“Oh, shut up.” Gemma stood, but not too quickly. “You know,” she reasoned, “if that’s really a fortune—”
“If?”
“Maybe you should keep it and fund your own army.”
Keeley got to her feet. “But we promised them. We promised to get this for the dwarves.”
“We almost died for this.”
“I don’t care. I’m not going to go back on my word.”
“Keeley . . . for all we know, the elves aren’t the only ones that have a deal with Beatrix.”
“If there’s one thing I do know about our sister . . . she has never cared about anything that has to do with blacksmithing. And that’s all the Amichai dwarves care about. Besides, Beatrix’s word may mean nothing at the end of the day, but mine does. I’m taking this back to them. Like I promised.”
“It’s foolish.”
“Fine. It’s foolish,” Keeley muttered as she turned to look down at the thing that had tried to kill them.
With her back turned, Gemma couldn’t help but smile a little. Yes, it was definitely foolish that Keeley would return something so valuable to the dwarves when they had done nothing to get it themselves, but she loved that her sister was true to her word. It would probably get her killed one day, but you know . . . everything had a downside.
“I feel so bad for him,” Keeley said, still gazing at the thing on the floor.
“Are you kidding?” Gemma asked. “It tried to kill us.”
“He saw us as a threat.”
“It saw us as dinner.”
“Because he was being starved. Look at these chains. They were using him for something.” She shook her head. “It’s just cruel.”
“Keeley . . . I know what you’re thinking. And don’t you dare—gods-dammit, Keeley!” Gemma exploded when the cuff around the thing’s neck fell to the ground.
Only the best blacksmiths—and the daughters they taught—knew that all dwarven cuffs had a secret release mechanism. It was a way for dwarves to ensure they never got trapped in their own chains.
“You are ridiculous!” Gemma yelled.
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Keeley sighed out as she walked toward the exit. “It was just the neck cuff. If he truly isn’t dead, he still has the leg cuffs binding him. But now he has a chance to be free.”
“All that sounds great, Sister, except that the neck cuff was the only one imbued with protective magicks.” Gemma pointed at the runes burned into the collar. “The others aren’t.”
Keeley stopped, looked at her sister. “What kind of protective magicks?”
Gemma shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m sure something that helps to keep it bound here.”
“See? That’s just cruel. He shouldn’t be bound anywhere. He should be—”
“Keeley, I don’t want to hear it.”
“Fine.” They again started toward the exit but Keeley abruptly stopped and looked down.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“What’s what?”
“What we’re walking on.” Keeley bent over and lifted something up. “What the hells is this?”
Gemma leaned close to see what Keeley had spread all over her hand. “That’s hair.” Very lush. Very black with some red streaks hair.
As one, the sisters’ gazes lifted and they stared at each other.
“Or maybe,” Gemma said with dread, “it wasn’t a protective spell but a binding spell.”
“A binding spell?”
“That can prevent something from being at, shall we say, full strength.”
“And once that binding spell is removed?”
Gemma didn’t answer. She really couldn’t at the moment. Not when she heard that . . . breathing behind her. The loud breathing of a very large, very pissed-off animal.
Without turning around, Gemma screamed, “Run!”
* * *
Caid continued to pace in front of the cave entrance.
“Where the fuck are they?” he finally asked his sister.
“I don’t know. But I’m not waiting any longer.” She pulled out her steel spear, hitting a latch that caused the weapon to extend several more feet. “We’re going in and we’re going to find—”
The roar that exploded from inside the cave caught them all off guard, but only Quinn was crazy enough to immediately move in closer. Then he laughed.
“I love these women!” he crowed, oblivious to any danger. As always.
Caid grabbed his brother by the hair and yanked him back, seconds before the Smythe sisters charged from the darkness of the cave, the demon wolves right behind them.
“It’s not my fault!” Keeley chanted as she ran by him. “It’s not my fault! It’s not my fault!”
Gemma was right behind her sister until she spun around to face the entrance.
“Move back! All of you!” she roared.
Then Caid heard it again. They all did. That angry, ball-shrinking roar. One Caid