left the shelter they had constructed together. Julija couldn’t wait to see what he did. She hurtled the spell at Barnabas, hoping to ensnare him in his own dark magic.
By the power of three times three,
May all you have done return back to thee.
Let all harm and hate be returned tenfold,
So that you may suffer pain both new and old.
She cried out Isai’s name, reaching for him, uncertain whether or not her spell had been enough to turn the tables on a high mage. The hellhounds were horrific, great, lumbering demonic beasts. Ordinarily she felt sorry for creatures twisted by the mages, but these were killing machines, eagerly looking for flesh to devour.
Barnabas went under what appeared to be four or five ravenous beasts. Their red glowing eyes looked like hot coals. She saw the mage’s coat torn and striped with blood, but it seemed impossible that his own hellhounds could have killed him that quickly. He was too powerful. Too good at what he did.
She looked around in alarm, checking every direction. The storm had let up, although it was still snowing, blanketing the world in pristine white when blood flowed so fast there on the meadow floor.
She’d never seen anyone move as fast as Isai. Arrows flew, and she could see the flash of swords. His brethren joined him, occasionally tossing a sword through the air for another one to slice off a head.
Very slowly she put her feet back on the ground, testing it, making certain there was no sign of the high mage. If he was dead, would the hounds have left a body? They didn’t have time to consume him before the brethren were there, killing them one by one. They were machines, mowing down the slavering beasts.
Then, without warning, there was absolute silence. Not a single hellhound still lived. Isai slowly straightened up and looked at his brothers. They saluted him and turned their attention to the battlefield, to mop up.
“Is he there? Barnabas? Is he there, Isai?” It was more than she could have hoped for, but still, it might have happened.
“His coat, nothing else. No body.”
She closed her eyes. Of course he’d escaped. She could destroy a hideous book that should never have been in the first place, but she had no idea how to kill a mage like Barnabas. Maybe no one did. “I’m sorry, Isai. I stopped him for the moment, but he’ll come back.”
“Carpathians have lived with enemies for centuries, Julija, and we will live with them for centuries more.” He was pragmatic about it, just as he was about everything else. “I want to take you home. We have to clean up here and then we will have to go to ground. The sun is coming up and none among us can take the sunshine.”
“I can guard all of you,” she offered.
“There is no need.” He took her hand, his thumb sliding over the back of it, making her shiver. “Come meet my friends.”
His friends were calling down the lightning, sending the hellhounds back to their resting place with a fiery inferno. She thought the send-off was very appropriate.
21
The house Isai took Julija to was small and set well back from the main house of Tariq Asenguard’s compound. He had explained to her that the ancients were looking into purchasing a large tract of land with several homes on it, just along the lakefront and bordering Tariq’s land on one side. In the meantime, they could use the little house that was on his friend’s property.
They spent a week there, alone with each other and the shadow cats. She loved it. Every minute of the day with Isai seemed a miracle. She laughed a lot when she never had. She often didn’t recognize herself, teasing Isai and being completely relaxed with him. And the cats . . . She loved spending time with them and watching them pounce on Isai. They were big and strong, their health much improved in that one week. They would ambush Isai whenever he came through a doorway.
Julija loved watching her lifemate with the cats. He never seemed to tire of their antics. No matter how many times they knocked him over, he would laugh and wrestle with them. The two youngest, Phantom and Sable, had been won over that last battle, when Isai had been so careful not to send them out to fight. He had left the decision up to them completely, in fact, had tried to protect the cats.