“No,” I said. “But Sassafras Mountain falls within Linc’s territory. As a courtesy, send a small team from the inn to help PsyLED in the search, a vamp and a couple of humans.”
“Copy that,” Alex said.
The bikes that had been heading this way cut off. They had to be at least a quarter mile away. So, they weren’t coming here?
I huffed out a breath and stood. The lizard fluttered its wings to keep its balance. While I found my own equilibrium, I went back over our conversation and settled on the words, “Wreak havoc. That’s what Mainet has been doing.” I caught myself on the tree nearby. I was ready to fire, but the circle had gone still ages ago and nothing was happening. I holstered my weapon.
Koun removed an energy bar from his pocket and gave it to me. “Eat.” I did. It wasn’t enough but it took away the stomach pain, a hot burning sensation I hadn’t even acknowledged. As I chewed, Brute and his neon green rider trotted down the middle of the street. The wolf came up to me and sniffed my energy bar, his curled lips telling me it was horrible.
“No kidding,” I said to the werewolf.
Half an hour passed. Our backup was nearly here. My stomach grumbled with hunger. I’d be out of here soon, with the arrival of the second wave of defenders. Or maybe when Bruiser got here, he’d send me to safety and fish the stake from the circle, letting Mainet manifest fully. If that happened, I figuredIf he comes back, shoot him, behead him, make him deadmight do.
My stomach grumbled as if the energy bar had waked it. I was in the mood for Deon’s gumbo, rice, and hot pepper cornbread. Or even burgers and fries from a fast-food joint. I opened my mouth ask our rescuers to pick up something.
Alex said into my earbuds, “The cameras inside the church pinged. There are three witches inside. Looks like Mainet’s people showed up after all, from another access point. Better late than never?”
“How’d they get inside?” Tex asked. “Hell’s bells, my dogs were just around back.”
“The motorcycles seemed to stop a half mile out,” I said. “They had time to get here by mundane means and enter elsewhere.”
“Or they dropped a transport amulet in the church when they stuck their cameras in place and we didn’t catch it because at the time we didn’t even know that was a possibility,” Tex said.
Koun added, “Nothing is as it appears.”
Of course they had other ways to get around. The transport circle in the yard hadn’t worked. Once they knew where the original one was opening, why not have a backup plan? “The circles all over town were useful, like a feint,” I said, “but they also had other things in play. Like in swordplay, where a swordsman makes a fancy move with his longsword and stabs his opponent with a shorter, hidden sword.” No one disagreed. I sighed. “So much for cornbread.”
Tires squealed. I looked over and saw a string of SUVs round the block from the direction of the Highway 90 exit.
A boom rattled the stained-glass windows in the church. Bricks fell from the broken tower to the grass. Something cold and slimy shivered in the air and rushed over me. As if a ward had been opened. I had felt this. Recently. At the null prison, that first night.
“They just did something,” I said. “Whatever it is, I think they tested it the first night at the null prison.”
The arcenciels vanished in a sparkle of rainbow light. The flying lizard dashed after them, up high, into the dark, wings flapping.
“Get the queen to safety,” Bruiser commanded through comms.
Koun picked me up in his arms. He hauled me toward the street, moving fast. Tex on his heels. Dogs spreading out, responsive to whistles and hand signals I couldn’t even see.
SUVs roared up the street. Bruiser at the wheel, in the lead. The vehicles squealed to halts. Stopped in weird patterns that blocked the street.
A second boom followed. The ground shook.
“Son of a witch,” Molly breathed into my earbuds.“Someone opened adeath hedge of thornsaround the church.”
I looked back at the church. Searching for thedeath hedge.
Koun stopped in the middle of his run. Recoiled as if we’d hit a wall. We fell and tumbled from the momentum, him bonelessly, me retching from vertigo. Koun spun in midair and landed on top of me. We bounced on the ground. I rolled out and re-landed on top of him. His chest expelled air and he didn’t draw another breath, or close his eyes, or move again. “Koun?” I whispered. I looked for what had hit him and saw it. Koun had just run headfirst into adeath hedge of thornscompounded by areverse death hedge of thorns.On the sidewalk.
No one could get in or out.
I should have agreed to leave earlier.
We were trapped inside thehedge. With our enemies. And Koun might be true dead.
CHAPTER 24
A Body Bag
