“It’s fine,” Pip gasped, though her voice was strained. “If I need it to be better protected, then I can handle it. I can?—”
“Don’t worry, Pip Squeak,” Calder said, his voice gentle. “The pain goes away after a moment.”
Pink flooded her cheeks at the nickname, visible even through her discomfort. Then, as Calder predicted, the tensionin her body eased. Her wings resumed their natural flutter, and she straightened with visible relief, tying the rune onto one of her many necklaces.
But something else happened, too. The rune’s magic settled over her like a second skin, and suddenly she was harder to focus on. Not invisible, but like my eyes wanted to slide past her, like she was simply forgettable. Unimportant.
It was perfect.
“That’s so much better,” Pip breathed, examining her hands like she could see the magic working. She turned toward the house, squaring her tiny shoulders. “Ready when you are!”
Calder moved first, pushing the door fully open with the tip of his blade. It swung inward with a slow creak that raised every hair on my neck.
The smell hit immediately.
Blood. Recent. Mixed with something sharper, fear, maybe, or the metallic tang of magic violently released.
We stepped inside.
The entrance hall was narrow, barely wide enough for two people to stand side by side. A coat rack lay toppled on the floor. Shoes scattered. A mirror on the wall hung crooked, its glass spider-webbed with cracks.
But it was the sitting room beyond that rattled me.
Complete carnage.
Something with claws had overturned and shredded the furniture. Books were ripped apart, their pages scattered. Glass from the broken windows crunched under our feet. And blood. So, so much blood—splattered across walls, pooled on the floor, even dripping from the ceiling where the violence had splashed upward.
“Furies,” Pip whispered, her sword trembling in her small hand.
Calder knelt beside a victim near the overturned sofa. “This was recent.”
“How recent?” My voice came out steadier than I felt.
He met my eyes, and I saw the answer before he spoke it. “Hours. Maybe less.”
A sharp tug on my awareness made me gasp. Silas. The bond between us pulled tight with urgency, screaming through our connection seconds before he bellowed a warning.
“We need to go,” I snapped. “Right now.”
Pip shook her head. “We should check upstairs. If someone’s hurt?—”
“No one survived this.” Calder was already standing, scanning for exits. “And if we’re found here, we’ll be blamed for it. Through the back door. Now.”
Another tug from Silas, more insistent, more like a yank. His panic bled through our bond. We moved quickly through the wreckage, careful not to touch anything, not to leave footprints in the blood. The kitchen was completely untouched, but the back door hung from one hinge.
Voices carried in from the street out front.
“Please. Someone inside was screaming,” a woman said. “I summoned you an hour ago.”
There was only one race someone would report to for help.
Hunters.
“Go,” Calder hissed, urging Pip through first. She flew out into the narrow alley beyond, her new rune making her nearly invisible in the shadows.
I followed, and Calder came last, pulling the damaged door as closed as it could go.
We ran.
