Page 112 of Death Warden
“None of that matters right now,” Curo snapped. “All that matters is that Dralos’s body is inside that building and so is Finley—you know, the construct that holds the rest of your big bad’s power. We need to stop him from getting his hands on it.”
I curled my lip. “They don’t give a shit about any of that. They’re waiting for him to be free. They don’t need to fight him. They mean to fight you, and hand me over.”
“We don’t want to hurt you,” Hubert said. “But we will if we must.”
The air fizzed and popped with power. Mageri power conducted from the leylines.
The hellhounds growled and some of them shifted into beast form, flanking Hubert and his minions.
A ripple ran over my skin, as if my body wanted to join theirs in beast form, but instead my skin hummed with power.
Hubert merely smiled. The Mageri raised their hands as one and I noted the silver cuffs on their wrists. The metal glowed, and in the next instant a blue sheen fell over the Mageri.
A dome of power.
A shield.
The shield crackled and energy shot out of it, hitting the hellhounds with enough force to send them flying backward. Curo shoved me toward Spectre, his arms wrapped around me, and we hit the ground together.
Growls, snarls of pain and rage clawed at the air around us.
“Attack!” Dax boomed.
Spectre hauled me up, tugging me away from the chaos. “Curo, get her to the house. Get to that body and fucking destroy it. Logan, save Finley.” He cupped my face and kissed me hard on the mouth. “We’ll keep these fuckers distracted. I have faith in you, Adi. You can do this. I know it.”
My eyes misted and I blinked back the tears. “I’ll be back. I promise.”
He pressed his forehead to mine. “If you don’t, I’ll be coming after you.”
Curo grabbed my hand and together we ran for the house, skirting the Mageri and hellhound standoff, Logan close behind us.
As we jumped the fence and headed up the path to the manor house, several figures stepped into our path, cuffs glowing, hands crackling with power.
“Adienne Blackmore, you must come with us,” they said.
“Or what? You’re gonna kill me?” I walked right up to them. “You can’t. You need me.” They exchanged glances. Yeah, they couldn’t kill me, they needed to hand me over to Dralos to do that. “Now get the fuck out of my way.”
For a moment I thought they’d oblige but then they closed ranks, circling us. “We can’t kill you, but we can kill your friends.”
Fuck. “Touch them and you’ll be sorry.”
Logan fell into a crouch, then pounced, shifting mid leap to hit the nearest Mageri in the chest and take him down.
The Mageri let out a squeal and his comrades aimed their fire at Logan. I rushed forward, placing myself between them and my conduit.
Curo moved fast and grabbed one of the Mageri, pressing a blade to his throat. “Back the fuck off or he dies.”
“You can’t kill him. Mageri and the Grave Spirits have a deal.”
“Yeah?” Curo sneered. “Looks to me like that deal’s off.”
“I can stop this.” I looked from Mageri to Mageri. “Please, just let us pass. I don’t want to hurt you guys. Just back away and let me do what needs to be done.”
Logan released the Mageri he had pinned to the ground. The guy scrambled up and joined his two comrades. I nodded to Curo, who sighed and lowered his blade before shoving his captive toward the other Mageri.
“Just go.” I nodded at them.
Once again they exchanged glances, fear etched across their young faces.
