hearts of metal

li. i'll be okay

The uneasy feeling had returned. Something was crawling up her spine and into the base of her throat, where it stayed and echoed alongside her rapid pulse.

Rowan's hand brushed hers in silent comfort. She leaned closer, searching for the faint smell of pine and snow below the musty scents of the catacombs.

"This is as far as Nox and Vaughan could map," Aedion said, when they finally reached a fork in the tunnel.

She glanced at the dirt paths. The one to the left was uninterrupted, while the one to the right had faint lines in the dirt. As if someone had tried to cover their tracks. Coming to the same realization as her, Aedion veered towards the right.

Everyone else followed. More bones littered this pathway, embedded mostly in the wall and scattered across the floor.

The walls eventually narrowed and became lined with stone. It led to an iron door. There was no knob, no lock, no keypad. Aelin examined the surroundings for any hidden way of opening it, but there was nothing.

"Must only open from inside," Rowan muttered.

"Either way, I think we found what we were looking for," her dad said. He had already pulled out a satellite phone that was capable of tracking their coordinates. "I'll ask Vaughan to search the address when we get back."

"Alright," Aedion said. "Let's get out of here, it's pretty creepy."

Aelin silently agreed, and they all turned around to leave. The knot of panic in her chest eased slightly at the thought of getting back to the sewer entrance from where they came.

Soon enough, the room with hellfire came back into sight. They traveled past it, up the ladder, and through the slim tunnel before winding back up in the sewers.

"Never thought I'd be glad to see the sewers again," she quipped.

Aedion rolled his eyes, clearly still bitter about the stone hound incident. Lorcan only scoffed and said, "all in favor of leaving her here?"

Rowan and Aedion raised their hands, while her dad sent her an apologetic smile. Aelin gasped in mock offense. "How dare you betray me like this? My own brother," she directed to Aedion. "And you," she said to Rowan.

He lowered his hand, but sent her a look that said, don't start.

"You talk too much," Lorcan grumbled.

"And whatever would you do without me? Go back to brooding in silence?"

Rowan raised an eyebrow at her. Brooding in silence, huh?

Oh, don't bother denying it, she sent back.

Rhoe laughed softly. "Sometimes, you remind me far too much of Evalin," he said.

She supposed that was a compliment and took it as permission to flip Lorcan off.

"You okay?" Rowan asked, later that day.

She hummed from where she was donning her blades.

"You seem off. Do you still have a bad feeling?"

Aelin shrugged and strapped her last knife on. Armed with some information about the hellfire, they were on their way to meet with Ilias and his men about their plan going forward. Nehemia was going to be there, as well, the clever strategist representing her family.

Vaughan and the twins stayed behind again, so it was her, her brother, and her father in one car. Lorcan and Rowan took the other car.

Both cars were black and ordinary models, nothing to draw attention to themselves. The route they took to a predetermined meeting spot was one with a lot of intentional twists and u-turns to throw off anyone tailing them to the meeting.