Sterling was gone.
I fell to my knees before the grave as fresh, hot grief ripped through me. A sob erupted in Liv’s throat and she knelt beside me, reaching for my hand.
“He was like a brother to me.” She could barely speak around the emotion in her throat.
I nodded. “He was my first love.”
Liv put her arm around me and I leaned into her as we both wept softly. The guilt I carried for pulling him into this would probably never leave me, but at least I had the peace of knowing his body lay undisturbed and his soul was with God now.
I wiped my eyes just as a shadow passed over us. Reacting on instinct, I pulled my Glock from under my jacket and spun.
Maz was creeping forward, holding a sword in her left hand and a sleek black gun in her right. Without hesitation, I popped off two shots right into her chest. She squeezed the trigger of her weapon at the same time. Pain sliced into my right upper arm and I was thrown backward with the force of the bullet. Wasting no time, Liv surged forward and kicked the gun out of Maz’s hand. It flew off into the grass a few feet away.
Our mentor was on one knee, wincing in pain, but not laid out flat like she should be after getting shot twice in the chest with a Glock 9mm. Blood pooled the front of her priestess robe as she gripped her sword and glared at Liv and I.
Her silver hair and homely face flickered in and out as something more grotesque began to emerge underneath.
Black stringy hair, pointed ears, dark eyes with no color…
Demon.
Munai.
Her charm was slipping. The two bullets I’d shot into her chest fell to the ground. Somehow they had had been pushed out and Maz stood, grinning, as she palmed her sword.
Completely healed.
“I knew you would come here. You’re too weak and stupid to stay hidden,” Maz seethed.
Having a woman who I’d thought of like a grandmother my entire life call me weak and stupid was like a slap to the face.
My gun was still out, Maz’s sword was raised, and Liv stood off to the side, hand twitching over the weapon at her hip. We were in a standoff. I was shot in the arm and it wasn’t ideal, but I wasn’t going to die from it. I should shoot her right between the eyes, but I wasn’t sure how much strength I had in my arm after being shot. The gun was getting heavier by the moment, and if I was honest, I wanted some answers.
“You’re Munai,” I spat.
She raised one eyebrow, a halfcocked grin gracing her face. “Once banished from my community, they nowbowwhen I visit. I’ve built an empire while they sat on their thumbs.”
Now it was my turn to grin. “An empire that I tore down in a day.”
Fear fickered over her face.
I laughed. “Oh, you haven’t heard yet? Your breeder encampment in Magic City has been completely wiped out and all of the women and children are free.”
“You lie!” she screamed, and as the guttural roar left her throat, a black smoky blob flew from her mouth.
I pulled the trigger, emptying my clip into the blob, but it did nothing to slow it, and my aim was crap since my arm was going numb. The dark mass slammed into me with the force of a truck. I was thrown back, hitting the ground hard, fully encompassed by this cloud of black smoke. This was different than the black net I’d seen the other Munai shoot out. This was a cloud I couldn’t see through, or move through. It was like I’d been thrown in quicksand. In a panic, I struggled to move, but my limbs seized up as if someone were holding me down.
The clang of swords reverberated throughout the cemetery, and I knew Liv was in a fight for her life with Maz.
‘What’s happening? I feel panic from you,’ Luka burst in my thoughts.
Tell him or not tell him? I guess if this is how I was going to die, someone should know.
‘I’m stuck in a Munai dark cloud bomb,’ I groaned, trying to wiggle free.
‘Quick, open the Beetle charm on your bracelet. There is spell-breaking powder in there.’
Charm?
