frost dragon blinked, losing some of his icy demeanor. “I am?”
“Yes. They’re here, but of course they aren’t just hanging out between graves. They like to hide. Under our noses.”
Several of the others understood what Rakell was saying now.
“They’re here. Look for a mausoleum that has been used. There must be an entrance somewhere. The crypts are under us!”
The dragons fanned out, but having been first to figure it out, Rakell had already narrowed his search.
“Got it,” he rumbled when he found the bone-white stone monument.
The floor was scuffed with recent use. Somewhere inside was the entrance to the crypts. And the Cado.
A ball of fire appeared in his hand, then floated forward. Rakell was taking no chances now. The Cado were sure to have booby-trapped it.
“Someone get me a rock,” he growled, looking at the footmarks on the floor. They moved in a pattern, avoiding a certain area as they went inside the huge structure.
He held his hands out and someone put a heavy object in them. Rakell glanced at it. It was a tombstone.
“Really?” he asked, looking back at Lara.
She just shrugged, like it was nothing.
“Fine. We don’t have time,” he growled, and pushed the stone across the floor, following the path of scuffs.
Nothing happened.
“Walk where I walk,” he said, crouching low, pushing the stone out in front of him as far as he could.
He rounded the corner, and was greeted with the sight of stairs descending into the earth. The only light was from his ball of flame. Into the darkness they went.
Gotcha.
Moving slowly, the shifters filed into the mausoleum after him, moving down into the bowels of the earth. Rakell wasn’t sure if the chamber was natural, or if the Cado earth dragon Nisour had created it before Blede had ended his life.
Just then, he didn’t care either.
He reached the bottom, and the others began to fan out around him. The room was small. Ahead of them a stone wall, on three other sides, hard packed earth. The shape of a door could be seen in the stone, and all the marks on the floor led straight to it.
“Time to say hello,” Rakell said.
He picked up the gravestone and, with a word of apology to the dead, hurled it at the door.
The door exploded under the impact. Rakell was right behind it, leading the charge.
He expected to find the Cado startled and leaping to readiness.
Instead, he found them in a line, facing the door, Cratom at their head.
The giant head of the Cado smiled unpleasantly.
“Ah, the clansmen. Good. We’ve been expecting you.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Rakell
Cratom was there. Brun too.
“Anzer,” Rakell hissed as his eyes found the Cado third in command.
Blue eyes twitched, fixing on Rakell, filling with malicious hatred, but Anzer said nothing. His black hair matted to his head, though whether with sweat or some sort of gel Rakell wasn’t sure. It was hot in here, he realized as warm air heated the room.
“It’s over Cratom,” Warren said, working his way to the front. “Give up now, and you’ll live.”
Not you Anzer, Rakell thought, his gaze promising a painful death to the Cado. Not you.
Cratom laughed, the noise echoing wildly in the underground chamber. “Give up? Why would I do that?”
“In case you haven’t noticed,” Warren said, voice even. “You’re trapped, and you’re outnumbered.”
“I’m trapped?” Cratom sneered. “No, I believe you are the ones trapped. After all, you’ve come down into my little playground.”
Rakell focused on the Cado leader. Something about him seemed…not right. He’d never met Cratom, though Rakell knew what the asshole looked like, and would gladly burn that ugly look from his face if given the chance. Still, something seemed…off, from the description he’d received.
Unhinged.
“You can’t win,” Warren said as the clan shifters reacted to Cratom’s threat.
Fire blossomed at the center of their ranks, Rakell lending his own light. In the very center, cool frost congealed around Warren’s legs, fog tinging the air. On the flanks, lightning flickered and jumped as a pair of storm dragons revealed their powers, one anchoring either end.
Cratom laughed.
Rakell frowned, focusing on Brun, the Cado second in command. He was glancing at his boss warily. Like he didn’t approve of what he was hearing.
“Brun,” Rakell said, taking a chance. “Surrender. Live in prison.”
They were Laura’s words coming from his mouth. Rakell didn’t like it, but he knew that if he could end things without bloodshed, it would benefit the clans far more than it would the Cado. He had to try.
Besides, Laura would approve.
“I am the leader of the