By the time we made it back to The Pierre, I'd already made my decision. Not that there had ever been much doubt, Renaud’s cryptic advice just confirmed what I already knew. Lisa was family, and you didn't abandon family, even if it meant dragging yourself out of a comfortable retirement.

  The private elevator whisked us up to the penthouse floors, past the regur hotel guests who had no idea that the top three floors belonged to a formerly retired monster hunter and his sixteen-year-old daughter.

  "So," Kelly said as we stepped into the main living area, "you're really doing this? The whole 'coming out of retirement to save someone' thing?"

  "Looks that way." I dropped my keys on the marble counter and headed for my office. "But you're staying here."

  "Dad,"

  "This isn’t up for debate, Kelly. Way too dangerous for you to just tag along."

  She followed me into the office, where I started pulling gear from the hidden safe behind the false wall. Silver bullets, blessed weapons, protective charms, the tools of a trade I'd hoped never to use again.

  "What if something happens to you?" she asked quietly.

  I paused in my packing, looking at my daughter. She was trying to be brave, but I could see the fear in her eyes. Fear for me, fear of being left alone, fear of a world that was suddenly much stranger than she'd ever imagined. She had just lost her mother and was watching me pack up to leave her again.

  "Nothing's going to happen to me," I said, which was a lie, and we both knew it. "But just in case, Zebra and Zoar will take care of you. They know how to reach my contacts if there's an emergency." As if summoned by their names, two people appeared in the doorway.

  "Mr. Hunter," Zoar said with a slight bow. "I take it you'll be traveling?"

  "Upstate. Could be a few days, could be longer." I sealed the weapons case and shouldered my pack. "Take care of Kelly until I get back."

  Zebra stepped forward, offering Kelly a slight smile. "Of course, Miss Hunter. We've grown accustomed to her being around by now. We can introduce her to more of the building’s history."

  "Really?" Kelly perked up, momentarily distracted from her worry. "What kind of history?"

  "Perhaps Zebra can give you the tour while I finish preparations," I suggested, grateful for anything that might keep my daughter occupied and away from dwelling on the dangers I was about to face.

  “Are you at least going to tell me the truth?” I went rigid at Kelly’s tentative question. “I’m not stupid, Dad… security work rarely involves elves at midnight, creepy fortune tellers on abandoned beaches, or dragons…”

  “How much did you hear?”

  “More than you want… less than makes sense.” She walked over to me, hugging me tightly in an embrace that made everything else melt away…

  “Kells…”

  “Go save your friend.” She let me go, trying to wipe a tear from her eye before I could see it. ”We can talk when you get back.” I nodded, afraid to talk as she left with Zebra and Zoar.. A moment from letting a tear fall from my own eyes. Before that, work called.

  I made my way to the study, closing the door behind me, and tapped the small device embedded near my right ear. A soft chime indicated the connection was active.

  "Holly, you there?"

  "Always am, sugar." The voice was warm, with a slight Southern accent that could make even bad news sound like sweet tea. "Let me guess, someone's dragged you out of retirement."

  "Underground elf colony in upstate New York. Dragon problem. Lisa’s gone missing."

  "Oh, honey. That would expin what got the poppa bear all riled up. Let me see what I can find for you… Well… that’s not good."

  "What?"

  "The area she was investigating, about forty miles north of Albany, has had three missing persons reports filed in the st month. All hikers, all vanished without a trace in the same general vicinity."

  "Dragon's expanding its hunting grounds."

  "That'd be my guess. I'm sending you topographical maps and geological surveys to your phone. The cave systems in that area are extensive, lots of pces to hide, lots of pces to get lost."

  "Any idea what kind of dragon we're dealing with?"

  "On a scale of Tolkien to Hickman and Weiss? Your guess is as good as mine. Real dragons aren’t so easy to categorize, but one thing they have in common," she paused, "notoriously difficult to kill."

  "Great. Anything else I should know?"

  "Pack warm clothes and bring extra batteries for everything. Those cave systems can py hell with electronics, and you don't want to be stuck underground in the dark with an angry dragon. Depending on how deep, even my signal might not reach."

  "Thanks, Holly. I'll check in when I reach the colony."

  "You’d better. And Derek? Be careful down there. I've got a bad feeling about this one."

  The connection ended, leaving me alone with my thoughts and a growing certainty that I was about to make a very stupid decision. But Lisa was down there somewhere, possibly alive, definitely in danger, and I was the only one close enough to help.

  I grabbed my gear and headed for the garage.

  ~ - ~

  The drive upstate took three hours, ending at an abandoned rest stop. Cracked pavement, rusted picnic tables, and a forest service sign that hadn’t been updated since the ’80s. The trail marker read Adirondack Nature Walk – 2.5 Miles. Cute.

  A mile in, the path dissolved into underbrush and fallen logs. By the time I found the cave entrance, half-hidden by moss and rockfall, I already hated what was coming.

  I checked my gear: silver knife, blessed shotgun, charms that still smelled faintly of ash, enough weapons and ammo to make a small war interesting. Against a dragon? Not worth much. But the illusion of preparedness keeps a man moving.

  Cold air breathed from the cave, carrying the sour scent of earth and rot. I clicked on my headmp. Just like riding a bike, I muttered, and stepped inside.

  The tunnel sloped downward, water dripping somewhere in the dark. Twice it forked, but Silvanus’s instructions held true: take the left path, follow the phosphorescent lichen. The faint glow turned the stone alien, and soon I saw the archway—carved runes shifting if I looked too long.

  Elven work. Old. Dangerous.

  I stepped through.

  Voices carried ahead—musical, unmistakably elvish. Light flickered against the walls. Then the tunnel opened, and I stopped cold.

  A city carved from stone stretched out before me, lit by crystal fire. Towers spiraled into the cavern, gardens bloomed without sunlight, and elves drifted along walkways like dancers in a dream. It was beautiful. It was wrong. And it reminded me why I’d ever started hunting in the first pce…back when every case promised something terrifying and wonderful instead of just dangerous. That a pce like this was hiding under people’s feet virtually unnoticed was at once terrifying and amazing.

  “Derek Hunter.”

  The voice belonged to an elf moving toward me with liquid grace, her silver-white hair braided with tiny bells that chimed as she walked. She carried herself like someone who could stop a crowd without raising her voice.

  “I am Caelynn, Elder of the Western Grove. We are… honored by your presence.”

  “Just Hunter,” I said. “And we can skip the honorifics. I’m here for Lisa Parker, nothing more. Not getting myself involved in whatever politics you people have going on down here.”

  Her expression tightened, a shadow passing over the crystals’ glow. “Yes. The human woman. She went east, toward the dragon’s ir eight days ago. She has not returned.”

  “Then we don’t have time to waste. I’ll need everything you can tell me, tunnels, territory, what she was carrying.”Caelynn lifted a hand. “You will have it. But first, you must rest. Eat. The deep pces demand strength, and we owe you our hospitality.”

  “I appreciate the offer, but…”

  “It wasn’t a request.” Her tone softened, but the authority in it left no room for argument. I could tell she was not accustomed to being told no. “Guests who risk themselves for strangers deserve our best. It’s tradition and absolutely non-negotiable.”

  I gnced again at the impossible city and felt the weight of the road behind me. A full stomach before walking into a dragon’s den wasn’t the worst idea. “Lead the way.”

  The elves guided me to an amphitheater carved into the cavern’s heart. As we moved deeper into the city, I caught myself counting heads against the weight of the ammo in my pack. If things went ugly, I’d probably run out of bullets before I ran out of elves. My hand brushed the knife on my belt. Good thing steel doesn’t run dry.

  Not that they were the target. Not tonight. Tonight, they were the client. Still, never hurt to be prepared.

  When we reached our destination, the tables curved around a blue-fmed pit, wrong fire burning too steadily to be natural. They sat me near Caelynn, close enough to study her face, far enough from the exit that I’d have a struggle if things went bad. Smart. They weren’t trusting me any more than I was trusting them.

  The food came in waves: roasted roots I didn’t recognize, bread still warm, stew rich and unidentifiable. “This is excellent,” I admitted, because basic courtesy opened doors faster than threats. “You grow all this down here?”

  “We have… arrangements with the earth,” Caelynn said carefully. “Life can be coaxed from darkness, if you know how to ask.”

  Magic farming. Figures. My skin prickled with the static weight of it. The whole thing was unnatural. So was most of human technology, though, so I was learning to cope with it.

  “And will Legos be joining us for this pre-fight snack break?”

  “Legos?” The elf woman looked slightly confused.

  “Yeah, brother golden hair that showed up at my doorstep the other night.” I chewed my food slowly, watching the woman’s reactions. She was poised, not the kind to ruffle easily.

  “Sylvanus, you mean? Not Legos. He is currently dealing with other equally important matters, but he does wish to accompany you to the dragon’s cavern. After not knowing what happened to your friend, he wishes not to take any chances.

  “Yeah, I know it ain’t his name, but I can remember three elf names at any time, Legos, Buddy, and Hermey… take your pick.” I set down my bowl, picking up a goblet and swishing the liquid inside before taking a tentative sip. “Now tell me about the dragon.”

  Conversation stilled like someone had flipped a switch. Even the children pying around the edges of the room fell quiet.

  “The Crimson Death,” Caelynn said finally. “Six months ago, one of our expansion teams took out a wall in the eastern quarter and found its ir. At first, we thought that would be the end of it. But it rose up. It cimed the eastern chambers, colpsed tunnels, and drove out our miners. Then it began making… demands.”

  “What kind of demands?”

  “Food. Livestock.” Her eyes hardened. “Sometimes, our young.”

  My hand brushed the grip of my shotgun. “And you just hand them over?”

  “No.” The word cracked, sharp as a whip. “Never. We refused. But we cannot kill it. We are gardeners now, not soldiers. Our magic is for growth, not war.”

  I let the silence hang. “So you hired Lisa.”

  “She came highly recommended. Spoke with conviction. Even for one so young, she seemed more than capable of doing what she cimed she could.” Caelynn smiled, a tight grin with little humor in it. “She also dropped your name… the famed boogeyman of the supernatural world… cimed you were a friend. It seems at least some of her bold cims had merit.”

  Yeah. That sounded like Lisa, always good at using my name to get through a door. “When did you st hear from her?”

  “Over a week ago, as we said. She went into the eastern passages. We heard the mountain shake, stone falling, fire roaring… and then nothing.”

  “And you didn’t check?”

  “The dragon sealed the ways with fme and rock. We cannot reach them.”

  So Lisa was either trapped or dead, and these people had been sitting on their hands ever since. Typical.

  “Did you send Lisa off with any equipment or leave her to her own devices? All the sparkly magic you have here, I am sure some of it would come in handy against something like a dragon.” I finished my drink, the friendly chat portion of our evening was quickly coming to a close, and I needed real answers.

  “We offered, of course.” The elf rose, taking my bowl and some of the other ptes, moving them to a serving tray behind us. “It’s in our best interest that she succeeds, obviously, so we encouraged her to take her pick from our armory. She told Sylvanus that she didn’t know how to use any of our ancestral weapons. She seemed to have plenty of her own in any case. An entire pouch of magic rocks.”

  Before I could speak again, a small figure approached the table. A girl, maybe twelve in human years, clutching a flower so dark it seemed to drink the firelight. She pced it carefully beside my pte.

  “For the Hunter,” she whispered. “For luck.” Then she darted back to her parents.

  The petals smelled faintly of vanil, but something else made the hair on my neck stand.

  “A shadowbell,” Caelynn said softly. “They bloom only in the deepest dark, when great magic…or great danger…stirs.”

  I tucked it into my jacket. Magic and danger usually meant the same thing.

  “Show me the entrance,” I said, standing. “Let’s go see what this big lizard really wants.”

  “Tonight?” Caelynn’s brow furrowed. “The deep pces are… worse after dark. Sylvanus wished to guide you to the dragon’s ir as he knows the way. Wait for dawn.”

  “Dragons don’t care what time it is, not that down here you could really tell. If Lisa’s still alive, every hour matters.”She studied me for a long moment, then inclined her head. “Very well. But the stone itself trembles when it roars. You may not return.”

  “Then I’ll make sure to give your people something worth talking about.”

  The elves murmured as we left, their nguage lilting in uneasy tones. Odds-makers, already betting on whether I’d come back in one piece.

  Smart money was on the dragon.

  But I’ve made a living proving the smart money wrong.