*

Unwilling to risk depleting his magical energy unnecessarily, we borrowed an incredibly flashy car from Volk rather than have Alex open another portal. We’d need him to set one up so we could return to London later on as it was, and at this time of night – or rather early morning – it would take us little more than an hour to reach the site of the mine-shaft anyway. Unfortunately, being sporty and flashy as it was, the car only had two seats: one for the driver and one for the passenger. Because Alex was driving, I ended up on top of Aubrey’s lap on the passenger seat, with Katya on top of me. Sandwiched between the two of them as I was, my head kept bouncing off the car’s ceiling, and I felt incredibly hot and uncomfortable. Things only got worse when we drove off the main road and onto an uneven, untarmacked side road.

“Fucking hell,” I grumbled, as Aubrey’s elbow somehow dug itself into my ribs while he changed his position and I got a mouthful of the Karzelek’s hair.

“It’s not my fault you’re so heavy,” he complained. “Maybe if you ate a little more salad and a little less junk food, then you wouldn’t weigh so much.”

“Are you suggesting that I’m fat?” I said, disbelievingly.

“Well, when I was a,” he began, before the car jolted over a pothole and all three of us ended up squashed painfully against the window.

“You were saying?” I asked, once we’d vaguely righted ourselves. “When you were a vampire…?”

“He’s a vampire?” Katya squeaked.

“Used to be. He’s not anymore,” I reassured her.

“You got something against vampires?” he demanded.

“Aubrey…”

“At least I’m not so short that the only ride I’d be allowed on at Disneyland is the merry-go-round!”

“Have you even been to Disneyland?”

“They do night shows and I like Minnie Mouse. What of it?” he asked, petulantly.

Good grief. “Alex, please tell me we are nearly there.” I couldn’t see a sodding thing out of the windscreen.

“Two more minutes, dude,” he said. “Why? Aren’t you enjoying the ride? This is a seriously cool car.”

I tried very hard not to curse. At least we did, indeed, arrive two minutes later, all three of us piling out and gasping for relief in the open air. I’d almost prefer to have travelled via a portal. Almost. I grabbed a small pick-ax that Volk had given us from the car floor, and gripped it. I had no idea why a large werewolf would have had mining equipment lying around in a bar, and I’d decided at the time that it was probably safer not to ask.

Katya pointed us towards a dark square shaped hole that seemed to be cut into the side of a massive cliff. It yawned open, almost like the gates of hell themselves. A faint smell of sulphur combined with rock dust lingered in the air.

“We should have brought a bloody canary,” I said.

“Or perhaps a torch at the very least,” Aubrey commented.

“At least we have this,” I said, swinging the small pick-ax in my hand, then passing it to Aubrey. I sparked up some green fire at my fingertips and shot out a bolt towards the entrance. The light it cast was eerie, but at least we could see where we were going.

“Okay, team,” I murmured.

We set off together. When we actually stepped into the mine itself, I felt a sudden wave of claustrophobic hysteria building up inside me. In order to calm it down, I called up a swirl of bloodfire, enjoying the familiar heat rush through my body. Aubrey gripped my arm, and Alex remained close to my other side, while Katya trotted ahead, completely unconcerned.

“You don’t think there’ll be anything bad in here, do you?” Alex whispered.

“Like what?” I had no idea why I was whispering back.

“You know, like maybe an evil cave-dwelling monster who we have to fight to the death?”

“I’m sure Katya would have mentioned if there was likely to be anything lurking around.”

“Either that or she’s leading us into a deadly trap. Like flies into a creepy spider’s web.” He stopped for a moment. “Shit. You don’t think there’ll be any giant spiders, do you?”

I tugged on his arm. “Come on. You’re the one who wanted to do things this way, remember?”

“You’re right. Yes,” he nodded. “Everything will be fine.”

We continued on silently, following Katya, who proceeded forward at an impressive rate considering the length of her little legs. Every time we rounded a hewn out corner, I used my green fire to light up the way ahead. The corridors seemed to be getting narrower, however, and the air was definitely becoming less fresh and much more oppressive. I thought of people who worked in places like this for a living. Maybe my life wasn’t so bad after all.

Katya finally stopped, waiting for us to catch up.

“It’s been too long since I’ve felt the freedom of the underground,” she said, with a happy sigh.

Each to their own. She pointed down to a small hole.

“We need to go through there.”

I traced it with my finger, letting the fire highlight where she meant. It was going to be a tight fucking squeeze. Aubrey moaned faintly.

She got down on her hands and knees and began to crawl through. Jeez. If the Karzelek had to crawl through, then I dreaded to think what it was going to be like for the rest of us. Perhaps Aubrey had been right and I should lay off the junk food after all.

Alex nudged me. “You first.”

I swallowed and bent down, peering through. It didn’t seem as if there was any way I was possibly going to fit. Katya was already far ahead though. I stuck my head through, then hunched my shoulders together, and began to wiggle forward. I’d never thought about what it might be like to be a worm, but this must pretty much be it. Pulling my hips through was painful, and I could feel my skin scraping against the rock above and below as my t-shirt got pushed up. Inch by inch, I shoved myself forward. This was not fun.

After what seemed like an eternity, the tunnel began to widen. I breathed in relief as I could first get onto my hands and knees, and then half stand up and stoop as I continued forward. The blackness of the mine seemed to be starting to smother me, even with the green fire still flickering at my fingers. I was concentrating so hard on keeping myself calm and centred that I knocked into Katya, almost making her fall over.

“Sorry.”

She tutted, and pointed through the gloom at something. “It’s there. There really isn’t very much though. Even less than I thought.”

I stared at it. I couldn’t see anything. Alex pulled himself out of the tunnel, followed by Aubrey. Both of them were breathing heavily.

“We’ve made it,” I told them.

“Praise the Founder,” Alex sighed. “Whose idea was this again?”

I gave him a dirty look. “The palladium is there. We need to work out how to get at it.”

We all stood there in silence. Shit. Finally, Aubrey spoke up.

“Heat it.”

“Eh?”

“You’re a dragon, or so I’m told anyway. Get some dragon fire going and heat it up. It’ll expand, and crack the rock, and we get it out with this.” He swung the pick-ax up.

“Even if I was confident enough to transform into a dragon shape so I could breathe fire, it would be impossible in this tiny space,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, dude, but you’ve got your green fire, I’ve got my blue fire,” Alex interjected. “We can try both of them together. That might work.”

I pursed my lips then bobbed my head in agreement. “Let’s give it a shot.”

Katya pointed to one small spot. “The greatest concentration is there. Aim for that spot.”

I nodded, then stepped back to where Alex was. We exchanged glances and, on a count of three, simultaneously sent out our colourful streams of fire. The tiny cavern flared into life, with beams of light from the flames bouncing off the walls, which glittered in return. Sparks flew off the spot where our magic struck, making both Katya and Aubrey back away and shade their eyes from the glare.

The entire wall of rock seemed to heave and creak.

“Quick, Aubrey,” I said, “get down there and see what you can do.”

He stepped forward, swinging the little axe and striking the rock. Chunks flew off.

“Again.”

He continued, chipping away at it. He grunted. “I think I’m getting something.”

Alex took over, grasping the tool and digging it into the wall. Every so often he stepped back, and the pair of us lit the spot up again. We took turns to attack until, eventually, the cavern floor was strewn with debris.

“I think that’s about your lot,” Katya said.

She began scooping the darker oxidized chunks of metal together.

“There’s not very much,” I said, doubtfully.

“It’s only going to take one weapon to stab Endor and be done with him,” Alex responded grimly.

I nodded, thinking of Staines’ corpse lying on my kitchen table. The necromancer wouldn’t know what hit him. Alex hunkered down next to the small pile and began to mutter. The bits of metal started to glow. I wiped the sweat off my brow. It was getting fucking hot. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to take too much effort before it began to separate. We all watched fascinated as Alex waved his hands over each segment and it split away into silvery parts. I picked one up and held it up to my face. It was kind of pretty.

Katya produced a small bag and shoved the pieces inside. I added the one I was holding then she shouldered the bag and jerked her head back at the tunnel. As much as I was dreading the squeeze back through, I couldn’t wait to get out of this place. One by one we headed back out. It seemed even a tighter fit than before this time, and the scrapes that I had garnered on my first journey through were merely aggravated by having to force my body along again. By the time I made it out of the small space, I was smarting all over.

Once Alex and Aubrey caught up, we began to wend our way back out.