"Oh, I'll take the back. Easy access to poke between his thighs, in case I need to remind him to behave."
Asher did grin at both her words and the deep scowl on Fraser's face. "Sounds good to me. Now, come on. Who knows if there'll be anything to test us on the way out." Fraser opened his mouth, but Asher beat him to it. "And no, I'm not going to listen to you. Just be quiet, and I may try to stop Ria from making you a eunuch."
Fraser sighed, but Asher ignored him to nod at Honoria, letting her know he trusted her to watch his back. Then he went to the door and slowly opened it. However, the teenage girl from before was gone.
Not only that, but once they reached the row of jail cells, those were all empty, too.
Whoever had been in charge of this fake hideout was organized, to say the least.
He'd been just about to open the penultimate door, the one which leads to the stairs that would take them aboveground, when a boom reverberated through the room. Asher put a halt sign up with his hand and pressed his ear to the door. While it may have been thick enough to keep sound out for human ears, he detected a few voices on the other side but no footsteps on the metal stairs.
At least, not yet.
Glancing at Fraser, he whispered, "Try to escape, and I'll do whatever it takes to subdue you."
Fraser shook his head. "There shouldn't be any other obstacles for this location. Well, unless…"
Honoria prodded, "Unless what? Time is of the essence."
Fraser glanced at Asher, to Honoria, and back again. "All three teams had the same information, leading them to this place. However, there are three staircases leading to three different sce
narios. Depending on who approached the entrance, hidden panels would've shifted to lead each pair to the correct one. None of the others should be able to go down your designated staircase."
Asher cursed. "Which means one of the other teams could be breaking the rules, doing who the hell knows what to get the prize. If they threatened any of the others taking part, then it's possible they were shown how to reach the different staircases." He motioned toward the back of the row of cells. "There's a small space toward the back where they won't be able to see us from this entrance. Hurry, let's go there and form a plan."
Thankfully, Fraser didn't complain, and they all rushed to the small blind spot at the rear of the room. Fraser was pressed up against the wall behind them, with he and Honoria in front, giving them the chance to spring out and attack if needed.
Moving his head to Honoria's ear, he whispered, "Do you have a plan?"
"Actually, I do."
He listened and thought it was brilliant. Now all they had to do was wait.
Chapter Nine
As Honoria waited for whoever was coming, she did her best to breathe and stay at the ready.
She didn't know if her plan would work or not, but she was certain that at least one other pair had skirted the edge of the rules.
While none of them were allowed to kill or mortally wound, and they could only rescue one person for their task, there was nothing about coercing others for information. She only hoped it wasn't one of the younger participants.
Because if so, the sort of dragonman who would hurt anyone through interrogation—but especially children given how much dragon-shifters treasured them—should never be clan leader.
Her beast spoke up. He won't be. Not if I have any say in it.
No killing. You know that.
Her dragon sniffed. I wouldn't waste the effort. Well, unless they hurt a child. Then I may have to teach them a lesson.
The door at the other end of the room opened, and the rush of air brought forward a multitude of new scents.
One was a male scent she instantly recognized. Shane Farhall was here.
While he was intelligent enough not to speak, not disguising his smell meant Honoria could refine her plan for Shane specifically.
The soft footsteps of one person drew closer, until they had to be about halfway down the hall. Taking a deep breath, she rushed into Shane's line of sight and pretended to be nervous. "What are you doing here?"
Shane snarled, "What, is King hiding so that his bitch could protect him?"