Ryan looked back at me. “How do you know that?”
“I felt it. It’s…. Randall and Morgan are scorched into the bones of the City of Lockes. Into the wood and stone. Everywhere. Morgan’s gone, and Randall’s only the gods know where, but their magic is still here. It’s… dissipated. But I would know it anywhere. I always felt it when I came back from our adventures. I always thought it was just a feeling of being home. But it’s… it’s them. Even the Darks haven’t been able to take that away. That’s a good thing.”
A hand squeezed my shoulder as I sighed.
Ryan nodded slowly. “That’s… great. That means we’re on the right track.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why do you sound so relieved? You said you knew where we were going!”
He shrugged. “It’s always good to have validation.”
“I’m onto you, Foxheart.”
“Sam, I told you. Not now. I’m obviously busy leading a mission to save the King.”
“God, that’s so hot when you get all Knight Commander.”
“Yeah?” he said, eyeing me up and down. “You like it when I take charge?”
“Oh yeah. If we weren’t standing in a fog of urine and fecal matter, I’d be all up in your shit.”
Ryan winced. “Might want to work on the phrasing.”
“Oh my gods,” Lady Tina moaned. “I hate everything.”
“It only gets worse,” Justin muttered.
“Justin, Tina, stop wasting time,” I scolded them. “Let’s get the fuck outta here, then, shall we? We have to be close. The slums weren’t that far from the gates of Lockes.”
They had matching looks of irritation on their faces. It would have been sweet if one of them hadn’t been Lady Tina in the skin of a man.
But whatever.
It took us only a little while longer before Ryan came to a stop next to rusted metal rungs that rose up the wall toward a sewer grate above. “I think this is it,” he said, squinting up. We could see patches of sky beyond the looming buildings, and the stars were fading into a lighter blue. We didn’t have much time before the City awoke to whatever it had become now. At the very least, I assumed there would be Darks in the streets. We needed to hurry.
“You sure?” Justin asked. “I could have sworn that we had a few more turns to go.”
“Pretty sure,” Ryan said. “I’ll go first. Check it out. Stay here.”
“Don’t you dare do anything stupid, Foxheart,” I growled at him. “If we need to move to the next one, we will. We can double back if we have to.”
He winked at me like a douchebag. But since I loved his face, I didn’t call him on it.
He dropped his pack on the wooden walkway and began to climb the ladder. I helped him by groping his ass under the guise of assisting him up the unsteady rungs.
“It’s so pretty,” I sighed.
“It really is,” Lady Tina agreed before coughing and shaking her head. “I mean, one would think you could at least control yourself in a sewer, Sam. However, the only thing shocking about this is how not shocked I am.”
“I was surprised at how easy I acclimated to the smell of the sewers,” I said mildly. “But then I realized I’d been near you for the last day or so and there’s not much of a difference in odors. Also, you look like an ugly man.”
Before she could reach for her sword and give me justification to Flora Bora Slam the hell out of her, Justin intervened. “Would you both shut up? We don’t have time for petty squabbles.”
“Yes, my Prince,” Lady Tina said, bowing low.
“Yes, my Prince,” I mocked under my breath.
I looked back up to see that Ryan had reached the sewer grate. His head was bent at an awkward angle as he tried to see around him before he attempted to lift the grate and set it aside. We weren’t going to disintegrate this one, given that it’d be more noticeable if it was missing.
Then an alarming thought hit me. “What about the map?”
Justin glanced at me. “What map?”
“The elven map. In your father’s office. Won’t that show us coming? As a threat?”
Justin shook his head. “It doesn’t work that way. It only shows villains with malicious intent. If anything, it’s probably swarming with Darks right now. Even if it showed us, we wouldn’t stand out. It’s one of the things I wish I could have grabbed when the City fell, but I didn’t have time.”
I swallowed past a lump in my throat at the thought of what he must have went through while I was gone. “I should have been there.”
“Maybe. Or maybe you did what you were meant to. It doesn’t matter now, Sam. What’s done is done. The only thing that matters at this very moment is getting to my father.”
Before I could respond, Ryan had made his way back down the ladder. “Road looks empty,” he said, wiping his hands on his trousers before picking his pack back up. “And the grate is easy to move.” He smiled quietly at me. “You’re not going to believe where we are.”
“Where?”
“You’ll see. Or you will if you remember. Come on. Sun’s coming up. The morning bells will start ringing soon.”
I waited a couple of rungs below Ryan while he grunted as he shoved the sewer grate up and over. He climbed up, then turned around and reached down to help me up. I didn’t need it, but since I had a chivalry kink, I allowed it, and absolutely did not giggle and flutter my eyelashes at him as we stood face-to-face, my hands upon his shoulders, the corners of his eyes crinkling slightly as he leaned in to—
“Seriously,” Justin said. “Now? You’re doing this now?”
I rolled my eyes and stepped away. “Once all of this is said and done and I’ve saved Verania from the clutches of evil, I’m going to find you a boyfriend so when you have special, intimate moments, I will be there to interrupt them like an asshole.”
“Good luck with that,” he muttered. “Because I don’t care about—what’s wrong?”
I barely heard him.
Because I was too busy taking in our surroundings.
Where we stood.
It was—
“Holy shit,” I whispered.
“Told you,” Ryan said, sliding the grate over the sewer again after Lady Tina climbed out.
“What is it?” she asked. Then she frowned. “Gods, these are the slums? It’s far worse than I ever imagined. And you came from here? No wonder you—”
“Not the time,” Justin snapped, and she looked sufficiently cowed.
“This is…,” I started but couldn’t find the words to continue.
Ryan came to stand beside me. “I stood just there,” he said near my ear, pointing down the cracked cobblestone road that stretched out before us. “I didn’t know why I was so upset to see you walking away with Morgan. I hated you. You were annoying and stupid, and I thought I’d be happy to see you go. I told myself I was just angry because you were getting to have a life I would never have. That it was unfair.”
“But you were just already lusting after me.”
“You were eleven.”
“Okay, maybe not lusting.”
“You turned back and waved at me. Just once. And then you were gone.”
“I remember. It was….” I shook my head. “I don’t know what it was. Funny how things turn out.”
His smile was a beautiful thing. “Yeah. Funny how things work out.”
“Are you two finished?” Justin asked. “Because we don’t have much time.”
I glared over my shoulder at him. “Excuse me. We’re being romantic. It’s not as if—”
The morning bells began to echo over the City.
“Shit,” Ryan said. “We need to move. Now. Sam?”
“Got it. I know where we are now. You’re sure it’s empty?”
He nodded but wouldn’t look me in the eye for reasons I didn’t understand. “It’s empty. Lead the way.”
I didn’t have time to question him. I moved toward an alley to our left, the others following.