Riah wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. But then he turned his sharp golden gaze at me. “Is it possible for us to stay up here for this? She has a strong tie to this location and that attracts demons on its own, not to mention unwanted attention from Seelie. I’d hate for that to interfere with your plan.”
I opened my mouth, then shut it. Shit, I hadn’t thought of that either. Damn. I am off my game right now. I liked the way Riah thought of things like that and he made a great point. This was a triggering location for her, after all her trauma and pain, there was no reason to make her suffer.
“Good. You can keep an eye on Bentley then,” my dad said with a grin. I must’ve made a face because he looked to me with arched eyebrows. “I’m Dad, he’s nine. Fight me.”
I snorted. “Okay, Dad, down boy.”
Bentley closed his eyes and shook his head. “I’m learning how to fight, ya know.”
“And when you can prove yourself capable, I’ll let you join us.” Tenn shrugged. “For now, you’re up here with Riah and Saffie. And the dogs.”
Albert groaned and flopped down on his side. Olli looked at Tenn while upside down with his ears all flopped over.
“Besides, I think that’ll be better anyways. You can take a bird’s eye view if needed, let us know if anything is coming at us from above.” I rubbed my hands together and turned toward the others. “Okay, Willow, can you create duplicates of us so it looks like we’re still up here?”
Willow perked up with wide eyes…then she nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Now?”
I nodded. “Have the illusions overlap us where we stand now – except for Henley and the ones staying here, of course. No one move.”
Willow licked her lips and rubbed her hands together. She took a deep breath, then thrust her hands forward. Blue mist shot across the room, covering our bodies just enough to be visible. I lowered my hand slightly and saw two of them.
“Perfect.” I grinned. “Now, Henley, go out on the balcony so I don’t hit you with this cloaking spell on accident – actually, Riah, Saffie, Bentley, Amelia, and Landy go with.”
Jackson scoffed. “You make accidents?”
“I’d hate to start now.” I stuck my tongue out at him.
Henley chuckled and strolled out to the balcony. Through the open doorway I watched her sit on the edge like she was just relaxing. Bentley skipped over to sit beside her while Riah and Saffie leaned against the wall on the outside. Landy and Amelia followed them.
“You’ll be able to see yourselves but no one else. You won’t be able to hear each other, so I’ll be communicating telepathically. Once it’s done I’ll open a portal that’ll take us all down to the ground. We’re just going to watch. Don’t interfere. Okay now, just stand there and look pretty, y’all.” I waved my hands in front of me, pulling my magic into a glowing orb between my hands. Once it was the size of a softball, I pushed into it and my magic exploded. “I call upon the power of Air, Conceal me here with your magic so rare.”
Light flashed — and then I met two dozen empty stares.
Lookout Tower was now occupied by Albert and Olli, still lying on the floor, and the illusion copies of us. I stepped to the side and ran my hand through the magical clone of me. My hand went right through. I could still see myself, that was how the spell worked…and I felt Tennessee’s presence like I always did. Yet my eyes found no one else. But I felt them. I felt their magic so strong I could see the faintest hint of an outline next to their clones – like having double vision.
But I couldn’t stand there and appreciate our work when we had a very serious job to do. So I opened up another portal just as planned.
Okay, team, step on through.
I didn’t see them go through, but I felt their presences vanish one by one. A few seconds in, something gold flashed in the air. I narrowed my eyes to see what it was and then cursed. It was the golden rings around Bettina’s fingers. I glanced toward the aura on my left that was definitely Tennessee and sure enough the gold bands on his arm were glowing. I cursed. Bloody angels.