“Lorenzo said they had to be woken,” Orina reminded me. “Maybe it took longer than expected.”
Dillon looked to Bryce. “Do you want to check in?”
Bryce pulled out his phone.
We waited, huddled around the island, all eyes on Bryce as he made the call.
“Anything?” he asked Jax. “Uh-huh… Right…Okay. Keep me posted.” He hung up. “Nothing to report except that Lorenzo made a call to the Mageri about ten minutes ago and found out that the Wardens were unleashed a few hours ago. They could be here at any moment.”
My stomach clenched. I exhaled and inhaled to control my fear. “Okay. I need some air.”
I checked on Meri and Grumble in the conservatory. I’d made them tea and asked them to stay put with instructions to run and hide if they heard a commotion.
Meri had curled up on the bench beside Grumble, who sat with his eyes half closed. The darlings were obviously exhausted. I tiptoed in, grabbed a throw, and gently covered Grumble with it, tucking it around Meri in the process to cocoon her.
A stabbing pain lanced through my chest, reminding me of who was missing. Bea. She should be sitting in the conservatory with Meri and Grumble, drinking tea and telling them everything would be okay.
She should be alive.
She should be here with us.
“Quinn?” Orina stood in the conservatory doorway. “Let’s get some air, eh?”
We stepped out into the garden, and I tipped my head up to the moon, full, round, and bright with a strange blue tinge to it.
“Blue moon.” Orina smiled. “Witches all over the city will be charging up their crystals and doing all kinds of witchery.”
“Huh?”
“It’s a powerhouse for mystics.”
Nyx joined us. “For demons too.” She flexed her hands. “I can feel it.”
“Shit, do you think it will make the Wardens stronger?”
My buddies’ sudden stillness was answer enough.
“We are so screwed. He’ll do it, you know. Tate will kill them if the shackles don’t work. I’ll lose him.”
“The shackles will work.” Orina slipped her hand into mine.
“Positive manifestation, babe.” Nyx took my other hand.
“I hate her, you know. The taint. I hate her for doing this to me. For making me a threat. For messing with my head. I fucking hate her.” And in that moment, I truly did. In that moment, with the people I loved the most at risk, the fact that the taint was the mother I’d loved as a child no longer mattered. She was a stain on my life, and she needed to go. “We have to find a way to get rid of her for good.”
“We will,” Orina assured me. “As soon as the Wardens are neutralized, we will.”
I caught movement in the darkness at the back of the garden and gooseflesh broke out across my skin.
Nyx pulled a dagger from her belt and Orina reached for her sword, but I caught the scent a moment later.
Faoladh.
A young Faoladh, one of the beach patrol, ran toward us. “They’re here!”
Ice filled my veins.
Bryce appeared on the patio behind us. “Ocean patrol isn’t responding. I need to go…” His gaze zeroed in on the young Faoladh. “Denny?”
“They’re here,” Denny gasped, coming to a halt. “The Wardens are here.”
19
Everything went into overdrive.
Bryce on the phone to Jax, Nyx and Orina pulling me into the house. Dillon bolting the doors and closing the shutters.
We had minutes, mere fucking minutes, before the Wardens descended on us.
The sea. The fucking sea. The route we were so sure they’d avoid because of Mageri aversion. I guess Wardens didn’t have the same issue.
“Jax and co are on their way,” Bryce said. “Ten minutes tops.”
“We can hold off the Wardens until then,” Nyx said. “Quinn, you need to hide.”
The thought of running and hiding made my stomach turn in disgust. “It’s too late for that. They’re on their way to my home. I agreed to stay here to give the shackle plan a chance and because Lorenzo said seeing me might put them in a frenzy, but let’s be honest, the strongest weapon we have against them right now is me.”
“No,” Bryce said. “We can’t take that risk. We don’t know for sure your dark power can hurt them. They’re designed to neutralize the taint, which is the main reason we said you should hang back.”
“I’m not the taint. I’m me. I’m unique, and there is no way the Mageri could have compensated for that. This should have been the plan all along. To let me fight them. To let me use what’s inside me.” Silence greeted my assertion. “Look, we know for a fact that your daggers and your claws won’t stop them.”
“We can slow them down,” Orina said.
“And so can I, but in my case, this power might be able to hurt them too.”
“She’s right,” Nyx said. “If Quinn helps, we can hold them off until the shackles get here.” She gripped my shoulders. “Just hold them off, Quinn, don’t kill. You can’t kill them because as far as we know, they’re innocent puppets, and the last thing I want is more stains on your soul.”
Crap, of course. The sanctity of the relic was tied to the purity of my soul. I couldn’t call self-defense on this, not if these Wardens were acting on mental programming with no will of their own.
“Okay, maim and wound only.”
Dillon had rushed out of the room while we were talking but returned now. “Grumble and Meri are hidden. They’ll be safe.”
Bryce headed for the patio doors. “We’ve got company.”
Five dark shapes moved stealthily across the lawn toward the house.
Bryce’s body began to ripple, ready for the beast to burst from his skin.
“No!” I grabbed his arm. “We need to get them outside, onto the drive where there’s more space.”
And the best way to get them where we needed them was by using bait.
There was no time to explain this to the others.
I made a break for the patio doors, evaded Bryce’s grab for me, and barreled into the night.
The Wardens altered their trajectory and followed.
Good, I had them.
Here was to hoping they didn’t catch me.
NYX
The fuckers follow Quinn like hounds on a fox.
Bryce goes beast mode and bounds after them. Orina, Dillon, and I make a break through the house and exit via the front doors, boots hitting gravel just as Quinn sprints onto the front drive and dives behind Pea to avoid a blast of silver magic.
Bryce’s roar is a terrifying sound as he leaps at the nearest Warden, claws extended, ready to slice. The air around the Warden he’s aiming for flashes blue. Bryce is thrown backward. He twists mid-air and lands on his feet, then makes a fresh charge only to be thrown back again.
“They’re protected!” Orina shouts.
It’s a magical barrier. A forcefield. And if Bryce can’t get through, then does that mean weapons can’t either?
Orina tests the theory, running at a Warden and dropping to slice at his torso. Blue fire lights the air as her blade cuts through the magic. The shield drops like blue ash. She swings again and the Warden vanishes, appearing on the other side of Pea.