“We go in now,” I decided after a moment. “Silent or loud?”
“Loud,” Ko said immediately.
“Loud,” Z agreed. “Let’s scare the piss outta her.”
“Loud it is,” I confirmed, my finger moving to the trigger.
I was done with this witch. She’d violated the one place we’d promised Seri would always be safe. And for that, there would be no mercy.
“Breach in three, two, one—”
I surged forward and kicked the entry door all my strength. The second it exploded inward, I moved in, rifle up, and feltsomethingtickle across my lower face, the strip of skin left bare between helmet, goggles, and gear. Felt like a spiderweb, but wrong. Cold and heavy in a way silk strings shouldn’t be.
We’d done this hundreds of times before. Breach, secure, eliminate. Simple. Routine, even. And in much worse places than our own home. A cobweb wasn’t going to spook me.
Except itwasspooking me.
I should have listened to my instincts. I should have called it off the second the?aumakuawarned Koa. Instead, I led my brothers forward.
Something shot through the air. A small, rectangular card. I caught the movement in my peripheral vision, but for once I couldn’tmove fast enough. It was like I was wading against the current, and the card struck me on the chin. Right where the spider web still clung.
The second it touched my skin, the card activated. Dark tendrils of smoke erupted, wrapping around my body and slamming me to the floor with crushing force. My rifle clattered away, useless. The smoke coiled tighter, pinning my arms to my sides, my legs together. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t twist free.
“Ambush!” I shouted far too late.
I struggled against the magical restraints, every muscle straining as I fought to break free. The tendrils constricted like kraken tentacles, squeezing until my tactical gear creaked under the pressure. I couldn’t reach the dagger sheathed at my belt, couldn’t access the backup pistol strapped to my thigh, couldn’t release the lightning under my skin to disrupt the spell.
Something was wrong.
Then Amabel stepped out from behind the grandfather clock, another card held delicately between her fingers. Her eyes gleamed with satisfaction, a cold smile playing on her lips.
“Well, well. The famous Casimir Cimmerian,” she purred. “Mother will be so proud of me for taking you out.”
I snarled and looked around for my brothers. Something feltmorewrong. Zane stood just inside the threshold, silent as the grave. No sharp retort, no cocky quip. Just quiet. Z always had something to say, especially when the villain started monologuing.
And he held Lurleen, his modified rifle, not the Hexenf?nger. Had he passed it to Koa?
Worse, Zane wasn’t moving. No fingers tapping a drumbeat. No juggling or twitching or fidgeting. Zane wasneverstill. I could count on one hand the number of times I’d seen my brother completely motionless since reaching adulthood.
A flicker of doubt sparked in my mind, then flared brighter when Koa lunged at Amabel with an empty hand. She sidestepped him easily, with a laugh even, and a hollow pit formed in my stomach. Ko was never without a daggerin a fight.Never. Even when using his combat shotgun, he had the handle of one clenched in his teeth.
And no witch, no matter how Dark, was faster than Ko, than any dhampir.
With a flick of her wrist, Amabel sent a spelled card spinning toward Zane, and there was no time to think, no space to question.
“Duck, Z!” I shouted, but the card caught him right under his chin.
The smoke erupted instantly, wrapping around his neck. His eyes widened as he dropped his rifle, hands flying to his throat. He clawed at the tendrils, but his fingers passed through them even as they maintained their solid grip on his windpipe.
“Zane!” I bellowed, redoubling my efforts to break free. I watched in horror as my brother fought for air, his face turning purple, veins bulging in his forehead. His knees hit the floor hard, body convulsing as he struggled.
In desperation, I dropped my fangs and tried to gnaw the smoke holding me, but only succeeded in cutting through my tactical vest and tearing up my chest. As the taste of my own blood filled my mouth, the smoke grew darker, stronger.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.The thought buzzed at the edges of my mind, insistent, scratching to be heard. My heart thundering, I shook my head at the mosquito-like buzz in my ears.
Zane’s struggles weakened. His eyes found mine, wide with shock, then they bulged, bloodshot and desperate, before his eyelids rolled up and his tongue lolled. His body went limp, collapsing to the floor barely a foot from my boot.
“NO!”
