Thankfully, every eye was absorbed in following the ripples in her chain. The demon stared straight up as the pot finally gave to gravity and smashed over his face. Sera dashed for the exit.
“Hey!” The woman—definitely a guardian, if her reflexes were any indication—snatched her arm before Sera could get away. Sera struggled against immense strength, not the sort that she could fight. Her wiggling was merely an annoyance, but panic had started to set in.
Swallowing her fear, Sera spun in the woman’s grip, lowering her lashes. “Please, I’m sure we can work something out.” Sera searched for signs of reception so she could pivot accordingly. “Find some arrangement that works for both of us, perhaps?” She attempted siren, but adrenaline had caused her voice to falter. The woman raised a brow.
“Not likely,” she said, then added, “bit too femme for my taste.”
Sera’s jaw clenched. “Money, then? I’ve got money.”
“Not enough, lass,” the grimm said, her voice husky and lower in tone, “And before you go trying your feminine wiles on me, I ain’t biting either.”
Well, this isn’t great.Three goons sent after her and not one found her desirable? Fuck Cole. He sent these specific goons on purpose.
She hoped they were not here to kill her. If they were only sent to retrieve her, she had time to devise a plan.
Sera gave one last burst of strength to free herself, shocked when her arm sprang free. She had prepared to use a lot more force and the momentum launched her to the ground. A scream tore through the air as Sera scrambled to her feet.
An arrow shaft jutted from the guardian woman’s shoulder, blood oozing to stain her shirt. Clenching her teeth, she yanked the arrow out with a splatter of blood and a grunt. The grimm woman’s eyes searched for the source of the arrow, but there was nothing but darkness above. The sun was setting fast and ambient light from the street and buildings would not reach this far.
Twang. Another arrow. A scream. The guardian fell to her knees as it sank into her calf.
Two more arrows in quick succession stuck like pins through the grimm woman’s clothes, fixing her to the back door of a shop.
Sera didn’t take her eyes off the shadows, still wary of this new person's intentions and the payment they’d require for saving her. Hopefully, the notes she held would suffice and she could walk away from this.
A lithe figure maneuvered from the roof with a mix of jumps, twists, and wall kicks that made Sera dizzy, before landing with a bent knee at Sera’s feet.
A woman, hair tied in a braid over her shoulder, looked up through a black mask that concealed her face. “That was impressive,” she said, rising to her full height. Which, was taller than Sera, but not exactly ‘tall.’
“I’ll say,” Sera agreed, breathless. Something about the stranger’s crooked, but sunny smile and pretty brown eyes was calming, almost reassuring. Sera wouldn’t drop her guard, but she was no longer poised to run. “You’re a hell of a shot.”
The masked stranger laughed. “No, I meant the flowerpot thing. How’d you know it would hit him?”
“Oh, I just…” Sera blushed. She didn’t want to reveal her inadequacies if she could avoid it. She might say the wrong thing and risk revealing that she was stupid. “Lucky guess.”
The masked stranger’s lips quirked. “Didn’t look like luck to me.” She began to pull rope from her belt. She wore a guardian uniform—fitted leather and boots often worn by female guardians. Current fashion still required skirts and bodices. Sera remembered the ensemble from when her brother went to the free academy for guardians as a child. Having the Divine’s blood was a genetic quirk that could show up in any family or bloodline. Even though Sera and Gideon were twins, she was as human as their parents and Gideon got to be strong and special. If this woman was a guardian, that would explain her abilities, at least.
The masked stranger tied the unconscious demon up first, securing his arms behind his back. As she worked, a blare of bells broke the white noise of the city.
She looked up. “That’ll be the Watchmen. I’ll have these goons tied up before they get here.”
“You’ve made yourself an enemy, bitch. Hawthorne will get us out and then you’ll pay.” The guardian said just before she was gagged and restrained.
“Hawthorne? He works for Wraith?” The masked stranger asked, her voice lacking any hint of fear or indication that she was intimidated.
“Yes,” Sera answered. The masked stranger yanked her arrows free of the guardian’s leg, cleaned them on her thigh, and returned them to her sheath. The stranger ignored the muffled grunts of pain, nodding along with Sera’s answer.
“Oh,” she said, moving on to the grimm, “you mean Cole. The drug runner, right?”
The stranger freed her first arrow from pinning the grimm woman, who seized the moment to lunge forward. The masked stranger deftly rolled and slipped a knife from her boot as she kicked out at the grimm’s legs. The arrow still buried in the door tore through fabric as she went crashing to the ground. In a blink, the stranger’s knife was at the grimm’s throat.
“Try that again. I dare you.” Her threat was met with bared teeth and implied compliance. “They called you Blair? Sera, I think it was?” The masked stranger directed at Sera, her knee on the grimm’s back.
Sera nodded.
“Sera, mind tying her for me? Once those Watchmen show up I have to make myself scarce, if you get me.” She held out a fresh line of rope and Sera took it, tying the grimm until she couldn’t so much as wiggle.
The masked stranger rose to her feet and dusted off her hands. “Thank you for the help, Sera. I’m…” Her nose scrunched, lip curling. “Well, the papers want to call me the Emerald Archer ever since I stopped that jewel thief and the Watchmen only call me ‘the Rogue’ which, is entirely inaccurate and so does not fit the mood I’m trying to convey.”
