© Michael Scott

Scathach ducked back down into the opening, swearing softly. Billy fell silent as they listened to quiet sobs, clicking nails, and the occasional scream. Scathach glanced down at Billy, who mouthed 'where are we?'

Scatty's face was grim as she responded, 'Nyx's basement.' Billy frowned.

Scatty carefully poked her head back through the opening, scanning the area slowly for any signs of movement. There wasn't any.

Swiftly, she pulled herself up and landed in a crouch beside the hatch. Billy climbed out behind her, shining his flashlight into each corner. There were old statues, paintings, relics, and furniture covered in grey sheets. Confirming Scathach's earlier observation, Billy moved to close the hatch.

His touch was gentle, but as he lifted the door, it seemed to become magnetized to its latch and slammed with a loud bang. He straightened quickly and both he and Scatty looked for an exit.

"There," Billy said softly, despite the previous announcement of their arrival. He was already moving when Scatty finally saw what he had seen: a small door, only big enough for Billy to crawl through. It was well concealed, and Scatty was almost impressed that he had spotted it before her. Almost.

Through the door was a long hallway. A set of stairs stood at one end of the hall to their left, and to their right the hall continued and rounded a corner. They opted for the stairs, unwilling to get trapped underground in Nyx's residence. Scatty took the lead, but Billy grabbed her arm and stopped her before she took two steps.

"What?" Scatty asked angrily, then realized. Mere centimeters before her face was a nearly transparent wire, which glinted in the light. She shook off Billy's hand with a slight nod to thank him, and then clasped a lock of her hair between her fingers, holding it to the wire. Her hair barely touched it, but it fell against the wire and was sliced off. The hallway was lined with them for several meters.

"Razor sharp too, this should be fun," Billy said.

Scatty grinned. "There's a switch on the other end."

"How are we supposed to reach the other end to turn them off, Scatty?" Billy asked. As he said it, she searched in her pocket for the black powder she kept with her.

Without a word, she blew some of the powder onto the wires, turning them black and making them easier to see. Billy made a sound of protest, understanding what she was about to do, but she ignored him and launched herself into the cluster of wires, avoiding them just barely. Scatty jumped, twisted, ducked, and crawled her way through. She was cut only once, when Billy nearly called out and she got distracted, but made it to the other side and landed lightly on her feet.

"That wasn't so hard," she said, laughing softly and deactivating the wires so Billy could go through. He muttered under his breath the entire way, and stopped beside her.

"Sometimes I forget you're The Shadow and I'm worried you're going to kill yourself," he said, shaking his head and elbowing her gently.

Scatty smiled, but stopped herself. 'He annoys you,' she reminded herself, 'No smiling at those who annoy you.'

As they started on their way, they heard the clicking of nails on the floor as a cat síth approached, followed by a man. Seeing them, the cat and man began running. Scatty quickly reactivated the wires and she and Billy ran, hoping that they had stopped the two pursuing them.

Sophie and Virginia ran back the way they had come, searching for the window that they had used not ten minutes prior to enter the mansion.

"This is the hallway," Sophie said, slowing to a walk. Virginia nodded, but there was no window in sight. Sophie flared her aura around her hand and walked down the hall, trailing it along the wall. As she felt for the window in the place it had been, Virginia weighed their options.

"They definitely heard us, so we can't exactly go downstairs unless there are multiple sets of stairs and we can evade them. We can't go up either, there is less likely to be an exit from there. How's the window?" Virginia asked; watching as Sophie's silver hand caught something on the wall and the outline of the window appeared.

"It's completely solid," Sophie said. "It must be some defense mechanism in the house that magically seals all potential exits." She shrugged at Virginia. "Up or down?"

"You know Air magic, don't you?" Virginia asked, grinning.

Sophie understood her and smiled as well. "Up it is!"

They took off running, searching for a potential exit that would take them to the roof.

Scatty and Billy followed the staircase up to what they assumed was the ground floor. There were doors everywhere, but when Billy tried one his aura flared up, filling the room with a scent Scatty couldn't quite place.

"So, the doors are a no go," he said, shaking his hand as if he'd been burned. He grinned at Scathach, who rolled her eyes.

"Come on, let's get out of here," she said, carefully moving along the wall of the corridor.

"How do we find Germain?" Billy asked, following her.

She shrugged and kept moving.

They turned a few corners and suddenly Billy grabbed Scatty around the waist and pulled her against him in the shadow of an alcove.

"Wha-" she began, but he put a hand over her mouth to silence her.

It wasn't often that Scathach missed the subtleties of her enemies. She always noticed whether they were looking to be offensive or defensive, she could tell when and how they were going to strike, and whenever she was in enemy territory nothing escaped her. That was why she was so astonished as she watched as four cat síth strode past them, their nails clicking lightly against the floor.

Billy released his hold on her mouth, but kept his arm wrapped tightly around her waist. Now that she was aware, she was more attuned to the sounds around them than he was. His heart was pounding in anticipation, though hers had already slowed to normal after the initial panic.

They stood frozen for a moment longer, and Billy began to move. Scatty pushed back against his chest, effectively pinning him to the wall as a man crept past. She watched his progress as he walked through her line of vision, and then carefully stepped into the hallway as he passed.

She silently motioned for Billy to follow, and the tracked the man as he walked through the mansion. Hopefully, he would lead them somewhere interesting.

After several minutes, he entered a massive hall and spoke. Scatty and Billy fell into the shadows of the doorway.

"There were two downstairs, but they managed to delay us while they escaped. I have the cat síth searching for them now," he said, seemingly to nothing.

"They will be found. I have not heard any news of what is happening upstairs either," a woman's voice said, and that was when Scatty noticed the churning blackness of the shadows. Billy caught her eye and frowned.

"I will ensure that someone informs you of the situation immediately," the man replied.

Nyx laughed gently. "Take these two liars somewhere… homey. Make them comfortable." The malice in her voice was very evident. Scatty looked around the room to see whom she was talking about. Josh and Joan stood confidently in the center, but had only become visible as Nyx withdrew the shadow from around them.

"Yes, mistress."

"You know where to find me," she said, and the deep shadows withdrew from the room.

Josh, Joan, and the man stood in the center of the room, and one door was flanked by two cat síth. Billy nudged Scatty and nodded towards them. Josh and Joan couldn't do magic, probably because of their prolonged proximity to Nyx, and neither had weapons, as they had probably been confiscated upon their arrival on the property.

Scatty nodded back at Billy and the two took action.

Scathach's twin blades sliced through the air towards the two cat síth, which immediately sprang forward to meet her. Billy launched an attack on the man who had just reached for Joan and Josh. He dealt with him instantly before turning to help Scatty in her crusade.

She didn't need it. Nimbly, she avoided the swipes of the cat's massive paws, jumping and rolling away from them. It was like a well-rehearsed dance, and she moved gracefully from one cat to the other. She swung herself onto the back of one of the cats and stabbed the back of its head with one of her swords. As it fell, she leapt from its back to the other cat síth, which immediately swiped a paw at her. Billy saw her mask of confidence slip, just for a moment, before she slid down from its leg and stabbed its stomach.

Joan ran to her as the second cat fell. She was holding her arm as she returned her swords to their sheaths, but waved Joan away. Joan ignored her, moving her hand and revealing the three long gashes running down her arm.

"There's no time, we need to go," Scatty insisted. Billy took off his plaid shirt and removed the t-shirt underneath, putting the plaid back on. He threw the t-shirt to Joan, who wrapped Scatty's arm.

Josh had picked up the weapons from the man, giving some to Joan and keeping some for him.

Joan tied the knot tightly and shrugged. "We'll deal with it after, let's go."

Josh explained what happened as Joan lead them back out, remembering where they had turned when they were brought to meet Nyx.

"So Germain isn't here?" Billy asked as they ran.

"Nyx seemed surprised to see us, and didn't know what we were talking about, so I assume she's telling the truth," Josh replied, shrugging. "Besides, it's not like we'd be able to take a look around, now can we?" He laughed.

Billy rolled his eyes at him. "Do Sophie and Virginia know?"

"I don't know, but they were the ones upstairs, and they won't be able to stay very long. They'll be able to escape, but I assume they've deduced as much," Joan replied, steering them down another hallway.

They didn't meet anyone as they ran. Scatty assumed everything in the mansion was busy trying to find them either upstairs or in the basement, and the managed to get to the front door without any confrontation. Even the cat síth that should have been guarding the door were missing.

Their run turned into a sprint, as they knew they would be spotted going across the massive expanse of lawn in front of the mansion.

"Hey! Wait for us!" someone yelled from behind them, and Scatty spared a look as the mixed scent of vanilla and sage washed over them.

"Here, this looks promising," Virginia said, sliding open a door. It lead to what Sophie assumed was the attic, and one lone window stood at the far end of the room.

"Wait, let me check something," Sophie said, and she cast her aura into the room. No wires crossed the room, and there were no openings in the walls for gas.

Virginia pointed at the floor. "Look!"

Sophie's silver aura had pooled in multiple places on the floor. It nearly covered the floor, with some areas clear. She knelt to examine one more closely, but Virginia put a hand on her shoulder.

"I think a general rule would be to avoid those spots." There was noise in the hall behind them, and Virginia started across. "Let's not say hello to them, eh?" She laughed.

Sophie followed her across, and as her foot touched down on the opposite side the door was flung open. Virginia had opened the window and was already outside, as their pursuers began to pick their way across the floor. Sophie, with one foot out of the window, caused her aura to put pressure on the floor. She didn't wait to see what happened.

By some stroke of luck, they were at the front of the mansion. Sophie quickly shut the window against the screams from inside and followed Virginia to the edge. The smell of vanilla followed her.

"Look, down there!" Sophie said as she reached the edge, pointing to where four figures were sprinting across the lawn.

"Let's go!" Virginia called, grinning at Sophie.

"Hey! Wait for us!" Sophie yelled the group as she and Virginia dove off of the roof, their auras flaring as they worked Air magic. The scent of vanilla and sage mixed as they angled themselves towards their companions.

Sophie caught sight of Scatty's grin and Joan's relieved smile before she landed in a roll and took off running. Virginia had done the same beside her, and the six ran towards the cliff, leaving chaos in Nyx's mansion in their wake.

A/N: Hey! Happy New Year! Sorry for the long wait, but I had a lot of fun writing this chapter and I promise the next one will be up soon. My exams are coming up at the end of this month, but I will continue to try and write as much as I can. Thank you for your ongoing support of this story, and thank you to BoricuaBookworm for telling me to get my butt in gear!

~ nerdy