Lost Destinies

↳ 02: An Innocent Robbery... Whoops, She's Dead

"Lindsay's late," whispered Ramona Swan, pressing her finger to her right ear where a tiny crystal device, nestled just above her ear canal and invisible to anyone passing by, served as her main communication with the rest of her gang.

"You've got—"

"We've got less," interrupted Ramona, inching across the wall and peeking down the corner. Nearly everywhere was eerily empty. That was not to say it was silent. Claude had reported that trying to get to the vault through the kitchens was a bust—it was a mess of guards and cooks and servants and even the king himself. So they'd had to take the long way, and now they were wasting time. Stars, she really hated detours when they were beyond her control.

"Right, then," said Minerva Lynon huffily, her voice coming in as clearly as if she were standing in earshot. Perks of magic tech. "I'm at the edge of the woods, and I was going to say that you need to cut that time even further. I'm watching a tussle on the roof."

"We're not the only ones here," Ramona realized harrowingly, stopping in her tracks. It hadn't occurred to her until now that the kitchens incident was no accident.

"That's correct." Minerva sounded just as unbothered as she always did.

"And it explains a lot." As if on cue, another resounding BANG came from the direction of the kitchens. "Ah, forget it. Claude, meet me at the vault! We're just going to have to defend ourselves if anything goes wrong. Penny, Baby, status?"

She took off at a run, skidding down the hallway until she ran into a gaggle of terrified-looking maids. She sighed and unfurled her wings, hoping for the best as she spun into a spiral to dart over their heads before they even had time to comprehend she was there. The rush of flying, even for a short time, was mesmerizing. It was really a shame she rarely did it anymore.

There was a clicking noise followed by Penny's heavy breathing. "There were, like, fifteen guards coming your way. Keyword 'were'. You're welcome."

Ramona laughed, shaking her head as she sailed down the next corridor. She landed a little ungracefully but quickly recovered, folding her wings again behind her back and retracting them before stumbling to a standing position. Baby Bear—whose nickname was incredibly misleading—towered over Penny Windsor, shooting Ramona a grin and a wave. He was the spitting image of a textbook lumberjack, only much, much larger, and probably hairier too.

Penny scowled at the uniformed soldiers collapsed in a heap at their feet, kicking one for good measure. They'd been an odd team when they first met, but between Bear's sheer size and strength and Penny's determination and practiced skill, they became an inseparable duo as the muscle of the crew. They were lucky they'd found Bear in that trap that day, and he was even luckier, given that he probably would've ended up poacher meat in his animagus form.

"Most of the side door and tunnels are sealed off with some kinda freaky magic runes," he said, gesturing wildly as he spoke. Ramona nodded, twirling one pigtail. She'd seen the floating script on her way over here. The runes reeked of dark magic.

Baby crouched down and got to work propping the unconscious soldiers up against the wall, adjusting their armor and making sure they were all still breathing. This earned an eye roll from his partner, who didn't seem to care whether their victims ended up dead or alive, but Ramona never intended for their heists to result in anyone's death. Violence wasn't generally her style if she could manage to avoid it.

"There wasn't much of anywhere to hide," Penny added, crossing her arms over a brown leather corset and loose blouse that had seen better days. She was the muted kind of pretty that could get lost under her persistent scowl and thick brow. "We had to plow through guards and knock out a couple of servants, there was no getting around it. Luckily someone had already taken care of quite a few of 'em for us. Duckie, I'll be honest, I really don't like this. We don't know what to expect when it comes to this other group of people. There should be anywhere from two hundred to three hundred soldiers in this castle and we've seen maybe fifty, if that."