“Lead on, Echo,” I whispered to the small bat darting ahead of me.
He led me down twisting halls and up flights of stairs, until we were roughly in the middle of the castle, not far from the library full of sexy books that Lucifer had shown me. Echo turned right, and I followed, finding the hallway once again empty. My heart thundered. I prayed we’d find the armory soon, and that no one would find me first.
The hallway in front of us dead-ended into another passage that stretched to the left and right. Echo slowed at the entrance to the new hall and landed on a brass sconce. I stopped, too, listening for movement ahead.
I heard a faint shuffling. Peeking around the corner, I saw a guard standing alert at his post in front of a heavy wooden door with a large padlock.
This is it.
I could turn right at this bend in the hall and approach him, but that would give him too much notice. Or I could go left and walk away from him. Also, too much notice.
I pulled a small pebble from my pocket and tossed it down the hallway to his left.
“Who’s there?” Wariness sounded in his voice, but I heard no footsteps.
I frowned at Echo, then chucked another small pebble, tossing this one farther down the hall away from the guard. With any luck, he would charge past me to investigate.
He did not move.
Echo launched himself off the sconce and flew into the hall, turning in the direction I’d thrown the stone.
“Oy, you there!” Faint footsteps sounded. The guard was following Echo.
Why did he care about a bat?
No idea, but he did. What’s more, he was headed toward me.
Please don’t look down this hall.
He was totally going to see me. I’d never been that lucky.
I pulled the heavy cast iron pan out of the bag I’d nicked from the kitchens and raised it over my head, waiting.
The footsteps neared.
If I was right, no one had tried to break into the armory in this guy’s entire life. Maybe ever. Who would dare go against Hades in his own realm?
No one. Except me.
The guard turned the corner and looked straight at me, as I’d expected. He had his sword drawn. Points for him in the preparedness department, but he didn’t have his weapon raised.
I, on the other hand, was ready. I brought the skillet down on his head and hit him with all my strength.
The reverberation from the blow sang up my arms, making them ache.
He dropped his sword and slumped to the ground.
“Holy fates.” My heart was going a mile a minute.
Echo fluttered back, a glint in his eyes.
“Thanks, pal.” I shoved the skillet into my bag. Grabbing the guard’s feet, I dragged him into the nearest empty room, my muscles straining with the effort. His sword was laying in the middle of the hall. I left it and yanked the thick twine out of my bag. If anyone had stopped me and searched my things, it definitely would have looked suspicious indeed.
It was a handy thing that Hades underestimated me.
I tied the guard’s hands and feet, then gagged him and sorted through his pockets, looking for a key.
Finally, I found it. Or at least, I hoped I did. The key ring was massive, full of heavy iron keys.
I ditched my frying pan and left him in the room, shutting the door silently behind me. Thankfully, there was no one in the hall as I hurried toward the armory door. I grabbed the sword and brought it with me. It was heavy and awkward. Maybe I would have been better off sticking with the frying pan.
Echo followed along, and I was grateful for the company. I looked up at him, fluttering beside my left shoulder. “Go keep lookout.”
He whirled around and flew down the hall.
I pulled the guard’s key ring from my pocket, sorting through the two dozen keys. He was like the janitor from hell.
My heart raced as I tried each of the keys, palms growing sweaty as I ruled out each one in turn.
Finally, the lock clicked open.
Yes.
I slipped inside the armory. It was an enormous room within a tower, the sheer size of it boggling the mind.
I shut the door behind me and looked upward. There were no internal floors inside the tower, so it stretched all the way up to the