I recognize Hunter’s knock, but the heaviness in it immediately puts me on alert.
Hurrying back downstairs, I open the door to find her dressed in her assassin’s suit, the material conforming to her six-months-pregnant tummy.
“Hunter?”
She tucks a few loose strands of her mahogany hair back behind her ear. “I have news.”
My stomach instantly plummets and all thoughts of the Ball vanish. If it’s about what I think it is…
Quickly, I usher her inside, taking note of the dark rings under her eyes. “Good or bad?”
She gives me a brave smile that lifts some of my dread. “Both?”
Well, that might be better than I feared then.
“Come. Sit down.” I urge her over to the two-seater lounge chair and sink into it beside her. “Give me the bad news first.”
She takes a deep breath. “It’s true: One of Typhon’s bones is still out there.”
No, not better after all.
CHAPTER FOUR
Isink slowly back in the chair.
Typhon was a primordial deity and the father of all monsters. While he was imprisoned at great cost in the assassin’s maze, four of his bones had been hidden in the outside world.
A single bone is capable of terrible power. One of them, known as theWhite Wand, had nearly destroyed every student at the Academy.
Destroying Typhon and his bones had almost cost the hellhound, Striker Draven, his life.
“Oh, no.” My stomach swirls with dread. “I was hoping…”
“So was I.” Hunter leans forward slightly to rub her lower back, a soothing action I quickly take over for her, bringing a relieved sigh to her lips.
She rarely releases her Valkyrie wings unless she’s going on the attack, but the tension in her body tells me she wishes she could fully stretch them out right now.
“Oh, these twins are already making their presence very well known,” she says. “This might be my last mission for a while.”
While I focus on Hunter, I also can’t shake the memory of the first night Striker stayed here in my home. I used my magicto transport him directly from the forest outside the assassin’s maze to the room upstairs. It was lucky I was already practicing transportation spells when I was asked for help getting to and from the maze. I had the spells already written on slips of paper in case I needed them.
I’ll never forget the sight of Peyton, the Fury who has become my friend, carrying Striker’s body from the maze.
He died in his fight with Typhon. His heart was ripped out.
It took all of my instinctive power to stabilize him, but he slipped into a coma and, after that, bringing him back here to my home was all I could do.
But in the moment that we arrived here, when only Hunter and I were with him, Striker regained consciousness.
It was only for a few seconds.
I suspect it was because of the force of the transportation spell, combined with the healing magic I was pouring into him to ensure he survived the trip. I can’t be sure, but it must have jolted his mind awake, even if his body couldn’t cope with his injuries.
His eyes had flown wide, wild and unfocused, and his voice was so slurred that I wanted to believe I’d misheard him when he said, “There were only two bones in the box.”
His eyes immediately closed, and his heartbeat became dangerously slow. It was clear that uttering the warning had cost him.
I spent my remaining energy that night trying to undo the harm to his brain of his sudden wakefulness.
