“Foster, let Arabesque know what Eluned’s up to,” I instructed.
“Arabesque’s still in Chicago until tom—”
“You can’t wait!” I snapped. “You need to cover your ass before she starts asking questions that end with you dead!”
“And Amabel? I left her alone in the kitchen to call you, but she’s plotting something. Knows what’ll happen when Arabesque comes home and finds—”
“Lay low until she shows her hand, then let us know her plan so we can prepare accordingly,” I ordered.
“Cruor!” Zane howled. “How can you think aboutthatwhen Seri’s—”
“Phone’s alerting.” Ko took one white-knuckled fist off the steering wheel long enough to whip the vibrating device out of his pocket and toss it to Zane. “Cas, I need help weeding through the spyeye feeds. Whether you like it or not, I’m training Addison. I can’t keep up with the alerts, let alone watch hours of bitches bickering.”
“Do it.” My fingers tightened in Brumous’ fur as he whined, obviously sensing something was wrong. “Z and I can help, too. You don’t have to monitor it all on your own.”
“Security room,” Zane said as he stared at Ko’s phone. “Mrs. Wentzel is beating on the door and screaming.”
Focus. Think. Plan. Act.
“Hit the audio,” I commanded, unbuckling and sliding forward to look over his shoulder.
“—me in if you don’t want to come home to a dead wife!” a bellow filled our ears.
“Shit shit shit!” Zane bellowed back, his fingers flying over the phone screen.
The second he unlocked the security room door, Mrs. Wentzel barged through it like a bull scenting heifers. Zane started to cycle through the thousand and one tabs Ko had open, looking for the security room cam, but I shook my head.
“Forget her. Find one of the outside camera views. Foster, we’ll talk later.”
“Good luck, boys,” he muttered and hung up.
As Zane searched, Ko pushed the SUV to its limits. Every second felt like an eternity. I clung to Brumous as my mind cycled through worst-case scenarios. What if we were too late? What if Eluned had already—
I wasn’t the only one spiraling. Zane’s mouth ran a mile a minute, and Koa’s eyes fixed on the road, his shoulders rigid. They were feeling it, too, of course. The fear, the rage, the helplessness.
We rounded the last curve in the driveway, and my heart nearly stopped. Mrs. Wentzel was running from the back door with…a gun?My brain short-circuited for a moment, trying to process the sight of our plump, grandmotherly chef sprinting across the lawn with mysniper rifleclutched in one hand.
Even as we watched, she dropped to a knee halfway down the slope, raised the rifle, sighted on something, and fired. My eyes followed the trajectory and found Addison first.
The boy was a blur of motion, moving with a ferocity I didn’t know he had in him. Two meat cleavers flashed in his hands as he hacked at…a crawfish?
A gigantic crawfish. Ten feet tall at least.
My brain struggled to keep up.
Focus. Think. Plan—
And then I saw her. Seri. Our wife.
Standing on the edge of the lake, her dress soaked under my sweater. In her hands was a stick. Astick. She was swinging it at the monster, her face pale. My heart stuttered, my breath lodging in my throat.
“FUCK!” Zane shouted.
Koa hit the gas instead of the brake, and the SUV shot forward, sailing off the slight rise that led down to the lake. The landing impact jolted us hard, the vehicle’s axle breaking and sending us careening into the golf cart. I barely registered the crunch of metal, my focus entirely on Seri.
We were out of the vehicle before it even came to a full stop, Brumous leaping out with a snarl. The crack of another gunshot split the air, and the crawfish reared back, its enormous body thrashing. Mrs. Wentzel had hit it square in the head, although the hard shell barely cracked.
Koa was a blur of black leather and raw fury, Zane right behind him, swan song rising in the air, a haunting melody that would disorient the beast even further. Brumous lunged at the monster, and I absently noted that his serrated teeth ripped right through its armored shell, something the silver-jacketed ammo I’d left loaded in my rifle hadn’t been able to do.
