"Might as well since we're here."
I squeezed back through the rough-hewn tunnel, gaining yet more scratches – though, thankfully, none were deep enough to bleed. The second tunnel was wide enough to walk normally down, and led into a chamber as large as the main one. I scanned the floor, but there was little more than dirt here. But there were more tables and shelves hacked out of the stone and earth, and this time, not all of them were empty. I walked across to a row of six shelves, inspecting the items stacked neatly along them, but not touching. I didn't know enough about the accoutrements of a witch to do so; what I did know was the fact they could be damn dangerous if you didn't know what you were doing.
There were old jars of varying sizes, and they seemed to hold little more than herbs, though there were a few that had dried up bits of animals and one that held what looked suspiciously like strands of hair. Hair that was the color of silver.
My hair, I very much suspected.
Maybe this is where Lucian had brewed the geas he'd placed on me that had made me unable to resist him sexually. Meaning, this place might not be Lauren's bolt-hole, but rather Lucian's.
"It's possible they both use it," Azriel commented. He stood on the opposite side of the cavern, inspecting several bags. "Lucian was certainly on Earth long enough to have become proficient in magic."
"Why would he need the help of dark sorcerers, if that is the case?" I peered closer at the jar containing the hair to see if there was any sort of visible trap or alarm, then cautiously lifted it. There was no way in hell I was leaving this stuff here for the sorceress to use and abuse. The last thing I needed was another spell or geas placed on me.
I unscrewed the lid, inserted Amaya's tip, and watched as she crisped the silken strands until nothing – not even ash – remained. That done, I placed the jar back on the shelf and walked across to a table that held a mix of candles, bells, a chalice, and several incense sticks. There was absolutely nothing that even remotely resembled any of the weapons that had been stolen from the Military Fair.
Frustrated, I walked over to Azriel, my shoulder brushing his as I stopped beside him. "Anything interesting?"
"In the first one, no. This one, however —" He upended the sack, and half a dozen old weapons tumbled out. There were daggers, short swords, several old-fashioned guns, and even a polished silver bayonet. I had no doubt they were part of the haul the dark sorcerer had taken from the Military Fair, because there was little other reason for these types of weapons to be here.
I raised a hand and skimmed it across them. There was no response from the Dušan on my arm, and I couldn't feel any sort of pull toward them.
"You know," I muttered, thrusting my hands on my hips as I glared at the weapons, "I'm getting pissed not only about having hell's minions constantly thrown at us, but also continually being runner-up when it comes to these damn keys."
Azriel tossed the sack back onto the table and swung around, his gaze searching the rest of the cavern. "We might not have found the key, but finding some of the stolen items in this cavern confirms that the dark sorcerer – if indeed there are two sorcerers involved, and not just a hermaphrodite shifter – is in fact working with Lauren. Up until this point, it was little more than conjecture."
"Forgive me if I don't get overly joyous about that bit of news." I turned and leaned my butt against the stone table. "With the sort of luck we've been having, I fully expect the Raziq to make an encore appearance sometime in the near future."
"It would not matter if they did."