Thane pushed out through the back door to find Bria standing above a body lying prone on the brittle grasses.
“What was that?” she asked, her brow pinching when she noticed Daisy. “What’s going on?”
“The gremlin thinks she found the crystal chalice, even though there is nothing cuplike about it.” Thane didn’t take her to the SUV she’d come in. Instead, he hiked her up so that he cradled her in one arm whileusing the other to open the door of the SUV Lexi and Kieran had brought.
“What did it do?” Bria left the body to follow them to the car.
“Released what felt like a punch of power and knocked her flat on her ass. I had to kick the damn thing away.”
She let out a breath, hands on her hips. “Well, shit.”
“Yeah.” Thane settled Daisy in, adjusting her so she was comfortable before trying to smooth her hair.
“I’m good.” She swatted at his hands. “I’m fine. The tingling is going away a bit.”
“Oh yeah?” Bria pushed in behind him to look at Daisy as the first person with a filled sack came out. Jack. “What was it like? Did anyone else try it? Maybe it doesn’t affect magical people as much as it affects Chesters.”
Thane leaned against the side of the SUV next to Daisy, leaving the door open. “Or it could be infinitely worse.”
Bria nodded, turning to watch Jack load the sack into the back of the SUV Daisy sat in. The Demigods would be guarding the precious cargo.
“Good point,” she said. “I vote you try it and see.”
Daisy laughed as Dylan came out with the next sack. It didn’t take long for everything to be packed up and their convoy to be on the way.
“We’ll have to tighten up our territory defenses,”Kieran told Lexi as he turned onto the highway. “Even if we destroy those…magical items, eventually that fae is going to track down who took all of this and will come knocking. We need to be ready when he does.”
“We need to invite him over, actually,” Daisy said, watching the world go by out the window. “First, we need to track down better weapons, and then we need to set a trap. Hell—that isn’t a bad word, Lexi. That’s a place. The weapons we have will probably do if we’re prepared.”
“How do you plan to invite him?” Lexi asked her guardedly.
Kiss someone,Daisy thought immediately. That seemed to result in a punctual visit. She had a list of people who deserved his attention.
She didn’t mention that, though. She didn’t want to get into the details, like why she’d kissed him in the first place. Why she’d practically begged him to keep going. How many times she’d thought about the feel of his lips and his hard body under her palms.
“I can call him through?—”
Glass exploded next to her. Something large hit the side of the moving vehicle. The tires screeched against the road as the SUV was shoved to the side. Kieran swore, yanking the wheel to go straight.
“What the hell was that?” Lexi yelled over the cold wind flooding the cab. Her phone started ringing.
“Look out!” Mordecai shouted, sitting in the back with Daisy. He yanked her toward the center. Herseatbelt dug into her chest. Something slammed against the car again. Kieran’s window shattered, flinging shatterproof glass across his face.
The SUV jumped on the road, the tires screeching when they landed again. It swerved wildly. Lexi’s phone skittered out of the center console and fell to the floor.
Kieran yanked the wheel to keep the SUV from turning too fast and rolling.
“I can’t feel any souls!” Lexi yelled, diving for her phone. “What’s hitting us?”
The right tires bumped down onto the shoulder. Everyone in the SUV was jostled violently.
It couldn’t be Daisy’s fae, whatever it was. She’d felt his soul, as weak as she was at it. The Celestials had them, too. Lexi would be able to feel them easily and from a greater distance. She could even identify the dead. So what the hell was outside the vehicle?
Lightning rained down around them. Dylan was using his magic from the car behind them, clearly able to see what was attacking. The bright slices of white-yellow outlined a ghostly shape in a hazy cloud. It flew right at them. The face materialized into a ghoulish skeleton with gray, waxy skin hollowing in the eyes and at the cheeks.
“It’s coming!” Daisy yelled, flinging out her hands even though she had no magic with which to bat the thing away. “Kieran, you need to?—”
It rammed them. Another she hadn’t seen came rightafter. The side of the SUV bent in, shoving at her. The force knocked the whole vehicle farther onto the shoulder. Another creature flew into the side up front, swinging them around. Kieran hadn’t stopped it, and the sides of the tires dug into the dirt. The force took the SUV onto its hood and over, rolling into the fields beside the road.
