help, he should have allowed Merlin to take it instead.”
“What’s done is done.” Matt sighed, rubbing his forehead. He turned toward the roof access door, a concrete staircase that occupied the middle of the rooftop. “It’s been a long day. Right now, we need to get to a safe place. Then, we can figure out what to do next. Vane is too close here—”
“What do you mean close?” Grey asked.
“He pushed back the tsunami,” I told him. “He was in the middle of the ocean.”
“Yes, but he started off here in Chennai, I would wager,” Matt said. “He wouldn’t have been able to talk to you otherwise.”
Grey frowned. “Talk to her? How?”
The Dragon’s Eye amulet felt heavy around my neck. No one besides Vane and Matt knew that the small charm linked our minds. Vane and Matt both wanted to keep it secret, considering it too dangerous for anyone else to know that we were thus connected. Now that Vane had turned though… it was also fast becoming our biggest weakness. Still, the time for secrets was past. I opened my mouth to tell Grey, but never got the chance.
“My girlfriend and I have a special connection,” a voice drawled from the general direction of the ocean behind us. My head whipped around.
“I doubt you can call me that anymore,” I said.
“I can simply call you mine,” Vane challenged.
Beside me, Matt gnashed his teeth.
Vane grinned. He stood perfectly balanced on the rooftop ledge. The red shirt I’d seen him wearing earlier, inside my mind, molded to the hard muscles of his chest. It was a posh exterior that hid the animal underneath. In real life, the sight of him felt even more electric and my body reacted just as swiftly. Every nerve stood on end. Not necessarily in a good way. For the first time since we’d met, a sliver of real fear slid through my veins. Fear for myself and everyone around me.
Green blazed from his eyes. Words sounded in my head. “You wouldn’t have to be afraid, love, if you just listened to me. I am only doing what is best for us all.”
An image of him ripping out Matt’s heart swam in my mind. I replied, “Not going to happen.”
In the depths of his icy irises, the Minotaur stirred. Vane smiled. “I rather hoped you would say that. I do so like a challenge.”
***
He floated off the ledge and landed a few steps in front us.
“Lost your superhero cape, Vane?” Grey said with a small, cynical laugh.
Vane’s hand shot out. A flash of green magic flew at Grey. With a strangled sound, Grey dropped to his knees. Four gargoyles rushed to stand in front of Grey. Vane raised an amused eyebrow at them before flicking his hand. The gargoyles sailed across the roof, their heads smacking hard against the ledge. I could hear their skulls crunch.
Grey got up with a livid expression. Matt warned him. “Don’t. The gargoyles will heal.”
Gia pushed away from Blake’s side with an angry howl. “Why don’t you crawl back under the rock you crawled out from?”
Matt stepped forward, and Blake, ever the loyal to Merlin, rushed to his side. Hari and the wizards on the other rooftops started to gather. The ones farthest away began jumping across the top of the buildings and closed in on us. Matt smiled. “You’re outnumbered, Vane.”
“Am I?” said Vane.
Vane raised his hand. A green bubble formed around our rooftop. A wizard, leaping from an adjacent rooftop to ours, hit the bubble and was repelled backwards. I winced when he fell onto the concrete with a hard thud.
The access door blew open. I turned my head to see a line of armed men streaming through its shattered wood. I immediately recognized their leader. Leonidas. My hand tightened in a death grip on Excalibur. I ignored the urge to hurl the blade at him. We’d already spent the better part of a month hacking each other up. He brutally made sure I suffered through that time. I couldn’t look at him now without wanting to tear him apart.
The mermaids quickly surrounded us. On the island of Aegae, they wore uniforms that I’d only seen in pictures of ancient Spartans—metallic breastplates, red leather skirts, and helmets with red plumes. Now they wore military-style, black cargo pants and black T-shirts. But they couldn’t hide their green-tinted skin. In the dull light, it took on an eerie, ghostly pallor. Dark green gills were slashed across their throats. Vane’s throat also bore