Page 82 of Magic Betrayed

It was truly up to me. But the group outside had already seen me fight. They knew a large part of what I was capable of, and they would not underestimate me a second time. And with more than just Callum to protect…

My only hope was to stall for time.

Reese’s phone buzzed, and he pulled it from his pocket to glance at the screen. Inventive swearing commenced as he read the message.

“Noah says there’s headlights coming this way.”

Great. Just what we needed. More guests at this delightful kidnapping party.

“The bounty hunters didn’t use their headlights,” I mused. And my people couldn’t have gotten here this fast. It was nearly an hour's drive from downtown, unless Callum flew—assuming he was right about being able to shift again—but even so, it was too soon.

All of this left only a few possibilities, none of which I was happy about.

“Might be law enforcement,” I considered aloud. “Neighbors checking out unusual activity. Or human teens looking for a thrill.”

Chesney snuffed the lights, and we all fell silent as we moved towards the front windows—listening for movement, for voices, for clues.

The car came to a stop. The engine turned off, and I heard two doors open, then slam shut, followed by a voice I recognized from somewhere…

“Oh yeah, this place is definitely haunted.”

My eyes went wide with horror.

“Just get the camera set up. Your bellowing is going to scare off every ghost in Guthrie.”

It was the first time I’d heard the second voice, but I didn’t need to see him to visualize the quiet, gangly form of Tegan Tanner.

Because the first person to speak had definitely been Trey.

Which meant something had gone very wrong with my allies’ plans. Seamus must have forgotten to call them off after I disappeared, and now I had two clueless human ghost hunters trapped between us and a crew of determined Idrian mercenaries.

Maybe… Maybe the bounty hunters would wait for the Tanners to leave. They wanted no witnesses, and most Idrians were extremely wary of interfering with humans. Maybe they would realize the dangers of being caught on camera and hold their attack until the ghost hunters gave up.

But maybe they wouldn’t. I just couldn’t take that chance, so I was going to have to get rid of the twins.

But how? Sadly, there was no chance I could simply scare them away. They werehopingfor paranormal activity, so the scarier it got, the more excited they would be. No, I would need to issue a convincing warning, but without letting the mercenaries get a good look at me. And without betraying the fact that we had no defenses.

Tonight was the gift that just kept on giving.

“I know them,” I told Chesney reluctantly. “Human ghost hunters. Or ghost debunkers, I guess. They have a thing for proving that all paranormal activity is Idrians and not ghosts.”

It seemed I had no choice but to do this the hard way. Unless…

“I don’t suppose I could borrow a phone?” I asked hopefully.

Her scorn was instant and withering. “So you can call in your allies? Forgive me if I’m not inclined to let you invite Faris Lansgrave to this little party. Frankly, I’d rather take my chances with the mercenaries.”

Yet another thing she’d apparently inherited from her mother—Talia clearly had a long-standing grudge against my boss, so it was a good bet Chesney wasn’t going to listen to reason where he was concerned.

Somehow, I managed not to employ sarcasm in return. Or to tell her that Faris was probably heading this way, whether she liked it or not. Some small voice of wisdom suggested that information was more likely to hurt than help.

“Fine. I guess I’m going out there to see if I can convince them to leave.”

Chesney hesitated. “But that will leave us at the mercy of those bounty hunters. At least with the ghost hunters here, we have some protection. There’s a chance the mercenaries will choose to postpone their attack rather than risk human attention.”

“We aren’t hiding behind innocent humans,” I said flatly. “Not when they don’t understand the risks. They were meant to be a distraction, not bait, and they didn’t sign up to be in the middle of a war.”

“But you would have us hide behindyou,” she returned scornfully. “Are you not human?”

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