6
Mercury and Tacey reached the mouth of the main tunnel.
Enough torches had been lit in the tunnels beyond for a person to see where he was going without having a clear view of what lay ahead.
The Vanns needed to think they were following Mercury, not ghosts carrying his clothing.
And when either the Somber Shadow or La Bougie flitted across the tunnel, the Vanns needed to not be entirely sure of what they were seeing.
Just inside the tunnel was a small, shadowed alcove.
Tacey would wait there until the Vanns passed, then she would close the wall.
The Vanns wouldn’t be able to escape, but neither would Mercury.
They had discovered that, though ghosts couldn’t sense the presence of the tunnels, they could pass in and out of the false wall separating the tunnels from the dungeon.
Ghosts could escape with the wall closed; people could not.
“Are you ready?” Mercury asked Tacey, more uncertainty in his voice than he wished were there.
“I’m ready,” she said. “Be careful.”
“You as well.”
She nodded.
He squeezed her hand before releasing it and stepping into the tunnels.
At the point where the very first side tunnel branched off of the main one, the ghosts were huddled together, watching for him.
“Everyone to their places,” Mercury said. “The Vanns will be here soon enough.”
The ghosts all scattered. Mercury made his way down the main tunnel, his focus firmly in place and his resolve unshaken.
It would have been a lie to say he wasn’t nervous.
Only those who didn’t understand the enormity of an undertaking never grew nervous.
He was well aware. But uncertainty and danger had never stopped him before; it certainly wasn’t going to now.
Mercury assumed his place in the shadows and listened.
Somewhere in the dark labyrinth, Weeping William was weeping.
It was one of the reasons Mercury had suggested he be in the tunnels.
Voices and noises would either draw the Vanns in or send them in the opposite direction. The ghosts would adjust as needed.
Mercury slipped his hand into his coat pocket and wrapped his fingers around the iron key inside. It wasn’t as reassuring as holding Tacey’s hand, but it helped.
A whisper sounded somewhere up ahead, one loud enough to carry but not be clearly heard. Perfect. Let the Vanns wonder if it was Mercury’s voice or Tacey’s. They’d follow either one.
The distant and overlapping noises of his ghosts were joined by a sound he remembered all too well and recognized in an instant: The Violet Giant’s rumbling voice.
“There’s something down there, for certain.” His words bounced off the walls, multiplying and weaving into themselves.
On the day Mercury and his ghosts had rescued Tacey, with the Violet Giant’s invaluable help, the enormous specter had said, “We will meet again, Mercury Raine. When we do, remember this moment.”
Remembering that moment was the reason for this one. The Violet Giant had sided with him over the Vanns. The Violet Giant had chosen to help instead of hurt. So Mercury was choosing to trust him, which was a rare and risky thing.
One of the ghosts flitted past Mercury with a jacket hovering as if being worn. That would help pull the Vanns down this main tunnel.
Mercury could hear footsteps slowly and cautiously approaching. They were being lured but seemed wary of the bait. He inched his way through the shadows toward the next tunnel.
More faint footsteps.
“I saw something up ahead.” Mr. Vann’s voice.
“Likely a ghost,” Mrs. Vann said. “Aventine is crawling with them.”
During their previous visit, she’d given the impression of guilelessness. The pretense had been dropped now. There was nothing but blunt calculation in her voice.
Another ghost with a jacket floated past Mercury.
Among the ghostly voices, laughter, crying, and furniture moving, Mercury heard the faint but unmistakable sound of the wall sliding back into place. Tacey had trapped the Vanns—and Mercury—in the tunnels.
“There are too many sounds and moving things,” Mr. Vann said. “I don’t like it.”
“Neither do I,” his wife said. “Let’s double back.”
Mrs. Vann’s instructions were followed by the sound of retreating footfall.
Tacey had closed the wall. The Vanns wouldn’t get far. They had had the upper hand the last time he’d brangled with them. Mercury had all the advantage now. He meant to use every inch of that to neutralize the threat they posed.
He slipped farther down the tunnel, toward the third branch. He passed through a section that wasn’t as shadowed as the rest. The Vanns might very well see him, but so much the better. They wouldn’t catch up to him quickly, and they would be making their way closer to the trap he’d laid for them.
“I saw him,” Mrs. Vann said. “I swear to you; I saw him up ahead.”
Mercury passed La Bougie as he turned down the third tunnel. He met her eye with a quick nod and received one in return. He stopped just outside the door to the room they needed the Vanns to step into. A lantern was already lit inside. He looked back toward the main tunnel.
Into the darkness came the tiniest flicker of a glow. La Bougie.
“No ghost needs light,” Mrs. Vann declared triumphantly. “That’ll be him.”
Mercury slipped inside the room and tucked himself just behind the door where he wouldn’t be seen. His pulse beat a steady, confident rhythm.
La Bougie’s glow drew slowly nearer.
More sounds echoed through the dungeon, increasingly loud and chaotic. That was perfect. It would keep the Vanns distracted enough to be even less likely to notice him waiting or to be thinking clearly enough to realize this was a trap.
“We know you are down here, Mercury Raine.” Mr. Vann’s voice held more than a note of derision. “Hiding will do you no good.”
One of the ghosts shouted indiscernibly down a distant side tunnel. Chair legs scraped down another.
“We are not above absconding with Miss Wilde again,” Mrs. Vann said. “This time, we won’t make her so easy to find.”
This time? There was no “this time.” Mercury was making absolutely certain of that.
The Vanns were near enough that he could distinguish each individual footstep.
He could hear the swish of Mrs. Vann’s dress.
He held his breath, not wishing to give himself away.
The glow from La Bougie had extinguished.
Mercury was certain they would follow the lantern light and step inside the room he waited in.
The Violet Giant had warned him not to underestimate the Vanns. They had kidnapped Tacey and used her as bait. They were hunting him for the bounty on his head.
They were dangerous.
And they were getting closer.
“Hand yourself over,” Mr. Vann called out from just outside the door.
Mercury held his breath. It was crucial he not be spotted.
“Do so,” Mrs. Vann said, “and we promise not to hurt her.”
They would hurt Tacey either way; he was certain about that.
Two shadows slid over the floor of the dimly lit room as the Vanns moved slowly, their cautious steps echoing off the walls.
“Do you see him?” Mr. Vann asked.
“It is too dim to see much of anything in here,” Mrs. Vann answered.
They stepped farther inside, clearing the door. Still, Mercury waited.
“You can’t hide forever, Mercury Raine.” Mrs. Vann’s taunting held an undeniable edge of contempt.
They took a few more steps away from the door. Mercury slipped around it and into the tunnel. He pulled the door shut behind him. He dropped the metal crossbar into place, locking them in.
The Vanns began pounding on the door. Mercury took a moment to breathe before responding.
There was a slot in the door, as there were in all of the doors in the tunnel.
Mercury slid it open. He could see the Vanns inside, standing at the door.
Their glares now held a hint of worry. La Bougie stood near Mercury, glowing once more, so the Vanns could see him as well.
He made certain his unwavering determination showed in his expression.
“Welcome back,” he said. “Your foolishness in returning means Miss Wilde is not the one who is about to be ‘difficult to find.’”
Mr. Vann’s gaze narrowed. “You would not lock us down here forever.”
“Wouldn’t I?” he answered coldly.
That seemed to give the man some pause. His wife skewered Mercury with a livid glare.
“If you’d like to offer some useful information regarding Miss Wilde’s recent adventures,” Mercury said, “I might be willing to reconsider.”
“We know better than to speak out of turn.” Mrs. Vann’s tight words echoed off the stone walls.
“You’re that loyal to your coconspirators?” Mercury asked.
A hint of fear entered their expressions. Fear.
“It’s not a matter of loyalty,” Mrs. Vann said, having suddenly lost a great deal of her bravado.
“You’re afraid?” He knew they answered to the Forever Flame and had desperately wanted to be granted the chance to still earn their bounty. But he’d not had the impression that they were scared.
“We’ve reason to be afraid,” Mr. Vann said. “If you were wise, you would be terrified.”