“Soon. They know you’ll be here.”
Blue nods and looks at Cordelia. “So I hear.”
“I told you! He’s coming,” Cordelia says. “And it’s not just about tonight. Brutus is building an army to take over Grimlock next... just to get back at you.”
Blue glances around the celebration, his mind clearly working through scenarios and exit strategies. The woman beside him wipes at her tears but says nothing, just watches me with curious eyes.
“Saylor needs to go back to the house,” Blue says finally. “Now.”
“What? No.” I look between him and the crying woman who’s supposed to be dead. “I’m not going anywhere until someone explains what the hell is going on.”
Blue raises his hand, making some kind of signal toward the edge of the clearing. Within moments, Hans appears through the crowd,dressed as a medieval knight with chainmail and a sword at his hip. Behind him, I spot Wren dressed as a witch, complete with pointed hat and black robes that somehow make her look even more formidable than usual.
“Take her home,” Blue tells Wren. “Call up security and have them man the doors. Stay with her until I get back.” He turns to Hans. “You’re with me.”
“Blue, you can’t just—” I start, but he cuts me off.
“Saylor—”
“I’m not a little girl that needs to be protected. You’ve been training me for this. It’s my fight too.”
“Your poison isn’t going to help here,” he snaps, and it’s the first time I’ve seen him mad... losing control... and at me.
“I can help. I can fight—”
“This isn’t up for discussion.” There’s a tone that makes it clear arguing would be pointless. “You’re leaving. Now.”
Wren steps forward. “Come along, dear. We’ll get you safely back to the house.”
I want to argue, want to demand answers about why this woman who hangs in a picture in his house can stay but I have to leave, about why Blue won’t look me in the eye, about what the hell any of this means.
My mind spins as I keep my eyes locked on Cordelia.
What the fuck is going on?
“I’ll be back soon,” Blue says, finally meeting my eyes. But there’s something in him I can’t read, something that makes me want to demand answers and run away at the same time.
Wren takes my arm gently but firmly. “Come now, dear. Time to go.”
As Wren guides me away from the clearing, away from the glowing mushrooms and death moths and whatever confrontation is about to happen, I keep looking back over my shoulder.
Blue is already deep in conversation with Ash and the woman who shouldn’t exist, his plague doctor mask forgotten in his hand.
And I’m being escorted home like a child sent to bed while the adults handle the real problems.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Blue
The first crossbow bolt punches through the bark inches from my head, sending splinters into the night air like wooden shrapnel.
I shove Cordelia behind the nearest tree as chaos erupts across the celebration. Costumed dancers scatter in every direction, their screams cutting through the hypnotic music as black-clad figures emerge from the forest like Death itself stepping from shadow.
The Crow have come calling.
“How many?” Ash appears at my elbow, his casual linen shirt a stark contrast to the violence unfolding around us.
I count muzzle flashes between the trees, catalog the advancing shapes cutting through the bioluminescent maze like they’ve done this before. “Twenty. Maybe thirty.”
