He turned to find her bouncing nervously on her toes. “I need to talk to you.”
“Can it wait a moment? We’re heading to my brother’s, and if I don’t give him advanced warning, he’s going to skin me alive.”
He’d opened the passenger door of her car without looking as he said this, and as a result, he nearly sat on Ghost. He jumped out again when the cat hissed, glancing down just in time to see the death spirit vanish through the seats into the trunk. “Was that what you wanted to talk to me about?” he asked, settling into the now empty seat.
“No,” said Marci as she hurried around the car. “Your brother was just here.”
“You mean Justin?”
Marci shook her head, dropping into her own seat. “It was—”
A horn cut her off as Katya’s coupe pulled up beside them. “Where are we going?” the dragoness called through her open window.
Julius sent her phone the address for Ian’s penthouse. He sent it to Marci’s ancient GPS as well. The route took them straight down the dark, blocked off street Marci had directed them around on the way here, but she didn’t bother correcting the map this time. She just sat in her seat, biting her nails, and Julius decided Ian could wait a few more minutes.
“Okay,” he said, putting his phone down. “What happened?”
“I told you,” she said, her voice tense and angry as the car pulled itself out onto the dark, crumbling road. “Your brother showed up.”
“Which one?”
Marci sighed. “He didn’t give me his name, but he was tall with long black hair.”
That described most of his brothers. “Anything else?”
“He was very weird,” she said. “He just appeared on the hood of my car like he’d fallen out of the sky, and he didn’t even try to hide that he was a dragon. He also had a pigeon on his shoulder, like a pet or something.”
Julius’s stomach sank so fast, he thought it would fall right through the seat.Bob.The Great Seer of the Heartstrikers had beenhere, talking toMarci. “What did he say?”
“Oh, a whole bunch of nonsense about tests and crucibles and how it was too late to start over. He also told me to tell you that you should buckle up, because people die in traffic accidents.”
The words were barely out of her mouth before Julius was fumbling for his seatbelt, snapping it into place so fast he pinched his fingers.
Marci watched him warily. “Is that significant or something?”
“I have no idea,” he admitted. “But when Bob tells you to do something, you should always do it, no matter how stupid it sounds.” He glanced pointedly at Marci’s seatbelt, and she grabbed it with a sigh. “Did he happen to say what he was testing me for?”
“He claimed he didn’t know yet,” she replied, clicking her belt into place with a frustrated huff. “Honestly, it didn’t make a lot of sense.”
“Bob usually doesn’t,” Julius said. “He’s a—”
A crash cut him off mid-word, jolting the car and throwing him hard against his seatbelt. For a second, he felt like the world had stopped around him, leaving him to fly forward alone, and then reality came back with an explosive crash as Marci’s entire car tipped sideways.
It came down again with a jolt that cracked his teeth together, fortunately landing back on its wheels as opposed to its side. As soon as they were down, Julius turned to Marci, grabbing her shoulder. “You okay?”
She must have been, because she wrenched out of his grip immediately, leaning out her shattered window in an attempt to look down the street.“What the hell was that?”
Julius was wondering the same thing. The dark street was empty as ever in front of them. He was trying to figure out how that could be when he spotted the wall of metal in Marci’s rear view mirror.
He wrenched around in his seat. The back of Marci’s car was completely totaled, crushed like a can under the bulk of an armored van so large, he couldn’t see the edges of it from inside the car. But even that glimpse was enough for him to know that something was off. The armored van was stuck at an awkward angle, almost like it had spun into them after hitting something else…
And that was when he realized they weren’t the ones who’d actually been hit. Their accident was just the remainder of the truck’s momentum after slamming through the carbehindthem. The carKatyahad been driving.
That was as far as Julius got before he tore off his seatbelt and dashed into the street.
Chapter 14
All he saw was smoke.
