“Quinn!” Dillon runs toward her but is cut off by another Warden. The sea god comes in contact with this Warden’s shield but he isn’t thrown on his ass; instead he skids backward across the ground, heels scraping gravel, but holds his ground. In the next moment the air around the Warden shimmers like water. It whirls around him, enclosing him in a vortex. The air is suddenly dry in my lungs, and it hits me that he’s pulled the moisture out of it.
My focus is back on Quinn, on the way her mouth curls up at the corners in a wicked smirk, on the darkness that eats up her eye whites.
My insides tremble as I feel her power a moment before it explodes out of her skin in thick, dark whips that grab the Warden closest to her, wrapping around him and squeezing.
His body arches and lifts off the ground. His neck bulges, eyes bugging.
She’s killing him and she’s smiling. For the first time since finding out what my best friend is, I doubt her morality. I doubt her place on the scale of good and evil. For the first time since learning what lives inside her, I’m afraid not for her, but of her.
“Quinn, no!” Orina runs toward her. “Stop. No killing.”
Quinn blinks sharply, and the dark bands extending from her body slacken their grip. The Warden falls to the ground.
Is he dead?
Oh shit, shit.
No time to check.
The remaining Wardens converge on us, shooting silver power to keep me and Dillon at bay as they close in on Quinn. She turns her body sharply toward them, and shadows burst from her skin to create a barrier against the silver. Orina leaps for cover, crouching by Quinn as the Wardens try and break down the shield.
I duck and dive to avoid the rays, desperate to get up close and personal with the attacking Wardens. The blue shit around them fizzes, telling me that their shields are weak, probably because they’re expending so much energy on their attack.
I catch Bryce’s eye as he rolls onto his feet after being thrown a second time. “Shields are weak!”
He growls in response, and we attack in unison.
JAX
Ten minutes is too long.
It’s a lifetime when you’re running to protect your mate. Emmit is close behind me, his berserker just beneath the surface. I can tell it’s taking everything he has to hold it back. It wants out, but Emmit wants to remain in control for Quinn.
Tate clings to his back, and the rest of the Faoladh are on his tail.
Lorenzo and Selene make their way by car on the main road while we take the wild paths. The shorter route.
Still, ten minutes is forever.
The gates to the clifftop house finally come into view. I fly through the iron bars and onto the drive.
The sounds of battle are clear as a bell and a growl vibrates in my chest, preparing to be unleashed.
People are visible up ahead. Bryce pinning a Warden as a blue haze flashes in his face. Nyx slashing and stabbing as she parries with another huge Warden. And Dillon holding a third Warden in a vortex of water.
It takes a blink to absorb it all before my gaze zeroes in on Quinn and Orina behind a shadowy shield.
Tate’s battle cry beats at the air. He does some teleport shit and lands right behind a Warden shooting magic at Quinn. He makes a grab for the guy, and I catch a glint of metal.
The Warden throws up his arm, swings a punch at Tate, and then stops. Just fucking stops. He teeters on his heels for a moment before dropping in a heap.
I’m there. In the fray. Ready to leap at the other Warden when he drops too.
One by one the fuckers all drop until we’re standing on the drive, battle-ready and eager, with our targets unconscious on the ground.
“It’s over, Quinn, it’s okay.” Orina holds up her hands, facing Quinn. “Pull it back, babe. Pull it back.” The dark shield drops and Quinn falls into Orina’s arms.
A car careens up the drive and comes to a halt. Lorenzo and Selene jump out and jog toward us. Selene makes a beeline toward Quinn, but Lorenzo stares at the fallen Wardens and then drops to the ground beside one.
“Edward.” He lifts the Warden’s bare wrist. “How… You only cuffed one?”
“Yeah.” Tate crouches by the Warden he cuffed. “It took them all out.”
“Cuff them all anyway,” Lorenzo says. “We can’t take any risks.”
“Now what?” Bryce asks.
“Now we wait,” Lorenzo says. “I have a theory, but I need them to wake up to confirm it.”
QUINN
My body trembled from the aftereffects of using the dark power.
“It’s all right,” Orina said. “You knocked that guy unconscious. He’s still alive. They all are.”
Tate handed me a glass of whiskey and I took it gratefully before gulping it down.
“Where are they?”
“The guys put them in the gazebo,” Nyx said. “Lorenzo thinks that the cuffs may have wiped their programming.”
“You mean the mission to kill me?”
“Yeah, along with whatever hold the Mageri have on them. It’s a theory, but it’s a strong one.”
“But the Mageri will send more Wardens, won’t they?”
“They’ll have to make more first,” Tate said. “Lorenzo said there were only five. I’m assuming it’s no easy task to create them.”
“If Lorenzo is right, then it’s over,” Orina said.
If Lorenzo was right, it meant we had time. Time to find a way to end the taint and prove that I wasn’t a threat, but it was far from over. “Where are the guys?”
“Dillon is out back with Lorenzo,” Tate said. “Bryce and Jax have gone to check on the relic.”
Shit. “I didn’t kill anyone, did I?”
“No.” Orina pressed a hand to my shoulder. “They just want to make sure everything’s okay.”
“Because I used the power.”
“Just a precaution.”
That was wise. “Emmit? No, let me guess.” I couldn’t help but smile. “Perimeter check?”
Tate frowned. “Something like that. He wasn’t wholly himself when he left.”
Unease pricked at my scalp. “What do you mean?”
“Jax said Emmit was struggling with his berserker. I think he wants to be anywhere but here if the berserker comes out.”
“No.” I pushed to my feet.
“Where are you going?” Tate asked.
“To find him.”
He looked torn between stopping me and helping me to the door.
I squeezed his hand. “He won’t hurt me. He loves me and the berserker is part of him, just like being an onyx mage is part of you.”
He nodded. “Go. Find him.”
I left the house and headed out the front. A perimeter check for Emmit covered all the land around the house, including the cliff path. I scoured the front of the house and then headed round back, bypassing the gazebo and its occupants and beelining for the cliff path.
“Emmit? Emmit, are you there?” I began the descent, my chest tight with worry. I spotted him at the bottom of the path, looking off into the distance. He was in human form, but he was much bigger—taller and wider.
I knew even before he turned to look at me that I was walking to meet the berserker.