“Joey,” she exclaimed thankfully.
“I’m sorry I startled you,” he said, his mouth tight, his brows slanting wickedly.
“What . . .”
“Okay, the news is not the best.” He scowled out toward the sea, then back at her. “Are you serious about wanting to help?”
“Tell me what to do and I’ll do it.” She gritted her teeth. “But I’m not going away.”
“I don’t think there’s time for me to bring in reinforcements—not that I know many at that level. But between the two of us, if we’re quick, we might just be able to bring this off. The key is freeing Mikhail.”
“Freeing him?”
“Remember that shiftsilver I told you about? Right now he’s in the Oracle cave, entirely bound in it. Can’t shift, or even move. And that much pure shiftsilver, worked into chain, is very painful.”
Bird’s stomach lurched at the thought of Mikhail, trapped and in pain. “Who did that to him?”
“This is the next part of the bad news: the reinforcement he called upon, quite properly, is a renegade.” Joey Hu’s normally pleasant face altered to white-lipped fury. “Fu Cang Long is a red dragon, the Guardian here in Southern California. Think of him as a dragon of volcanoes. I never liked him, but Mikhail does. They worked together in a number of very dangerous situations. Mikhail believes, or wants to believe, he’s as loyal and honest as Mikhail is himself, but I’ve increasingly had reason to doubt that. Never mind why right now . . . turns out, I’m sorry to say, I was right. I’m guessing the entire situation is a setup.”
“What can we do?”
“Cang brought backup—his own. There are two quite nasty mythical beasts on guard at the cave entrance below. Don’t worry about them. They are mine to distract. When I do, you slip in and make your way to the Oracle cave. You know where it is, right?”
“I do. Though I don’t have a flashlight . . .”
“No lights, I’m afraid. You don’t want to alert Cang to your presence. Right now he’s doing his very best to convince Mikhail to throw in with him. But you and I know Mikhail won’t give in. Once Cang figures that out, I’m afraid he’s going to get . . . creative. He’s determined to force Mikhail to lift his ward binding the Oracle Stone, now that the trap has been snapped.”
Bird’s nerves chilled at the way Joey’s friendly voice went cold on the word “creative.” She pressed her arms across her stomach, feeling sick. “How do I undo the chains?”
“They aren’t locked—they don’t have to be. Even those using them against someone will touch them as little as possible, using armored gloves. That many chains, just wound around one of us, renders us entirely unable to move. The effect on us is quite deadly, but to you, they’ll be mere metal. If you can get Mikhail even partially free, he should be able to take it from there.”
“But what about lava wyrms?” Bird asked, making no attempt to control the trembling of her voice.
“Lava wyrms are usually harmless spirits that live in the liquid part of the earth’s core. They don’t normally attack people—they have to be forced to behave that way. Cang can’t control them and concentrate on Mikhail at the same time. Once you get inside the cave, you’re clear. If I can get rid of the two guards, I’ll come help you. But we have to be fast. Luckily Cang is arrogant. Always believes he’s the smartest person in the room. But Mikhail will be steadfast, and there’s no telling when Cang will lose it when he doesn’t get what he wants.”
“Got it,” Bird said tightly.
Joey reached out and gripped her shoulders. It was a friendly grip, a comradely grip that infused her with courage. “Are you sure?”
No, she wasn’t. She had never been good at confrontation, much less taking action.
But she had faced Bartholomew.
She had mated to a dragon.
She was going to do this. Or die trying.
“Let’s go,” she whispered fiercely.
A squeeze, friend to friend, and Joey led the way down, sometimes pausing to help her over places where the stone steps had crumbled, or fallen away entirely. She was glad of his strong grip, and appreciated how impersonal it was—so very unlike Mikhail’s touch, which shot the heat of the sun straight to her core.
They reached the shoreline. The tide was coming back in, Bird saw. That was a little unnerving.
All the more reason to be as fast as I can, she promised herself.
Joey motioned her to hide behind a jumble of rocks, then strolled out, light sparkling over his silvering hair and . . . ruff, fur, and tails, scintillating in the morning light. He had shifted to his mythic form, yet Bird could still see him.
“Well, fancy meeting you here, Liza,” Joey said. “I see you’ve taken up with Cang.”