“But—”
Get the fuck out of here,Maven reiterates.She set traps. It's empty down here except for a hairpin hex we just triggered.
What the hell is that?I demand.
Baelfire and I abandon the smoky building, backing away on the road as we wait and watch. The blaring security alarm abruptly cuts off, most likely courtesy of our incubus.
Think of it as a mine. Only if one of us steps out of place without carefully diffusing it, the hex will dismember us,Silassupplies in a strained voice.Maven's destructive magic will only set it off.
Fuck. That's one of the ways Maven can permanently be killed. Obviously, Natalya knows that and planned for it.
I grit my teeth as Baelfire paces up and down the road, swearing viciously as he drags a hand through his hair.
For one moment, I'm pissed off—and then the sound of a gunshot goes off at the same time a bullet lodges in my stomach. I grip the gushing injury and stagger back as more gunshots ring out. Baelfire tackles me to the ground, rolling and dragging me until we're in a small alleyway between buildings where the falling snow is building up. No bullets are flying here.
“Shit,” I hiss, freezing over the injury to stop the gushing blood. Aggravating heat spreads from the bullet, slowly morphing into pain as my system catches up with the impact.
It fucking hurts. How did Maven brush off getting shot by bounty hunters like it was nothing?
It's an ambush out here,I warn the others.
“Stay here, Snowflake,” Baelfire says before rushing back out into the street, which is now filled with the clatter of gunshots and shouting.
The damn shifter is going to get himself killed.
At least, that's what I think until I hear the unmistakable, ear-splitting roar of Baelfire's dragon. I wince when my ears start to ring. Any stragglers asleep in all of Baltimore are wide awake now if their eardrums didn’t just fucking burst.
Getting to my feet, I lean against the brick alley wall, wiping my bloodied hand on my now-ruined coat.
Crypt? Do you have eyes on what's happening?I check.
All the lackeys once at Everbound are here for a party. They also appear to have a Void on the way. Still no sign of the immortal blood-guzzling bitch.
Damn it.
Everyone knows about Voids. They’re rare and don’t fit into a House. They absorb magic, their presence nulling any existing enchantment—meaning the talismans Silas spelled will be useless once the Void gets close enough.
Maven?I press, anxious as I peek around the corner in time to see Baelfire’s massive golden beast step on a group of screaming legacies in the dim light of early dawn.
Silas is almost done,she answers finally.
I hear the rustle of fabric behind me and turn in time to impale a knife-wielding siren through the chest with a saber of ice. He falls. I summon another blade as I slip out of the alley, still clutching my stomach where the bullet burns under the soothing frost.
Luckily for me, Baelfire makes one hell of an ally now that he and his dragon aren't playing tug-of-war with his brain. He snarls and bends his neck down to snap a leopard shifter in half, flinging the other half into a trio of casters launching spells at him.
A few of their spells bounce off his golden scales, but a summoned magical weapon lodges under one of Bael’s wings. He hisses and opens his mouth, his long neck glowing with molten royal blue light from the inside out as he prepares to burn them to ash.
But we're not here to burn down Baltimore. I lift my hand to send a wave of ice spikes into the casters before they see me coming, leaving them impaled high above the ground before I turn to freeze another.
And another.
The threats keep coming as legacies pour out of massive vans that screech to a stop down the street. Others arrive in bright flashes of transportation magic, while more come running from gods know where, armed to the teeth for this obvious ambush.
I only realize Crypt is helping with the fight when I turn to defend myself against two vampires and see that they're both ripping into each other's skin, hissing and cackling like killing each other is the most fun they've ever had while blood starts to drip out of their ears.
Some other legacies are turning on each other, but as I look around, I realize just how fucking outnumbered we are now.
Maven was right. Natalya prepared for us. All of these well-trained legacies were lying in wait—and now bounty hunters are joining the fray, their hellhounds at their sides as they take aim.
