don’t imagine it’ll be much, and I don’t really understand what you need it for, but you might be able to get some from there.”
“How would we, you know, get it out? Extract it?”
“You’d have to work that out yourselves. And you have to bear in mind that it’s not just as easy as digging it out. Palladium is found inside nickel-copper deposits. It needs to be refined in order to become the element that you need.”
I massaged my temples. “We can’t do that.”
“Actually, we can, Mack Attack.” The enthusiasm had returned to Alex’s voice. “It’s basic mage science. I can probably even do it on site at the mine. If we can just find it, I can leach out the parts that we don’t need with a basic spell.”
I looked at Katya. She shrugged. “I’ve seen it done.”
Aubrey clapped his hands together. “So what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”
*
Unwilling to risk depleting his magical energy unnecessarily, we borrowed an incredibly flashy car from Volk rather than have Alex open another portal. We’d need him to set one up so we could return to London later on as it was, and at this time of night – or rather early morning – it would take us little more than an hour to reach the site of the mine-shaft anyway. Unfortunately, being sporty and flashy as it was, the car only had two seats: one for the driver and one for the passenger. Because Alex was driving, I ended up on top of Aubrey’s lap on the passenger seat, with Katya on top of me. Sandwiched between the two of them as I was, my head kept bouncing off the car’s ceiling, and I felt incredibly hot and uncomfortable. Things only got worse when we drove off the main road and onto an uneven, untarmacked side road.
“Fucking hell,” I grumbled, as Aubrey’s elbow somehow dug itself into my ribs while he changed his position and I got a mouthful of the Karzelek’s hair.
“It’s not my fault you’re so heavy,” he complained. “Maybe if you ate a little more salad and a little less junk food, then you wouldn’t weigh so much.”
“Are you suggesting that I’m fat?” I said, disbelievingly.
“Well, when I was a,” he began, before the car jolted over a pothole and all three of us ended up squashed painfully against the window.
“You were saying?” I asked, once we’d vaguely righted ourselves. “When you were a vampire…?”
“He’s a vampire?” Katya squeaked.
“Used to be. He’s not anymore,” I reassured her.
“You got something against vampires?” he demanded.
“Aubrey…”
“At least I’m not so short that the only ride I’d be allowed on at Disneyland is the merry-go-round!”
“Have you even been to Disneyland?”
“They do night shows and I like Minnie Mouse. What of it?” he asked, petulantly.
Good grief. “Alex, please tell me we are nearly there.” I couldn’t see a sodding thing out of the windscreen.
“Two more minutes, dude,” he said. “Why? Aren’t you enjoying the ride? This is a seriously cool car.”
I tried very hard not to curse. At least we did, indeed, arrive two minutes later, all three of us piling out and gasping for relief in the open air. I’d almost prefer to have travelled via a portal. Almost. I grabbed a small pick-ax that Volk had given us from the car floor, and gripped it. I had no idea why a large werewolf would have had mining equipment lying around in a bar, and I’d decided at the time that it was probably safer not to ask.
Katya pointed us towards a dark square shaped hole that seemed to be cut into the side of a massive cliff. It yawned open, almost like the gates of hell themselves. A faint smell of sulphur combined with rock dust lingered in the air.
“We should have brought a bloody canary,” I said.
“Or perhaps a torch at the very least,” Aubrey commented.
“At least we have this,” I said, swinging the small pick-ax in my hand, then passing it to Aubrey. I sparked up some green fire at my fingertips and shot out a bolt towards the entrance. The light it cast was eerie, but at least we could see where we were going.
“Okay, team,” I murmured.
We set off together. When we actually stepped into the mine itself, I felt a sudden wave of claustrophobic hysteria building up inside me. In order to calm it down, I called up a swirl of bloodfire, enjoying the familiar heat rush through my body. Aubrey gripped my arm, and