“Sylvia,” Father rasped, like it was a breath he’d been holding back for centuries. The very sound of his voice made my bones shiver in my body.His voice.I’d never thought I’d hear it again. “Are you alright, my darling?”
His eyes whisked me over, frown deepening with corners that stole air from my lungs. His attention lingered on my leg, where Rhett had applied the most pressure.
All I could do was lean against the glass. Father wasalive.He was here and human, and still clad in that stark black armored gear that jarred my image of him.
How was he here?
The shapeshifter. It had to be. This was Graham, back to torment me.
The gentleness on Father’s face evaporated into something murderous as time surged back into motion, a gunshot whizzing past his head. It ricocheted off the back doors of the vehicle, embedding into the glass of the siren’s case beneath us with acrack.A slow hiss of water trickling out followed.
“Don’t shoot, you idiot!” Eros bellowed. “You’ll injure the cargo!”
The cargo.
Us,I thought bitterly.
“That wasn’t us, sir!”
A shock rippled through us all, and then I saw it: a small, tinted rectangular window near the top of the vehicle, intended for emergency ventilation. It was shattered from theoutside.
Small explosions hit the air, rapidfire metallic impacts thatclangedalong the walls, drowning out all other sound. The gunfire didn’t penetrate, but the impacts of each shot protruded dangerously.
The vehicle swerved on the road, sending all of us—human and fae alike—rocking and stumbling for balance. Cliff braced along the railing over the seats. My headthunkedagainst the glass, and Ben fell to his knees with a groan.
“What the fuck is going on up there?” Eros roared, righting himself and pounding on the thick, tinted glass that separated us from the driver’s cabin. “Keep us on course, it’s not rocket science. Understood?”
“We have to re-route, sir!” the driver’s muffled shout bled back to us. “We’ve got an unidentified operative opening fire on our six.”
Someone’s coming for us. Someone knows we’re here.
I wasn’t sure whether to be hopeful for a savior or terrified of a new bidder. Whoever they were, enemies still surrounded us. I longed to freeze them all where they stood, but with the iron core of the metal latticed into the glass case, I couldn’t conjure so much as a spark. My chest was hollow with that gaping void of magic.
The combatants surged into hand-to-hand combat, a grapple for control in the tight space. Several attacks brought a blow or weapon dangerously close to our containment.
“Sylvia, get back.” Ben gripped me under my knees and shoulders as gently as he could, carrying me away from the glass.
Father fought like I’d never seen him before, brutal and efficient—more like the strategy Jon and Cliff employed in combat than the swift fluidity of the ice wielder I’d grown up training under.
Human.He threw back an elbow with a shout, shattering a guard’s reflective visor.How is he human?
As efficiently as Father was in holding them off, he wasn’t a match for all of them. Rhett was still unresponsive, but two to one were terrible odds. For every effective pummel he landed, the other combatant would recover, crashing into him.
But he wasn’t alone.
As Cliff gave a growl of effort, I snapped my head in his direction. A soft breath rolled out of me. With the methodical speed of a seasoned killer, he had disarmed his father and was zip-tying his hands with his own restraints.
“Fucking coward,” Eros spat. “Always been a faggot, and here I thought you’d finally proven me wrong.”
Cliff glanced up cooly at the cruel phrasing, but pressed onward—patting him down for his phone. Once retrieved, he tapped the screen, casting a faint glow over the two of them as it sprang to life. Cliff gripped his father by the jaw, forcing his head still to unlock the device. All the while, he stole frequent glances over his shoulder at the other guards grappling—watching his back.
After scrolling briefly through the phone’s contents, Cliff pocketed the device, apparently finding what he was looking for.
“All these theatrics.” Eros buckled for freedom, which Cliff rewarded with a harsh shove against the wall, pinning him. “You really think you’re doing anything worthwhile? You’re ajoke.”
“I used to be so scared of you,” Cliff said, his voice a soft, gruff thing I could barely make out.
“Be a man and just kill me,” Eros snarled, a vein pulsing hideously in his forehead. “Mark me, there is no coming back from this. I’ll hunt you like a sick dog. Do you hear me? A fuckingdog.”
