We followed Gabriel silently as he led us along what seemed to be a nonexistent path that wound through twisted snow-covered rock. The light was starting to fail, leaving the terrain difficult to make out in the long shadows, but eventually we crept our way up to the side of the building.

I stared at it, wondering if I was walking into a trap…or about to save the man who was everything to me. “What now?”

“You stay here with Maata. Tipene and I will see if there are guards,” Gabriel announced.

I nodded, wanting to go along with him, but knowing it was wiser to let him scout out the area. A few minutes later he returned, minus his hat.

“It is clear. Hurry, the light is going, and it looks as if a storm will be coming in soon.”

“You OK?” I asked as he flexed his hand.

He flashed me a fast grin. “It has been a long time since I had the opportunity of taking down another dragon with my fists.”

“Another dragon? Red?”

He shook his head and motioned me to be silent. We followed after him as he led us alongside the stone building, back into the shallow cave formed by the overhang to where a door’s outline could dimly be seen. Two bodies were stacked alongside the building, out of the weather. I paused at the sight of them, raising an inquiring eyebrow at Gabriel.

“If they’re not red dragons, what sept do they belong to?” I whispered.

“None,” he answered, taking me by surprise.

“What—”

“Shhh,” he warned, carefully opening the stone door. He and Tipene slipped through the opening. I waited for his wave before continuing, Maata following Jim and me.

We were in a hallway, the walls and floor made of the same stone, evidently quarried right out of the side of the mountain itself. The light was dim, one bulb hanging behind us at the junction, another ahead some sixty feet or so.

“Which way?” I asked Gabriel in a whisper.

He hesitated, turning first one way, then the other. Tipene said something, nodding to the end closest. Gabriel shook his head, pointing to the left. “We have removed the guards for this door, so you should be safe here. We will scout ahead, to the left.”

I shivered despite being out of the atrocious weather, but nodded to let him know I understood. The three of them slipped into the shadows and disappeared around the corner, silent as ghosts. There was no noise in the building, no sounds of human occupation, no noises of any sort, just a faint little hum of electrical lights from the bulbs. It was cold inside as well, not as cold as outside, but still cold enough that my breath hung in the air before my face.

“I’m not going to have any toes left by the time this little caper is over,” Jim moaned softly to itself as it shook off a doggy bootie to examine its paw. “Oh, man, I think gangrene has set in! My toes are black!”

“That’s your fur, you idiot,” I said, kneeling to feel its feet. They were cold, but not icy blocks of lifeless flesh. “Thank god for immortality. Your feet are fine. So are mine, for that matter. I’m cold, but not deathly cold. This place sure does give me the willies, though.”

“Definitely creepsville,” Jim agreed, padding down to the end of the hallway.

“Do you see them?” I asked in a soft whisper that I knew Jim would hear.

“Nope.”

I crept down after it and peered carefully around the corner. The aerie was evidently build around a U shape, the hollow part being made up of a large open area that was dominated at one end by an absolutely gigantic fireplace, the kind big enough to roast a whole ox in one go.

There was no sign of life in the area, not so much as one single dragon lounging around on the thick, dark medieval-looking wood furniture.

“Where’d they go?” I asked Jim.

It shrugged.

“Hell.”

“Abaddon.”

“Will you stop correcting me! I know the difference!”

“Oh yeah? Is the Underworld contained in Hell or Abaddon?” it asked with a particularly annoying cock of its eyebrow.

I glared. “Don’t mess with me. There are pregnancy hormones flooding my body right this very minute, and you never know when they might cause me to spontaneously banish the nearest demon to the Akasha.”

Jim looked thoughtful. “Point taken.”

“Good. Now skinny along there and peek around the corner to see if you can see signs of Gabriel or the others. Or anyone else for that matter. But don’t get caught!”

“Stealth Newfie on duty!” it answered, saluting me before shuffling soundlessly down the hallway toward the large open area.

I held my breath as I clung to the rough-hewn stone corner, listening intently for sounds that Jim—or the others—had been found, but before I could begin to seriously worry, Jim returned.

“No one there. No Gabriel, no Maata, no Tipene…no one.”

A little chill skittered down my spine. “Are they just out scouting the area, or have they set us up?” I wondered aloud.

“Dunno. I’d think if this was a setup, though, you’d have been caught by now.”

“Good point.” I thought for a moment, then turned to look down the right side of the passageway. “Which means that either they’ve been caught, or they’re looking around. Either way, we’re running out of time. Someone is bound to notice those guards aren’t around, which means we need to get moving. Come on. We’ll try this way.”

“Uh, Ash? You sure you want to do this? Gabriel said to stay put.”

“And what happens if they don’t come back? I’d rather not just sit around helpless, thank you,” I whispered, making my way as silently as possible down the corridor.

“There is that.”

We came to another corner, leading along the flat bottom side of the U shape. Just as I was gathering up my nerve to peek around the corner, a man strolled around it, stopping to stare at us with as much surprise as we stared at him.

He blinked dark but unmistakably dragon eyes for a moment, his reflexes just a hair too slow. By the time his hand reached inside his jacket for a gun, I’d drawn silencing and binding wards on him.

“Oh, man. Now we’re really in for it,” Jim whispered, giving the dragon a worried eye as we slipped around both him and the corner. The hallway that stretched before us was almost identical to the one we’d just left, with the exception of four doors, two on either side. “How long are the wards going to hold?”