They nodded. If they had any questions about why I had been in the underground spring with my mate, they were smart enough not to ask. I nodded in satisfaction and turned to Liv.
“We’re going to have to go fast,” I said, and she nodded.
I should have run straight to meet with Elias and the rest of them. Instead, I shifted and bent down so Liv could climb on my back. Her fingers gripped the fur between my shoulderblades as she got settled. Then, I took off, bolting back through the desert toward our house.
As we ran, I tried to get my thoughts under control. Something had torn down the wards. It didn’t make sense. I didn’t know much about magic, not as much as Rachel or Emma, but I knew enough to know that nothing should be able to do that. Not unless they were incredibly powerful.
Thoughts of what it might be continued to swirl, blocking out all other thoughts. The picnic with Liv, as nice as it had been, was as far out of my mind as it was possible to be.
We got home, and Liv slid off my back. I shifted back to human and ushered her back into the house.
“What are you—” she began, then stopped when the cell phone in my backpack began ringing. I pulled it out.
“Forget Town Hall. Get to the oasis,” Oz said, his voice tight, an almost bewildered or uneasy tone to it.
“Be there in a sec,” I responded before hanging up. I turned back to Liv.
“Stay here,” I growled.
She hesitated in the doorway, chewing her bottom lip the way she did whenever she was really worried, the way she had since we were kids. I knew that look. She didn’t want to sit by, helpless. She wanted to do something, but we both knew she couldn’t. Not about this. That wouldn’t stop her from hating sitting idly by.
“Please,” I added.
She didn’t answer at first, some conflict warring inside her. After a moment, her shoulders sagged, and she nodded, eyes weary.
“Just get home safe, please,” she said.
“I’ll do my best,” I promised.
Before she could say anything else, I shifted. I could still feel her worry through the mating bond. The fact that whatever had happened was making my mate this worried only intensified my own rage and that of my wolf. Whoever was behind it, the wraith or the threat the Oracle warned me about or something else entirely, they were going to pay.
Before I left, though, I padded forward and gave Liv a reassuring lick on the cheek. She giggled. That, at least, was something.
I turned and sprinted down the road, racing as fast as I could for the oasis. Oz hadn’t told me what to expect, but I knew the tone of his voice well enough to know that whatever had happened, it was bad.
When I arrived and shifted back to human, I came across an entire crowd of people swarming around, all their attention directed at one spot. A ripple of unease spilled through the air, making the hair on the back of my neck prickle.
I pushed through the crowd, searching for Oz, eventually finding him with Sam, Elias, and a few other guards. “What’s going on?” I asked when I got up to them.
Elias glanced at me, lips curling down. I could tell he was tempted to demand what had taken me so long.
“I was out with Liv. I wanted to make sure she got home safe,” I said before he could demand an explanation.
That was enough to pacify him. He understood the need to protect mates. He nodded.
“The wards dropped an hour ago,” Elias said. “And thenheshowed up.”
I followed his gaze and blinked. A tall man in an impeccable suit stood at the edge of the oasis. I called him a man because there wasn’t any other way to describe him, but there was no way in hell he was human. His fingers were too long and angular, his features just wrong enough to be noticeable and unsettling, and his eyes were charcoal-black, not a hint of white to them.
A demon, and not a lesser one like the imps and other things that had been running amok these past few months. This was a high demon, the kind the others bowed to.
He regarded us impassively as we stalked toward him.
“Who are you, demon?” Elias snarled.
The demon smiled, its teeth too sharp, the smile unsettling.
“Azaret,” it said. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Alpha. I’ve heard a great deal about you and the rest of this town. I must say, the descriptions don’t do it justice. It’s rather lovely here. I can see why so many covet it.”
