"Swear it," she said. Her light blue eyes glowed and her long dark hair lifted in an invisible wind. "Bound by magic."
"I vow to you that I will not hide anything from you if you help me," Dumont said, his eyes locked on her.
"The promise is made," Arien said. Her voice was deeper and vibrated with magic. "You realize what will happen if you break it?"
He nodded. His head turned toward the front of the house. "I believe we'll have company soon."
Dumont rose to his feet and put his back to the wall.
Marcus and the others were on their way or already here. I got up as well and went to the front door.
"What are you doing?" Arien asked.
"Telling them everything's fine. You and I both know they're probably lurking out there, planning how to infiltrate the house without alerting the intruders."
I jerked open the front door and yelled, "Everything's fine! He comes in peace!"
Marcus appeared in front of me before the last word even faded and grabbed me, pulling me out of the house and halfway down the drive in a near blur.
As soon as he stopped, I put my hands on his shoulders, shoving, and said, "Oh, my God. I think I'm going to puke."
"I'm sorry. Sorry," Marcus murmured. "You'll be safe now."
I smacked his shoulder as I leaned over and tried to take slow deep breaths so I wouldn't yak all over his shoes. After a second, I was able to say, "I was safe before, which you would have known if you'd listened to what I just said."
"I thought you may have said it under duress."
"The only one under duress was Dumont." I straightened. "Did you know that Arien is a freaking badass?"
"What do you mean?"
"I thought she was going to squish him like a bug in a neon blue circle."
"What?" he asked.
"She did this chant thing and a ring of bright blue formed around him. Every time he even blinked, she'd shrink the circle. I imagined it would have ended like she was popping a giant zit."
"Ew," he said, frowning.
"I know. Really gross, but now I have this morbid curiosity."
He shook his head. "You'll have to ask her yourself."
"Well, then we should get back to the house so I can do that. And before your buddies rip Dumont to shreds."
"I don't really see an issue with that."
I sighed. "Just...come listen to what he has to say."
"Fine."
He reached for me and I held up my hands. "Let's go a little slower this time."
"Yes, ma'am."
