It was a half-truth. Yes Sawyer could get me another ring. It wouldn’t be the same one, with all the beautiful memories, but it didn’t matter. A deal was a deal, and I wanted Seam to have a good life after all that he’d been through.
He closed his hand around it and nodded. “Well, alright then. Be safe and good luck.”
“Keep your eye on the mailbox.” I winked, which caused him to grin.
He walked us out through the house, but when we stood in the doorway about to go, his arm snaked out and he pulled me near him. “There will come a time in this daring escape when you have to ask yourself how badly you want to get him out.” Then his gaze fell to the long scar at the end of his sawed-off hand. “Sacrifices may have to be made.”
I swallowed hard and nodded. Message received. I just hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
When Sage and I reached the horses at the bottom of the hill, I looked up at the crumbling old house.
“That was not how I expected it to go,” I told her.
She nodded. “He was … kinda sweet.”
He was just a grieving dad and husband trying to get back to his wife’s dying roses in time.
“Demi, I know you’re going to try to protect me and say no, but if you think it’s possible for your wolf to…” She shivered a little. “…join my body, then I want to try that. I want to save my cousin.”
I nodded. I’d already done a check-in with my wolf and she thought it was possible. “I’ve got an idea…” I told her.
Sage swung one leg over her horse and grinned at me. “I’m all ears.”
I blew air out through my teeth. “So, for starters, we’re going back to Trip’s animal barn and stealing that fucking dragon. You game?”
She grinned. “Ride or die.”
I just hoped Marmal would be okay with my using Pearl in a prison escape.
It took us the rest of the day to get back across the fey lands and to Trip’s barn. Marmal met us in the meet-up spot we’d previously discussed, and an idea hatched in the flickering lamplight of the tent we all shared deep in the woods.
“So, after we get Sage arrested and she gets inside the prison,” I told them, “I’ll let my wolf out of her and she’ll find Sawyer.”
Seam had confirmed what Sawyer had told me, which is that my wolf wouldn’t be able to just walk through the outside walls and into the prison, because of the protection magic there, but she could walk through the interior walls he thought.
“Once I find Sawyer and Walsh, my wolf breaks them out by attacking a guard and using his key to unlock their cuffs,” I said.
Without those cuffs off, there was no use in trying to get them out of there. The magical grid would kill them instantly, and I wasn’t messing with that.
Marmal and Sage nodded, wide eyed. “Then we rendezvous with Sage, break out the window and jump onto Pearl’s back that Marmal will be flying.”
I looked at my troll friend to see what she thought of the idea and her mouth hung open, slack jawed. I hadn’t exactly asked her about this yet…
“Say what now?” Marmal blinked rapidly at me.
Okay, I should have probably eased her into the plan better, but I was really excited. “The vampires will be waiting for us. The second the alarm sounds that we are breaking people out of their cells, the whole place will go into lockdown,” I told her.
“So you jump out of a window eighty floors up?” Marmal looked at me like I was crazy. “I’m not even sure Pearl can fly, and if she can, I’m not sure she can fly that high!”
I let out the breath I’d been holding. “Look, I’ve run through this in my head a hundred different ways and this is the only one I can think of that gives us a chance. They’ll use magic to bring down a helicopter, but a fucking dragon! That will confuse their witches and give us a chance.”
Marmal chewed her lip. “Dragons are actually impervious to magic, you can’t spell them.”
Hope blossomed in my chest, that was the best news I’d heard in a long time. “Do you think you can get her to fly once we get her out?”
Marmal blew air through her teeth. “She’s been captive for years. They use her strictly for DNA donation. Trip does dark magic, binding the animals to fey so that they can speak into the animals’ minds and control them. That’s what Trip’s little breeding barn is all about. I … I don’t know if she can fly, they don’t let her outside the barn.” There was anger in her voice and she had good reason for it. Those bastards had been treating that dragon like a lab rat, treating all of those animals like that. How dare they!
“Well, we can get a cart to hook up to Sage and my horses and carry her on that until she heals, or until you can practice with her?” It would also help to hide her until the moment we needed her. A fifteen-foot-long dragon wasn’t easy to conceal.
Marmal nodded. “Okay, it’s worth a try, but no promises.”
I bopped my hands excitedly on my legs, eager for this plan and what tomorrow would bring. A try was all I needed.
“But we have to break her out first,” Marmal added.
I inclined my head. “You leave that to me and my wolf.”
I didn’t know a lot about troll magic, they were so secretive about it, but I knew they could manipulate metals and were master blacksmiths. “Marmal, can you … open the locks of the cages without touching them?” Like with your magic, I wanted to say but didn’t.
She suddenly became very shy, cheeks reddening as she looked down at her hands. It was super taboo in their culture to talk about their magic. I had no idea why. Something about they would lose it or something if I remembered my troll history and culture correctly.
“Because if you could…” I added, “we could free all of the animals, not just Pearl, and it would create the distraction we’d need to get Pearl out.”
She swallowed hard and then nodded once. I was going to take that as a yes.
Those bastards were going to pay for what they were doing to these defenseless animals. I’d make sure of it.
The next morning I awoke with a desperate fever to get to Sawyer. I hadn’t heard from him no matter how many times I’d reached out, and because we were in the middle of Dark Fey Territory, we had no access to a radio or anything for me to know what was going on in Light Fey City, where the jail was. Marmal had crept out of the tent early this morning for her daily shift at Trip’s barn. Sage and I would go in a few minutes and steal a cart and buggy to tie our horses up to. Then we’d start a fire at the back door to create the distraction she’d need to work her untold magic and open those cages. It was a solid plan, assuming nothing went wrong.
‘How’s the pack?’ I did a quick check in with Rab. He’d been keeping me abreast with little comments here and there through our connection, but it didn’t work in Troll Village, so I could only talk to him here in the fey lands.
‘Good. Had an issue with the water tank. It’s cracked, but we got it fixed and morale is high. Everyone loves being outdoors.’
That was a huge relief. I wasn’t sure what I would do if he told me there was a big problem and I had to come home.