I called upon my Phantom magic, using my ghostly blue glow to illuminate the building. It was even smaller on the inside, a tiny round space that barely fit the two of us.
“Quick thinking.” Roarke stood. Mostly. He had to crouch because the ceiling was so low.
“Maybe,” I said, suddenly doubting my actions. What if I’d trapped us forever?
“What the hell is this place?” Roarke asked.
I inspected it, catching sight of something on the ground. I knelt to get a better look, discovering an old fuse for dynamite along with a wire that led out of the building.
“I think it was a blast house. I’ve read about these.” I pointed to the equipment. “They’d blow up parts of the mountain to get at the slate. But they’d hide in here while they did it, so they didn’t get crushed.”
Roarke reached up and touched the ceiling. “Glad this place held up, then.”
“Yeah.” I stood and went to the entrance. Jagged pieces of slate formed a wall of indeterminate thickness. Who knew how big this pile of rock was?
“I’m going to walk through it in my Phantom form,” I said. “Maybe I can move the rocks.”
“No.” Roarke’s voice was sharp. “Morwena said the Coblynau can kill you even in your Phantom form. You wouldn’t have time before they got to you.”
“Then what do we do? Do you think you can blast us out of here?”
Roarke shrugged. “I’m going to have to try.”
I flattened myself against the back wall, and Roarke went to the entrance. His magic filled the hut, the taste of wine and the smell of sandalwood growing strong, which just made me think—what I wouldn’t give for a mug of my boxed wine and a few hours on my couch right now…
The tornado of black mist formed around Roarke. A moment later, he stood transformed, his clothing gone and replaced with an expanse of dark gray muscle and massive wings. Though he folded them in toward himself and crouched down, there was still barely enough room for the two of us.
He spoke in his gravelly demon voice as he turned to me. “If we manage this, be ready to run. It’s not going to be quiet, and the Coblynau will notice.”
I nodded.
He turned back to the entrance. His magic surged again as he heaved his fist back and then punched the wall of slate. The stone exploded outward, and my heart leapt.
But no daylight flooded in.
Roarke walked into the hole he’d created, but it was barely anything at all.
“Too much slate to go that way,” he said.
Damn.
“Come here.” He gestured to me.
I stood and walked to him. He scooped me up in his arms, clutching me to his chest.
“What the heck?” I asked.
“We’re going through the roof. But you have to come with me, or you’ll be crushed by the falling rock once the roof is destroyed.”
“I can just go through as a Phantom,” I said.
“I know.” His brows drew together and he hesitated. “It’s just that…when I’m near you—touching you—my power is enhanced.”
“What?” That sounded crazy.
“I don’t know if it’s because of what you are and the fact that I’m the Warden of the Underworld, but contact with you increases my power.”
That was weird. I’d have to unpack and examine that later. “Um, okay, then. But do you think busting out through the roof will work?”
“I hope so.”
It was better than me trying to fight off the Coblynau while trying to dig him out, so I nodded and curled up against his chest, trying to make myself as small as possible.
Roarke crouched low to the ground, his wings wrapped around us so that we formed a bullet-like shape, then pushed off with a massive surge of force.
We hurtled upward, crashing through the roof and up into the sky. The blast of slate was enormous, scattering the stuff all over the mountain. When we began to fall, Roarke extended his wings, a groan of pain escaping him as he did so.
I looked up, catching sight of his wings, torn and tattered. Blood poured down his forehead and dripped from his wings.
Oh shit.
His wings slowed our descent to the ground, but there was no way he could fly. I just hoped he could walk. We landed with a thud, Roarke stumbling to his knees.
I leapt out of his arms and knelt in front of him, tilting his chin up. His face was covered in blood. His wings were a broken mess behind him.
“I thought magic protected you when you broke through things like this!” I cried. “You tore through Tintagel Castle with no problem!”
“It protects me…mostly.” He swayed on his feet. “That was a lot…of jagged slate.”
Laughter sounded around us, growing louder and closer. I glanced up. The Coblynau—a dozen of them, at least—leapt out from behind piles of slate and slid down the loose rocks toward us.
“We gotta go,” I said.
Roarke staggered to his feet, but was slow.
One of the miserable little goblins was nearly to us. My skin chilled. I couldn’t let him touch us!
I shot him with an icicle. It threw him back about twenty feet, but when he finally stood, another Coblynau appeared right next to him.
The doubling that Morwena had mentioned.
Damn it.
“Can you run?” I asked Roarke as I shot another Coblynau, willing to duplicate a few of them if it meant keeping them off us long enough for Roarke to recover.
He nodded, straightening and stretching. “Yeah, let’s go.”
We sprinted off, tumbling and sliding down the pile of slate until we found the metal tracks again. We raced along them and up another ramp, into the mist that shrouded the very top of the mountain.
The Coblynau followed, their eerie laughter attracting more of their kind. It was hard to see them through the mist. It was hard to see anything. Visibility had been cut to only twenty feet.
We gained speed as Roarke recovered, sprinting up the last bit of ramp and turning left, following the track.
For fate’s sake, I hoped we were near the top! I knocked on my head for good measure, nearly missing the fact that the track disappeared into thin air in front of us.
Roarke grabbed my arm, yanking me to a halt.
“Shit.” My eyes popped out as I took in the old iron track disappearing into empty space. The ground beneath the track had fallen away at some point, leaving nothing but air. The track had followed, and now hung eerily off into nothingness. Forty feet away, the ground started up again. I could even see a bit of track on that side.
But there was no way to get there. Just a massive pit in the middle from a rockfall.
I glanced at Roarke, whose wings hung limply behind him.
The Coblynau’s laughter grew louder.
Double shit.
“I can try to fly,” Roarke said.
“We’d fall out of the sky.”
It was one thing to bring a boat up out of the water. It was entirely another to bring back a mountain. That was too much. Far too difficult.
An idea sparked.
It was only forty feet across. I could do this. I had to do this.
Ice was just a Cat 2 power. Easier to manipulate. It would work.