Sinister Magic: An Urban Fantasy Dragon Series (Death Before Dragons #1) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,96

vial of your blood?”

Zav opened the second hatch, and I swore when I realized he hadn’t thought to close the first. Water gushed into the tunnel, passing the parked submarine and flowing toward us.

“Hold your breath,” I told the girl and rushed forward. We would have to swim to the surface.

Or not. The submarine lid lifted as I brushed against it. The water hadn’t yet risen high enough to flood the interior.

“In.” I lifted the girl inside, pushing her behind the single seat. “Unless you know how to drive this thing, Shoreline, you get to ride in the back.”

Where will I ride? Sindari asked me dryly.

Uhm, on my lap? Like a house cat?

I believe I shall swim.

He bounded out, and I was positive he would have no trouble meeting us above. I also would have opted for swimming if I hadn’t had the girl with me, but I didn’t know how well she could swim.

Fortunately, the labels on the console were in English, not dark elven, and I spotted the big hatch button right away. I hit it, but it came down with ponderous slowness.

The water kept rushing in, rising even as it spread into the tunnel. A distant clang sounded, and I had a feeling one of those hatches had shut itself as part of some emergency system to prevent flooding. As if that mattered when half the complex had collapsed.

Finally, the lid was down all the way, sealing with a satisfying sucking sound. The water kept rising, and the sub bobbed, rising with it. The current pushed us farther back into the tunnel instead of out into the lake. I cussed like a drunken sailor, worried some of the dark elves would catch up with us, especially if we couldn’t get out.

Zav was long gone. Not only that, but I could sense that he’d changed from man to dragon, flying up out of the lake with his recovered artifact. He would probably open a portal any second and whisk it and himself back to his home world.

We were on our own.

I found the controls for the engine and fired up the submarine. It hummed to life, and I did my best to turn it against the current. Thankfully, whatever thrusters powered it were strong. We pushed our way out into the lake, and the first hint of light reached us, city lights filtering down from above.

My first instinct was to try to find the kayak, but it only seated one, and the submarine was faster now that we were out in the lake. Besides, the east side of Lake Union would probably be chaotic, if cars truly had fallen through what would seem to be a huge sinkhole to the rest of the city. I sped toward the north. I could have Dimitri pick us up at Gas Works Park.

We brushed against something on the bottom, a jolt going through the craft. One of the submerged wrecks.

I found the sub’s headlights and turned them on, their beams illuminating thousands of fish and the humongous kraken. The girl shrieked. I almost did the same.

I pulled us to the left, hoping we wouldn’t run into the giant bulbous squid, its long tentacles flexing and shifting behind it like seaweed in a current. It and the fish were still feeding on the bait. Whatever it was had been dropped into a hole in the hull of a hundred-year-old steamboat tipped sideways on the bottom of the lake. I imagined those big blocks of compressed corn one could set out in the woods for deer.

“It’s busy eating, Shoreline,” I said, hoping that was correct as we sailed past, far closer to those tentacles than I would have liked. “We’ll be fine.”

“Jennifer,” she mumbled numbly.

“Your name?”

“Yeah.”

“Nice to meet you.”

The kraken didn’t seem to notice us. Finally, something was going my way tonight.

I brought the submarine to the surface, saw the dark bank of the park, and took us in that direction.

You think you will escape after your heinous crimes, mongrel human? a voice thundered in my head.

At first, I thought it was Zav and that he was angrier with me than I thought, but this was someone new. One of the dark elves. It had to be.

You will not escape, Ruin Bringer. You will suffer for all the carnage you left in your wake.

I decided it would be wiser not to give a snarky retort. We were almost to the park, but who knew what the dark elves could do with their magic?