Better yet, there was a tiny gargoyle only a few steps away, hung to the wall with silver manacles.
With a muttered prayer of thanks, Juliet rushed to tug on the cuffs. Her witch blood gave her immunity to the silver, while her imp blood gave her enough strength to loosen the metal and allow Levet to squirm free.
“At last,” the gargoyle muttered with a distinct lack of gratitude. “I thought you had decided to leave me to rot in this godforsaken cave.”
Juliet futilely tried to knock the dirt from her pants. “It is a notion with growing appeal. Are you hurt?”
“Of course I am hurt.” Levet turned, wiggling his one remaining gossamer wing. “Can you not see I am missing a wing?”
She grimaced. “Are you able to walk on your own?”
Levet sniffed. “Gargoyles are renowned for their ability to overcome pain and perform heroic feats that stun and amaze the demon world.”
“Yes, well, the only heroic feat I desire is getting out of here.” She shivered. “As swiftly as possible.”
“That is my specialty.”
Expecting Levet to leave the same way she had entered, Juliet frowned as the gargoyle instead crawled between two large boulders and disappeared from sight.
With a shake of her head, Juliet bent downward, discovering a small tunnel.
“What are you doing?”
“Following the night.”
“But…”
“Trust me.”
Condemning the cramped tunnels and annoying gargoyles to the netherworld, Juliet crawled through the small space. Once she returned to Victor’s lair, she intended to spend hours soaking in a hot bath.
At last reaching a connecting tunnel, Juliet straightened to find Levet waiting with an impatient expression.
“This way,” he urged, waddling with surprising speed through the darkness.
“You are certain?” she demanded, only to sigh in resignation as he continued on without so much as a backward glance. Following in his wake, she ruefully reminded herself that she had willingly chosen to rescue the aggravating gargoyle, even if at the moment she longed to give him a good shake. “You have not yet explained how you were captured by the Jinn.”
“He”—Levet halted to clear his throat—“caught me off guard.”
“Hmmm. You are hiding something from me.”
He hunched his shoulders, refusing to turn as he doggedly continued down the tunnel.
“It was not my fault.”
“What was not your fault?”
“I thought there was a nest of pixies, so I decided to perform a bit of magic to impress them.”
“Oh, lord,” Juliet muttered. She was familiar enough with Levet’s dubious magic to presume that it had been nothing less than a disaster. “What happened?”
Levet paused, then turned down a side tunnel, his tail twitching behind him.
“There might have been the smallest of explosions.”
Juliet frowned. Although she suspected that Levet’s notion of a small explosion was a good deal more spectacular than her own, she knew there must be more to his tale than he was revealing.
“Did you wound the Jinn?”