Well, if there was such a thing as a security deposit for mansions, the brothers definitely weren’t getting that back.
Strangely, the walls didn’t look like they’d been burned or blasted through in my direction. It was like something had been rippedawayfrom the walls and into the ballroom.
Frowning, I got to my feet and took a shaky step forward before I stopped myself. Now was not the time to investigate. It was time to get the hell out of dodge.
I should have known better, however, because just like every other instance where I had the opportunity to flee, something happened to make me stay. A coyote shifter flew through the air, a long piece of rebar protruding through their hip. The metal slammed into the post, trapping the coyote shifter.
Naturally, I had to help.
Someone needed to study my complete lack of self-preservation. I was only a human, for God’s sake. Why did I feel this incessant need to help magical beings? All I could do now was hope I survived this battle like I’d survived the one at Chadwicke’s estate. I knew I was being reckless, but I liked to think it was worth it. And it wasn’t like I was beingtoostupid about it… other than throwing a smoke bomb at a powerful warlock’s head. Not exactly my finest moment, but it had worked.
I raced forward toward the injured shifter, but I stopped short when I was finally close enough to see the full scope of everything going on in the ballroom.
Oh, my God.
It was so much worse than I could have imagined. There were bodies everywhere. Some of them slept peacefully, some of them were wounded, and some were very obviously dead. There was so much blood, I could smell it in the air and practically taste it on the back of my tongue.
Servants. Party guests. Shifters. Enemies. Allies. All of them mixed together in various states of consciousness. In the corners, the enthralled security fought against my friends, butthose were barely skirmishes compared to what was happening in the center of the giant room.
It was the other brother. Alric. What a stupid name. But unlike his dead sibling, he wasn’t floating. No, he stood on a platform of writhing metal. It looked like the very pipes had been ripped from the floor and turned into snakes beneath his feet. When I saw the strange fissures all across what had once been polished marble, I realized that was exactly what he’d done.
Did the warlock have some sort of metal power like Magneto from theX-Men? I didn’t know that that was even a type of magic. I had so much to learn.
Pure, undiluted terror coursed through my veins as the realization set in. Not only had the warlock quite literally ripped all the metal from the walls, but he had used it to ensnare at least a dozen of my allies around him, and he was squeezing the life out of them.
Including Leo.
This time it wasn’t a blast of magic that made my vision go fuzzy and my ears ring, but rather Leo’s choked-off howl and the sound of cracking bones.
No!
No, no,no, no, no!
“Stop it!” I screamed, rushing toward him as if that would do anything. Now I really was being stupid, but what other option did I have? Run away and let this asshole murder all my friends? Maybe I could distract Alric long enough for someone stronger to do something. I’d lost my childhood because I was a coward. I refused to lose the first true love I’d felt in years because I chose to run away. “Let go of him!”
My blood rushed furiously through my veins once more, and every step I took sounded like a clap of thunder to my ears. I wasn’t even halfway to Leo when Alric looked at me, seeming more curious than threatened.
A reasonable enough reaction, since I was an unarmed human sprinting straight toward a powerful warlock. What possible threat could I present to him?
“And who is this?” he asked.
I wasn’t quite prepared for how melodic his voice was. I didn’t bother to answer as I kept running toward Leo, but then I suddenly pitched forward as something wrapped around my ankle. I hit the floor hard as the twisting metal wrapped around my leg and yanked me down to the cracked marble. Thank God I hadn’t been pushed into one of the crevices. I didn’t even want to think what that would feel like. Perhaps it wouldn’t feel like anything at all, because I would be dead after being impaled on something sharp and pointy.
Not that I was in all that much better a situation at the moment. I was no longer being dragged backward, but rather hauled up into the air. Pain shot up my right leg as all the blood rushed to my head. I really wasn’t a fan of viewing the world from this upside-down angle.
“Looks like a human, smells like a human, but doesn’tfeellike a human.” Feel like a human? What the hell did that mean? “Not a shifter, either, but also not one of our thralls.”
Perhaps it was a bit egotistical of me, but I couldn’t help but notice that, at least for a moment, Alric had stopped squeezing his multiple victims. I had no idea what he was going on about, but, hey, if it helped my companions, I was all for it.
“What was it you were saying?”
It was so strange how the man was talking to me like this was our meet-cute. His smile was charming, his tone pleasant, and there was even a cheery glint to his bright, blue eyes. It was such a strange juxtaposition that I didn’t answer him until he gave me a good hard shake that made my knee pop.
“Let them go,” I rasped, hoping I was indeed providing the perfect distraction for someone to come in from the wings andsave us all. Because I had to admit, I was doing way better at holding Alric’s attention than I had expected.
“Ah, see, I thought that’s what you said, but then I was sure you had to have some compelling argument. You may have taken down my brother, but Nikolas was a spoiled baby. The years our mother spent coddling him and telling him he was her most special prince were bound to have consequences.”
Wow. I hadn’t expected him to sound so callous about his brother’s death. This family clearly had drama. But also, his reaction made me think he didn’t quite know who we were. That was probably a good thing, but maybe I could use it to further rattle him? It was a gamble, that was for sure.
