“These are good. I’m ready.” I grounded myself as we crossed the lawn to the remains of Castle Hall.
The ruins were in bad shape, though—unlike Angel’s house—they were still standing. Weathering and neglect had taken their toll, along with the inevitable march of time. Some of the walls were still standing, while others had caved in and crumbled. The roof was still in place, which both surprised me and made me nervous, given we were going inside. Nothing about Castle Hall looked stable, but I figured since the city owned the park, if they thought the house was going to fall down and kill somebody, surely they would have cordoned it off.
The mansion had been huge, three stories high, and it looked like most of the impacted walls were on the upper levels. A corner wall on the third story had crumbled, and on the second story a number of windows had been broken out, and the half-walls beneath them were broken through. Up close, especially under the cover of night, the great house loomed like some massive, threatening shadow.
“And we’re going in there,” I murmured.
“Yeah, that’s about the size of it,” Viktor said, letting out a slow breath.
I glanced over at Yutani, wondering how his fighting skills were. He had his phone in one hand, and in his other, he carried what looked like a barbed dagger. I raised my eyebrows.
“That looks wicked.” I pointed to the blade.
In the light of our flashlights, the smile he gave me looked feral, and his eyes flashed with a topaz light. He patted the blade against his jeans.
“Oh, she is. The blade has a silver alloy coating, and beneath it, iron. Whether I go up against vampire or Fae, it will do the trick. The Wulfine don’t care for it either, but I’ve seldom had altercations with them, although they don’t like us coyote shifters much.”
That surprised me. “I would think you get along. You’re both…canine.” That came out wrong and I grimaced, but Yutani just laughed.
“But not all dogs pack together. The Wulfine see us as dirty mongrels, not noble like they claim to be. While the coyote shifters are street smart and cunning. Sometimes the Wulfine have too many rules for their own good. We know how to fight dirty and are willing to do so when necessary.” And with that, he shrugged and motioned for me to be quiet. “We’re close enough to be heard.”
I wanted to point out that we had our flashlights on. Even if they didn’t hear us, they could probably see us if they happened to be looking out a window. But I figured the guys had done this before, so I kept my mouth shut.
We crossed to the front door. At first I thought we should go through the back, but it occurred to me that since nobody was supposed to be living here, and all of the dirty work had been belowground. If anybody but the ghosties were hiding out inside, they were probably down in the subterranean hideout.
Herne went first, with Yutani second. I came third and Viktor took the rear, keeping an eye on our backs so that we weren’t surprised from behind. I liked the idea of having an ogre covering my ass. It made me feel secure, though I had no doubt that both Herne and Yutani could hold their own in a fight.
But Herne didn’t go directly to the front door. He skirted the outside of the building around to the left, and then, when we were by the side, he crept to one of the windows. I frowned, but then I caught a glimpse of Yutani’s phone—the blue light was even more visible than our flashlights—and saw that he had some sort of GPS going. It didn’t look like a regular map, so I guessed he had plotted out the projected route we needed to take.
Herne ran his fingers along the windowsill. Then he took out a small crowbar and pried the window open. At first, it didn’t want to budge, but then it let out a creak as the wooden frame jogged free from the sill. Once it was open a couple inches, he put the crowbar away and put some muscle into it, heaving up the frame to expose enough space for us to crawl through. Leaning in, he flashed his light on the floor, then slipped through the opening.
Yutani followed him, and then it was my turn. Viktor started to offer me a leg up, but I was already half through, swinging my legs over the sill and finding my footing beside Herne. Viktor heaved himself through, and we were in.
I glanced around. The lights of our flashlight offered enough visibility for me to see that we were in what must have been a parlor of sorts. It smelled like mold and dust, and I shivered as an unexpected blast of cold air swept past.
“Ghost,” Yutani said softly, keeping his voice low.
“They gather here,” Herne said. “You said the trap door is in here?”
Yutani nodded. “It should be over by that bookshelf somewhere.” He nodded toward a built-in that was filled with decaying books. I grimaced as we moved toward the shelves.
“What a waste, to let all of the books go to ruin.” I loved to read and it pissed me off to see so many books destroyed.
Yutani began to search along the floor as Herne took one side of the bookshelf and Viktor the other. We had been looking for some sort of trigger button for about five minutes when I realized that something on the shelves looked out of place. I stood back, eyeing the bookcase, squinting as I tried to figure out what was off. And then I realized what it was. One book looked almost new amidst the sodden mass of pulp and paper. I crossed over to it, shining my flashlight on it. The title read Aladdin’s Lamp.
I motioned to the men. “Found it, I think.” I pointed to the book. “It looks almost new, so it’s probably not a real book. Can we say ‘Open sesame’?”
Yutani’s eyes gleamed as he gave me an appreciatory nod. Herne let out a grunt that was almost a laugh. He clapped me on the shoulder.
“Good work. I knew you’d be an advantage on the team.” He motioned for us to stand back as Yutani checked around the book.
“What are you looking for?” I kept my voice low, still worried we were being observed.
“Any visible traps.” Yutani poked and prodded the decaying books to both sides, then shrugged. “Looks clear to me. Most people don’t seem to read much, so I assume they figured nobody would notice.”
“Here goes nothing.” Herne pulled the book and it tipped forward with a click. To the right side, part of the built-in opened—a door in the unit. We were staring into a small dark room with a spiral staircase leading down.
“Okay, then. Here we are.” Yutani consulted his phone. “Down the staircase should put us near the place that the summoning ritual was held. Let me take the lead. I can see in the dark easier. From here on, we’ll have to rely on the light from the dimlim.”
“The what?” I had never heard the word before.
“Dimlim—slang for one of our gadgets. It’s a low-light illumination device, which basically gives us just enough light to see by, and won’t attract much attention. It’s not like a beacon, unless it’s pitch dark, and even then it can be mistaken for several things. Think low-level green light.” He flipped the switch on a gadget that was attached to his belt and turned off his phone. “Flashlights off.”
Sure enough, at that point, the darkness encroached and I could see in front of me, but not by much. Just enough to see directly in front of me. Yutani swung onto the spiral staircase and we followed him down.
The staircase was steel, and there was no way to hide the sound of our footsteps. I noticed that Herne’s steps could barely be heard, while the rest of us made what sounded to me like a racket, even though we did our best to move quietly.