Chapter 19 #3
The diamond was transparent, but at the heart of it, it was colored pink.
Cut into precise facets, that pink heart seemed to dance and warp.
Through the diamond, I could also see my fingers, but they wavered and danced, distorted by the million ways the light refracted on its surface.
Even with only Flack’s light glowing from his belt, the diamond reflected it, too.
A thousand pink-hued rainbows danced across the ceiling. It was beautiful.
I was immensely relieved when Flack took the heavy weight back from me.
That thing had to be nearly two pounds, not an easy weight to simply hold in the palm of your hand.
My fingers began tingling as heat returned to them.
I shook them out, surprised at how much warmth that single stone had sapped from my flesh.
“Oh, it was so cold!” I said, my eyes tracking what he did with the massive, sparkling gem, and somehow losing track of it anyway.
Had he tucked it into a pocket somewhere in his pants?
Would it even fit? I wasn’t sure, but one moment he’d been holding it, and the next it was just gone, the pretty rainbows dancing all around us winking out.
“A diamond is an elite thermal conductor,” Flack said.
Leave it to him to know everything there was to know about a precious gem like that.
I wasn’t surprised, but I was pretty sure I never wanted to hold it again, even if it was very pretty.
It had looked warmer than it had felt, thanks to the pink dancing in its center.
Flack appeared unhurried as he inspected the rest of the treasures inside the vault, his hands trailing past the bars of gold stacked on the shelves.
He checked all the paintings in the cabinet and rummaged through the chests.
Like he just couldn’t help himself, he had to check if there wasn’t anything else in here he deemed worth stealing.
When he began shifting a shelf, I realized there might have been more purpose to his actions than had appeared.
“Come stand here, sweetheart.” He gestured in front of him.
Since last time, he’d just directed me to stand somewhere out of the way, I fully expected that to be the case again.
Except it wasn’t. He began guiding my hands down the wall panel he’d revealed.
“Hold here. I need you to put pressure on that spot.” I had no clue what I was doing, but I leaned into it.
He moved to the left, his hands gliding over the wall he’d revealed.
Whatever he was looking for, he had his head cocked and his ears twitching as he listened for it. “Got it.”
So this was the part of the job he’d needed some extra hands for.
Except for the way we’d slipped into this building through a very tiny window, I didn’t see what the size requirement was about.
That changed the moment the panel suddenly came free from the wall.
Flack caught it deftly and moved it aside, and a small, narrow tunnel was revealed.
It was more like a pipe I could perhaps crawl through if I squeezed a little.
Flack, in his current shape, would never fit. “What is this?” I asked.
“This was a panic room once, before the Asrai noble who owns this place had it converted to a vault. I managed to get my hands on the original blueprints.” He tapped his thigh where the tattoo was located.
“They paneled over it and forgot it was there. Dimon won’t know about it either, so he won’t have guards stationed at the possible exits.
You have no idea what kind of deal I had to make to get my hands on this map.
” I didn’t, and I probably didn’t want to know anyway.
I was simply relieved there’d been an exit all this time; it was no wonder Flack had been so calm.
The tunnel was very small and dark, though, which was going to make it slow going.
I was pretty used to moving through tight spaces, but this one gave me pause.
It wasn’t the same as moving through a completely artificial environment, each component made by my hands.
This was a tunnel underground, and dirt would press in on it.
My imagination was quick to conjure up all kinds of disgusting, nasty critters on the other side of that metal wall.
“I need to shift to fit, so you’re going to have to crawl in after me to shut the hatch.
” That was easier said than done, and there wasn’t much we could do about the shelf we’d moved to get to the panel.
Flack sorted that by moving all the shelves around, creating utter chaos in the previously neat and ordered vault.
Then we were on our way, Flack helping me and my brand-new fur coat and jewel-crusted boots by pulling on my sleeve to help me inside.
His tiny foxshape was shockingly strong for a creature barely the size of a chihuahua.
Once the hatch shut behind us, the darkness felt horrible and deep.
Flack’s yipping, panting noises were bright and cheerful in that space.
He was urging me to get moving, but I fished the light he’d handed me from my huge fur coat pocket first. Precious stones rattled together as I located it.
I eyed the slightly sloping tunnel once the light flared, took a deep breath, and started wriggling forward. This was going to take a while.