Masked By Danger by Christa Wick

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"Wasshe saying Oscar saw another golem when you were in his memories?" Cade asked Iris as they replayed the video of the interrogation to Esme and Denver. "But how could a golem birth anything, let alone cubs?"

Iris felt her last meal struggling to come up. It had been eggs and ham. It was about to become an omelet splattered all over the thick rug that covered the cave floor.

"Turn it off," she said, her hand brushing Cade's right before she robbed him of the remote and stopped the replay. "We can't believe anything she said, especially since she knew Esme would see this."

Silent for the whole of the replay, Esme chewed at her thumbnail as she continued staring at the screen that had gone blank. Denver waited a few more seconds before giving his mate a gentle nudge.

"What are you thinking, Ems?"

When she looked at him, her gaze was wet, but the tears remained unshed.

"I know you love her," Iris began.

Her words captured the witch's attention. Esme gave a little shrug followed by a shake of her head.

"My mother has lied for so long," she said, "she no longer knows what the truth is. But she can still be of use to us."

"Not as bait," Denver snorted. "Whatever she thinks her value to that bastard Quentin is, he won't risk a hair on his worthless ass to rescue her. In the meantime, we don't know what else those crystals inside her are capable of."

"That's the first thing she will help us with," Esme answered. "Even if it's just her being an experiment on how to take them out."

"Removing them could kill her," Iris warned.

"The Witches' Council has already discussed the risk. We find it acceptable." Her hand came up as Denver started to say something. "The clans can only banish her. It is up to the Council to mete out any other punishment for the breaking of her ancestor's oath."

"But she was freed from that oath," Denver said. "She fled before a new one could be extracted."

"Freed after the crimes were committed," Iris pointed out. "Unless that's some kind of loophole in the covenant."

"It's not," Esme said, her head tilting at a sound or disturbance only she could hear because the spell cloaking the room was hers. "Excuse me for a few minutes. Silantra has arrived and she seems very agitated."

Less than a minute passed before Esme burst back into the room.

"All of you, come with me. We need to move Camille now!"

"Tell me," Denver ordered, his tone descending into a growl. "Now, love."

She shook her head, her hands moving like small, nervous birds after spotting a hawk in their territory.

"She's spelling," was all the witch would say.

Cade shot a look at Iris. She shrugged, knowing as well as he did that they had left Camille bound and gagged with strict orders for her to remain that way.

"The only way is if someone freed her," Iris told him as they passed through the iron doors that led to the cavern's holding cells.

"Apparently not," Esme said. "She's humming…the resonance is…hot."

Before anyone could ask what she meant, they saw a red glow filling the room ahead of them. Esme rushed forward, her feet floating a few inches above the ground as a shield of witch light appeared in front of her.

His instinct to protect his mate overriding his duties to the clan, Cade reached for Iris. She surged ahead of him, flying as the witch did.

He rounded a corner, Denver keeping pace. Iris and Esme pushed past a line of shifters and witches, the group parting to reveal Camille at the center of the red glow.

Esme reached her mother first, the glow blending to purple. Her hands, nearly white with the intensity of magic flowing through them, pierced her mother's flesh, wrapped around the crystals and held fast.

Pained screams tore through Esme's throat as her mother stared passively. Iris braced Esme, healing her as the power surging within Camille burned Esme's flesh. Cade and Denver grabbed Iris, directed their power to flow into both women.

Purple receded to blue. Camille collapsed to the ground, dragging Esme and Iris with her.

"Open the last door," Esme rasped, her hand bloodied as she pointed down the hall.

Ta-Lynn and Navarro were the first to move. The young witch grabbed him by the wrist and started running. Mathis and Silantra picked up Camille's limp body as Cade and Denver helped their mates stand. The two women followed the others, hips and shoulders touching, a mate on each side.

"What is this?" Iris asked as they reached a massive door at the end of the hall.

"The door to the crystal chamber," Silantra answered in a monotone. "We shouldn't have come this way. We need to stake her down in the open…or execute her now."

Denver growled at the suggestion his mate had steered them wrong. Silantra tried to stare him down, failed and looked away.

"Only the All-Mother can open it," she explained, her tone hot as she jabbed a finger in the door's direction. "And even Riya couldn't get the door to budge after she first fell sick. It's been closed more than a quarter century."

Reaching out from where she sheltered in her mate's arms, Esme cupped Iris's shoulder.

"Try it," she whispered.

Tongue swelling with a string of protests, Iris rolled her eyes. Then Camille groaned.

"What's behind the door?" she asked.

"Think of it as a super max unit," Esme answered. "I think my mother was about to go nuclear using the crystals inside her. But beyond that door, we can put her in a suspended state so I have time to find an answer."

Gasps and grumbles circled the group. Some sounded like they disbelieved Esme's claims, others—especially among the wolves gathered—sounded like they agreed with Silantra about putting a bullet in Camille.

Cade scanned their faces, his voice inflexible when he finally spoke.

"Putting a bullet in her doesn't end the war, just one battle with a bitter woman."

Denver nodded his agreement, his gaze going first to his mate, then to Iris.

"Well, witch-wolf," he challenged. "Aren't you even going to try?"

She shook her head, but her arm moved to gesture the others back. Looking at Esme, she cocked a brow.

"There are no words," Esme answered. "Just pull and use your magic to will it open."

Still shaking her head, Iris grabbed hold of the thick bar that served as a handle. She wrapped both hands around it, closed her eyes and started to tug, her wolf and her magic whispering through her mind.

Open, open, open…

Open sesame!

Nothing happened.

Of course, nothing happened. Whatever she was, Iris knew it wasn't what the sweet witch wanted her to be.

Growling, Iris dropped her head and tried again, willed it open with her wolf and her magic, willed it with her head and her heart and her hands.

Nothing.

A firm touch landed upon Iris's back. She thought for a moment it would be Cade, but the energy didn't belong to a wolf. Esme's magic curled around her own. Then a hot rush of power hit Iris as Cade and Denver added the strength of their wolves.

Slowly, the door budged.

What should have been dark on the other side was a nearly blinding light.

"That's enough," Esme shouted after another minute of all-out physical exertion. "The gap is enough to get us through."

Releasing Iris, she turned to Navarro and Ta-Lynn. Wrapping her hands against the sides of Camille's face, she started chanting and moving toward the opening. Supporting Camille's weight, Navarro and Ta-Lynn followed Esme into the chamber.

Together, they placed Camille on a solid slab of translucent crystal. With a nod, Esme ordered them out of the room. Light built within the chamber, everyone outside of it shielding their eyes.

Iris felt Denver try to move past her, she shifted her weight to block him, a growl rumbling in her chest in an effort to warn the foolhardy wolf back.

The light disappeared. Esme stumbled out. She leaned against Iris, hugging her back as she ordered her to push on the door.

"We must seal it quickly!"

When it was done, the witch collapsed.