Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 145721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
More questions. No answers. Graves had said that the powder wasn’t dangerous. It was just an extension of Imani’s magic. But it was clearly a bigger operation than he’d let on.
But this wasn’t what she was here for. Kierse retraced her steps and headed down the other side of the tunnel. She walked for what felt like ages, counting her steps along the way to make sure she knew how far she had gone. Maybe her objective wasn’t even here. It was just their business they were protecting.
Then she took the next turn and came upon a large, round bank vault door. The enormous thing was built into the stone. Likely, the entire structure of the house had been built around this beautiful, gilded door.
Kierse smiled. Showtime.
She didn’t have any tools with her save a hairpin, but she didn’t need them to break into this vault. It was old. It must have been here for at least a hundred years. They didn’t even make these anymore. Which was good for her. Getting into an old, abandoned bank vault was going to be a piece of cake compared to the kind of situations Jason had forced her to break into and out of. At least this one wouldn’t end up with her breaking her arm when she didn’t crack a vault fast enough.
The warlocks must have figured the carved whorls and swirls in a language she couldn’t quite read would keep anyone out. Wards. They were different than the ones on the Holly Library. Graves’s warding was threaded through with holly vines, but this had little birds in the pattern: a long-necked bird facing backward with feet facing forward. She’d seen the symbol on the wax seal of the invitation. If she had to guess, this was Imani’s warding. She was more powerful than Montrell. She’d want to protect the contents. Which meant that the holly was specific to Graves. Interesting.
Luckily, wards didn’t work on her. And Imani and Montrell hadn’t thought that they’d need increased security. They hadn’t anticipated her. Just like Graves. No security systems. Nothing to disable. No heat sensors or alarms or motion detection. Sloppy. Though clearly effective. Graves had said there was no one else like her. Normally, wards would be enough, but not tonight.
Kierse lowered herself before the locking mechanism, placing her ear to the gears behind it. Though she was well trained, vaults by their nature were not supposed to be easy to break into, unlike those little fireproof safes that she could sometimes just hit right or drop from the top of a building and click, they’d bust open.
The fastest, most effective way to get into a bank vault was to drill through until she could see the pins and gears beyond. Then she would be able to reverse engineer the combination and turn it over. The problem was that not everyone knew exactly where to drill. Most vaults had a relock function. If damaged they would shut down so that the person would have to completely dismantle the vault over the course of hours to get to it. By then, security would be there to arrest her. And they had.
Kierse shuddered. It was a memory. A bad one. Jason had left her for the cops. He’d said jail was just another vault to break out of and that she’d need the practice. She had never again reengaged a locking mechanism in a vault. Not after he’d put his fist through her face.
But of course, tonight, she didn’t even have a drill. Nor had they anticipated the Catos having a vault in the first place.
That left her with one option—breaking the vault code.
And while she had been trained for it, it did take time. Her most valuable resource. She was going to need to break her own personal record tonight to not be noticed.
Kierse turned the dial, listening for the small variation in rhythm that said she had hit an internal disc movement. She noted the placement and then kept on, moving the dial back and forth and back and forth, trying to get the vault to tell her all its secrets. Jason had been fast at this, but she was always faster. As if the vault spoke directly to her and she was the only one who knew how to listen.
Her shivering kept her alert. The basement was freezing. It had none of the artificial heat that blasted through the warlocks’ main room, which was made worse by the fact that she was in next to nothing. Her hands trembled as she worked. She was thankful for whatever immunity powers she had, but right now, in the deepest parts of winter, she wished that she had some fire in her veins.
Time passed slowly. With each ticking moment, she waited for someone to venture down the dark corridor. She had no idea how long she’d been there when she turned the handle one final time and a hissing noise came from the door as it popped open.