“Z, Savlian, and Aodhan, you're on point. Ristan, any hiccups you have seen?” Ryder asked.
Ristan narrowed his eyes on me and shook his head. “None,” he replied slowly. I narrowed my eyes on him and grinned. Even though he knew my skills, he was probably thinking I would be a problem, and I wouldn’t be. I was in my element here. Well, I was, unless it was another set up.
The men all got down low, so I followed their lead. We moved forward with everyone crouched low until they rounded a large, dark, square sunroof. Ryder placed his hand on the glass and whispered something in that strange language that I had heard him use a couple of times now, which made the glass vanish. I blinked and tilted my head a little. Ristan smiled at me as he took in my look of surprise. They were all talking in hushed tones, and I caught the word “warded,” and smiled.
“No, it's completely warded. It was only supposed to be pressure sensors. Fuck! They have it warded against Fae. You try and go down there, and we will have every guard in the building on our asses in a heartbeat,” Ristan said to Ryder, who shrugged as if he couldn’t care less.
“We need that fucking scepter, period. We can't see whatever bullshit magic they are using without it. No matter which way you look at it, Ristan, we need that scepter to finish what we came to this world to do. If we don’t get it now, they will try to move it. We can’t take the chance of losing them again,” Ryder argued.
I listened with one ear to the two of them whispering at each other. Knowing they had a mental link, they must have been hissing out loud for the rest of us in the hope that someone might have a constructive idea for this clusterfuck. No plan ‘B’ my ass. I rolled my eyes and quickly took in the lasers inside the room, gauged the distance to the floor and how hard it would be to get there, and took in the time calculation of how many seconds I’d have before I needed to move from each spot. I started unraveling my belt as I continued to count them, and stopped only to look around for the heaviest thing on the roof to secure it to. I smiled as they continued to argue in heated whispers over how they would get in.
They were still arguing when I started from a dead run, and flew through the air, over Savlian who had come back to see what the issue was, and had just leaned over to look at the problem.
“Synthia!” Ryder let out a strangled curse as I hooked my leg in midair, and looped it through the thin rope that had been hidden inside my belt. I looked up at the shocked faces of the fourteen men, and smiled. Ryder wasn't smiling; he had an alarmed look on his face, until I flipped and landed on my feet perfectly between three lasers. I wouldn’t set the wards off because the sensors would not recognize me as Fae. Or, at least, that’s what I hoped after Alden’s revelation about me being some sort of Druid Fae; that it would make me different enough and get me in undetected.
“That was fucking hot as hell,” Sevrin said with a small grin. He looked up to catch the glare Ryder had leveled on him. “What? It was!”
“If you guys are done, I need you to point out which scepter you want, since they have twelve down here,” I whispered as I looked up into angry golden eyes. Twelve glass display cases, mounted to solid wooden pedestals, were interspersed throughout the room, and each held what looked like an eighteen-inch long oak branch displayed in each case. Based on the plans, I had expected the room to be like a storage room and, instead, it looked more like a museum.
“Second case to your left, Syn. Be careful, it's connected to an alarm wire.” Ryder exhaled slowly and shook his head as his eyes warned that my ass would be pink after this little escapade.
I looked across the dark room and counted the cases with my fingers in the dark room. I didn't move, though. I'd studied the room and had a feeling about what was coming, unlike Ryder, who almost called out as I went flat against the floor from a full standing position, as glowing red laser shot out of the wall and ran a waist level scan of the room.
“Close,” Zahruk whispered.
“Synthia, are you okay?” Ristan asked.
I didn't answer, as yet another laser beeped and shot through the room. This one was lower than the first, and it searched more of the room as a whole. Shit. Another laser shot out, even lower, until it touched the lasers I now laid beside. I waited for it to finish scanning before I carefully looped my leg back through the rope. Another laser shot out, lower again. I waited. Another, lower again. Still waiting. The next one would give me away.