The City on the Edge
Twenty-four

Given the fact that Sloan had dungeons hidden beneath his home, Ronnie shouldn’t have been that surprised that there were hidden passages as well. Still, she couldn’t contain her shock when Varice waltzed across the dining room, pushed a portrait aside on the wall and revealed a hole in the wall that opened up into a passage.

The vampire hoisted herself up and over, beckoning them to follow. Sebastian nodded at her to go first. Ronnie climbed through the hole and held her arms out for Anya. Sebastian carefully leveraged her through and when Ronnie had her firmly in grasp, he climbed in after her, pulling the portrait closed behind him. Hopefully, it would look like they were never even in the dining room if a pair of curious eyes went looking for them.

The walls of the tunnel were slabs of wood and stone meshed together. Narrow beams of light from the hall managed to spill through and provide a little bit of illumination. Sebastian stumbled along behind Ronnie as she followed Varice. The little vampire had the same natural eyesight that shifters had. She trekked through the tunnel on light and sure feet, aware of every stray wooden beam that blocked their path and guided Ronnie and Sebastian accordingly.

They turned corners and ducked under awnings and climbed over old ledges that still existed from a time before Sloan had taken the manor as his home. Varice explained that it was once the home of an old elven scholar who studied the flow of magic. Sloan reconstructed it after he moved in. Ronnie couldn’t bring herself to care about the history of the building, though she kept it to herself. She didn’t want to insult the girl.

“Varice told me that Blackburn was here,” Sebastian whispered from behind her. “What did he want?”

He wanted to know where my father is.

“Nothing that I could help him with,” Ronnie answered. It wasn’t a complete lie, more of a half-truth. She looked over her shoulder at Sebastian. “What made you suddenly spring into action? I thought you were going home. Wouldn’t it have been easier to just cut your losses and go back to the Marble City?”

“It would have, yes. But,” Sebastian looked at her. She wasn’t sure if he could even see her clearly in the dark, but she felt his eyes on her all the same. “I feel responsible. After seeing you being cuffed and led away by Sloan, I guess it finally dawned on me what was happening here. I’m ashamed to admit it, but it’s easier to ignore it when you don’t see it everyday.”

Ronnie couldn’t help but snort at his words. “Obviously.”

Sebastian pressed on. “I always planned on trying to change things in the Edge. That’s why I was here to begin with. My family tried to convince me that it was dangerous. I guess they weren’t entirely wrong given the fact that I was attacked and nearly killed. But, as dangerous as it is for humans, it’s just as dangerous, maybe even more so, in the Edge for supernaturals.” He lifted Anya slightly. “Obviously.”

Ronnie bit the smile that threatened to bloom on her lips. It would be easy to pick apart Sebastian’s words and let her frustration at everything spill out. It would be easy to call him on his naive blindness to the Edge and life here. He all but admitted that the humans in the Marble City ignored them, but she kept the words to herself. He was here, risking his own safety. He was carrying her friend and sister in his arms while he stumbled through the dark in a cobweb infested tunnel. Alarms were blaring around them, guards were hunting them down but still Sebastian chose to help her.

He had a lot to answer for, but right now, this was enough.

“Stop!” Varice whispered suddenly.

Both Ronnie and Sebastian froze in place, unsure of what Varice saw. Ronnie wished she could free her other wrist. She needed to have her senses back, but the single shackle was enough to keep them muddled and hazy. Dwarves were crafty and clever, she’d give them that.

Loud voices pushed through the walls from the hall outside. A group of guards were passing by. One voice stood out over the rest. Ronnie didn’t need heightened senses to hear the rage in the words being spit out.

“I don’t care if you have to rip the floorboards up! Find them! They cannot be allowed to escape!” Sloan’s voice would haunt her forever, an unwelcome figure in her dreams.

A new, cool voice spoke next. “I’m disappointed, Tiberius. I expect better from our esteemed captain of the White Guard. What would Regina think of this upset?”

Beside her, Sebastian stiffened, a deep frown twisting on his lips.

Who’s Regina?

“Blackburn,” Sebastian whispered in her ear.

“She’ll think nothing of it because it will never reach her. I will contain this. Those animals will not leave these grounds alive.”

The voices retreated in a storm of stomping boots and angry snarls. After a minute of silence, Varice deemed safe to continue.

“Down these steps,” she said. “Hopefully, Sloan isn’t thinking the same thing we are.”

It was so dark that Ronnie nearly tripped down the stairs, but righted herself thanks to a quick hand on her shoulder from Sebastian. The small stone steps led to a heavy door that thankfully remained quiet when Varice unlocked it and pushed it open.

“I’ll wait here and keep the door open,” Varice said. “It only opens from the tunnel. If it closes, we’ll be stuck here.”

When they entered the room, Ronnie expected another dungeon like the one she’d been kept in. Instead, all she saw were bare walls and a floor covered in thin mats used by sleeping witches. A single door dominated the far wall, criss crossed by heavy chains and dozens on locks with no keyholes. The witches had all been placed in this single room, too small for all of them, which stunk of urine and waste, the smell rising from a drain in the floor in the corner.

Not many heads lifted at their entrance, but a familiar crown of red popped up from a thin bed roll. It was a welcome sight and Ronnie’s face split into a wide smile.

“Lorna!”

Lorna jumped to her feet and rushed over. She wrapped her arms around Ronnie tightly and squeezed as if she were afraid that Ronnie would vanish before her eyes.

“I was so worried about you! We heard the alarms going off and wondered what happened. I should have known it had something to do with you!” Lorna gushed. She pulled back, cupped Ronnie’s cheeks and pressed a firm kiss to her lips. “Oh! Your lip. It’s bleeding.”

“It’s fine. Where’s Malik? Anya needs him.”

The smiled fell from Lorna’s face when she saw Sebastian behind Ronnie, and the frown morphed to concern when she saw Anya in his arms. “He’s over here.”

Ronnie looked back at Sebastian to thank him for carrying Anya but stopped when she saw the look on his face. He stared at her lips, his eyes darting over to Lorna before flicking back to her. He did little to hide the questions he wanted to ask, plain on his face, but he pressed his lips together and stayed quiet. Now wasn’t the time. He understood and she was grateful. It was strange that she even cared. Who was Sebastian to her? Still, she couldn’t help the unease that turned her guts to ice. Her fingers twitched at her sides, an instinct to reach out and touch him danced in her hands but she clenched her fists and buried them in her pockets.

Now wasn’t the time.

Lorna came rushing back with Malik behind her. The other curious witches, few as they were, had followed him. It seemed that he’d taken the role of leader, whether voluntarily or not.

He covered his mouth with a hand and swallowed loudly when he saw his sister. “My gods.” His words words shook and he released an uneven breath. “What happened to her?” he asked Ronnie as he took her from Sebastian.

A few of the other witches broke away from him and collected what bed rolls they could. They layered them on the floor, trying to make the softest padding they could. Malik knelt down and laid Anya on the makeshift bed. Her skin shifted on her body as if it were too big for her bones. Malik tried to stroke her hair but only succeeded in removing large patches of it.

“I’m not sure. Sloan had her submerged in this pool of green slime. I don’t know what it was but,” Ronnie broke off, trying to think of how best to phrase what she didn’t understand.

“But what?” Malik demanded.

“Sloan said something about making ghouls out of witches.”

Malik paled at her words. He turned his gaze to his sister and nodded slowly. He raised his arms and pulled his sleeves up. Ronnie looked at his bare wrists.

“You’re not wearing shackles anymore.”

He pointed upward. Something akin to a chandelier hung from the ceiling. It held a dozen red candles that burned blue. “Witchlight. We can’t use our magic in this light.”

“Just like the vita flower,” Ronnie mumbled.

Malik nodded. “I figured when I saw you. You have pollen all over you.”

Ronnie shook her head. “But it didn’t work.”

Lorna knelt down next to her. “What do you mean it didn’t work?”

“I mean it didn’t work. I was in a dungeon with that flower spreading pollen everywhere, but I still had my senses and everything.”

Lorna frowned. “That’s impossible,” she echoed Cecily’s words.

Anya coughed suddenly, heaving up a splatter of black ooze. Malik wiped at her mouth with his sleeve. “We can worry about the impossible later. I can’t heal her as long as those candles are burning. Ronnie can’t do anything with that shackle around her wrist and I don’t know what the human is even here for.” Malik glared at Sebastian over Lorna’s head.

“He carried Anya all the way here,” Ronnie said. “How about a thank you?”

“Not a scratch on him,” Malik mumbled.

“If we want to help Anya, we need to get out of here first,” Lorna said. She turned to Ronnie. “I assume we’re going back the way you three came?”

Ronnie looked back at Varice, who nodded. She turned back to Lorna. “Yep.”

Malik gathered Anya in his arms. “As soon as we’re far enough away from that light, I can begin healing her. I’m not the greatest, but it should keep her stable until we can get her some real help.”

“Then let’s go.”