things, then checked over the others’ things. Gug then did a second sweep of the things.

We were sorted.

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