Felix opens his mouth to say something else, but Kenzie skips up to us, her light corkscrew curls bouncing in a high ponytail. Her nose is slightly pink from the cold despite the fluffy light blue jacket she’s sporting alongside tight, shimmering green leggings.
“Okay, just for the record, this is completely fulfilling my lifelong dream of being a tour guide. I mean, I’m notreallygiving a tour, but sort of because so far, I’ve explained to about thirty different people that the trees are green and my eyes are blue. Are there just no colors in the Nether? Because they’re allblown away by them. And they’re all so incrediblynice. I mean, I want to wrap up every single person popping out of the Nether with a massive hug and cry for them for a little while because it’s clear they’ve been through terrible shit—butgods, I am so glad I get to be here to help any little way I can,” she gushes.
“I’m glad you’re here, too,” I grin.
I would never say it out loud, but I’ve really missed this bubbly lioness shifter.
Her gaze darts to Felix, and she smiles brightly. “Hi there! I’m Kenzie. Lion shifter. Artist. Retired slut extraordinaire—unless you ask anyone in my quintet,” she winks. “What’s your name?”
He fumbles. “Um…I’m, uh…”
Then he looks wide-eyed at me like he needs help. I arch a brow, not sure why he’s glitching.
“This is Felix. I’ve known him for years. He helped orchestrate the exodus.”
Kenzie grins. “Oh! Are you like, May’s oldest friend?”
“Not friend,” I correct. “More like…distant accomplice.”
She laughs at me and tells Felix she’s glad to meet him. Then she excuses herself to help Vivienne since the petite little air elemental is trying to support a full-grown human man who seems to have twisted his ankle during the humans’ escape.
As soon as Kenzie bounces away, the one-armed caster swallows thickly.
“Gods.”
“She’s a whirlwind, but I’ll kill to protect her any day,” I shrug.
Except when Felix continues to gawk after Kenzie, I realize he’s not just baffled by her unparalleled ability to shoot words out of her mouth in rapid succession.
No, he’s…starstruck.
“Does—does she need any help?” he asks hopefully. “With anything? At all?”
“I’m sure her matches will help her if she does.”
His face falls, and he clears his throat. “Oh, right. She mentioned already having a quintet.”
“Yes. An incomplete one.” I squint at Felix, considering him. “Come to think of it, they’re missing a caster.”
He’s still busy staring after Kenzie when cold creeps down my spine. I snap to attention when my senses fly into high alert, all of my instincts sharpening. My gaze slips to the towering, hazy gray of the Divide.
Shadow fiends. I can sense them coming—alotof them.
Too many.
I swear and remove my gloves, slipping them into the waist of my leggings as I make the infernal symbol with my hands and close my eyes. Breathing out the forbidden words, I feel my pulse start to slow.
Boo? What are you doing?Baelfire checks telepathically.
An instant later, I sense Crypt beside me. “Trying to see ahead, love?”
Stop bothering her. She needs focus for that spell,Silas asserts through the bond.
Everett says something, too, but his voice fades as darkness creeps in. My breathing stops. For a moment, I can feel death draw close around me, almost like a brush of cold fingers along the skin of my face. My focus drops to the shadow heart in my chest as I prepare to tap into Amadeus’s abilities to see what the fuck is going on.
But when I try, it’s like I’ve pulled on the wrong loose string. Instead of flashes of the future, dark malice reverberates throughout my mind as his deep, rumbling voice sweeps through my mind.
Daughter. Your dreams betrayed your betrayal.
