I didn’t stop. Heading into the warehouse, tarp and walls constructed to create various chambers hung around, creating a tunnel, and Micah and Rory fell in line, following.

The cold, wet dark hung everywhere, and we jetted past patrons laughing and screaming at the actors hanging in the rafters above and trying to grab for them.

I stepped into a room and dug a ring of fifteen-thousand keys out of my bag, finding the one that accessed the doors in the Mad Scientist section of the park. Passing the boiling vats of body parts and lava lamps of eyeballs, I fit the key into the door, opened it, and ushered everyone inside.

Michael stood back, his eyes narrowed on me. “You own Coldfield? You?”

I gave him a tight smile.

I paid for it. I helped design it. But I hired managers to handle everything else. I took part in it when I wanted to, but I knew I wasn’t fit to deal with the business side there for a while, so I installed a seasonal team that would.

And good thing too, since I was gone for a long time.

We entered the hallway, and I locked the door behind us, opening up another one and turning on the light inside.

Rock walls and steps, like the catacombs, burrowed into the ground, darkness consuming what lay beneath.

“What is this?” Rika asked me.

I half-smiled. “This is Coldfield.”

The real one.

Leading the way, I momentarily regretted not calling Misha for this, as I knew he’d love it, but I didn’t want him involved. Not for this.

I descended the stairs, winding through the tunnels as electric-powered lanterns lit our way, and the rush of the river and the sea hit the walls all around us.

A track laid ahead, and I threw my bag into one of the cars with the containers of gasoline I’d had put here yesterday in one of the many calls I’d made.

Kai looked around at the rooms and tunnels forking off in different directions. “I can’t believe we didn’t know this was real.”

“You knew about this?” Banks asked him.

But it was Damon who replied as he looked around, “A few whispers from the old timers here and there, but I didn’t know anyone who’d actually been here.”

“What is this place?” Rika asked me.

I checked the supplies on the rail riders, making sure we had everything I’d instructed. “Remember how we learned the town was settled in the thirties?”

“Not true?” Rika teased.

I shook my head. “No.”

That was either a lie or misinformation.

“Two-hundred years ago, the river forked off into three streams instead of just one, and the settlers built bridges to cross them.” I gestured to them to take their seats. “The arches of the bridges were rooted deep in the land, creating twenty-one chambers—or vaults—between the arches, underneath the ground.”

Alex and Damon took a seat in the first car, while Kai and Banks took the second, Rika and Michael took the third, and Micah and Rory took the fourth.

“Merchants stored their goods down there, and there were even taverns and stores,” I continued, checking their seatbelts. “Over the years, it changed hands, popular among the smugglers, criminals, and pirates. They hid and lived down here, connecting all of the vaults under the three bridges with these tunnels, so they could get anywhere in town undetected.”

“Shit,” Damon murmured. “That’s awesome.”

“How did you find it?” Michael pressed.

“I looked for it.”

Rory snorted as Micah smiled, looking excited about all of this.

“This is why you bought the warehouse,” Alex guessed.

“One of the reasons.” I took my seat in the first car with them and buckled in. “I also just like haunted houses.”

“Are there other entrances, other than the one at the warehouse?” Damon called up from behind me.

I looked over my shoulder, grinning. “All over town. And there are even more underground vaults in Meridian City between Delcour and Whitehall.”

“What the fuck?” Kai blurted out, but it sounded more like he was turned on than angry. His city house, the Pope, and Sensou were all in the Whitehall district and he’d have plenty of reason to use the underground transit system if he wanted. Especially if we, and the people who worked for us, were the only ones who knew about it.

“Shift the lever to three and press the green button,” I yelled back. “After that, just enjoy the ride until you see my arm in the air. Then, start to bring the lever back down and engage the brakes.”

A giggle escaped Alex as she shifted excitedly in the seat next to me. Emmy back in the catacombs drifted through my mind, but she didn’t need to be here for this.

“Let’s go,” I called out.

Pushing the lever up to notch three, I pressed the button, the hydraulics hissing, and we shot off, cruising through the tunnels at about thirty miles an hour.

Normally, I’d go a little faster—kick it up to notch five—but this was their first time, and I didn’t want anyone to lose me. Coasting left and then right, I felt the wind blew through our hair, and Alex laughed next to me as the tunnel ahead loomed black and haunting. The grips on the wheels hugged the track, no steering necessary, since I hadn’t built track leading off anywhere else in town yet.

That was on my agenda, though.

“We should have helmets!” Damon called up.

Helmets? Pussy.

“For the kids, I mean!” he clarified. “You know they’re going to use this a lot.”

I nodded. Okay, that made sense. This was going to be a blast for the boys, and when they were teenagers, there was no way we were keeping them from it.

We cruised under the riverbed, past more dark vaults, under the village, across Old Pointe Road, and I spotted the fourth red light ahead, each one signaling a stop, and that one was ours.

I held up my arm, giving them a heads up, and I grabbed the lever, slowing us down little by little, so Kai and Banks didn’t rear end me and cause a pile up.

Pulling to a stop, the brakes screeching under us, I yelled, “Hit the button again!” The railcars came to rest, and we all climbed out, everyone following my lead as we grabbed the red, plastic gasoline containers.

“Are we doing what I think we’re doing?” Kai asked.

But I didn’t answer. They wanted the Cove gone, and they wouldn’t leave me to this on my own. Everyone won. They’d help.

Climbing up onto the platform, we headed through a door and into the tunnels underneath the theme park. When the place was in business, the workers used these tunnels to avoid the crowds if they needed to get across the park, and as ways to operate the animatronics, but everything had been abandoned for years.

I looked left and right, searching for any eyes to be sure. I didn’t want any fatalities or witnesses. The place was empty, though.

“Hey, it’s Rika,” I heard Erika say behind me. “I need you to get to the fire station and borrow an engine. Bring it to the Cove and hook up the hoses. We’ll need it. And hurry.”

There was a pause as whoever on the other end answered her.

“Thank you,” she said and hung up.

I shot a look back to our mayor.

“I can’t commit arson and purposely put civil servants at risk, Will,” she explained. “Lev and David will contain the fire.”